The 1929 Palestine riots, also known as the Western Wall Riots, the Buraq Uprising (Arabic: ثورة البراق, Thawrat al-Burāq) or the Events of 1929 (Hebrew: מאורעות תרפ"ט, Meora'ot Tarpat, lit. Events of 5689 Anno Mundi), were a series of demonstrations and riots in Mandatory Palestine in late August 1929 regarding access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The riots, which primarily affected the cities of Jerusalem, Safed, and Hebron, were part a longstanding dispute between Palestinian Arabs and Jews over access to the site.
According to many historians, the proximate cause of the riots was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, who had roused fears of a Jewish takeover of the Temple Mount. According to other historians, the violence was triggered by the refusal of Zionist leaders to accept British offers of shared representation in Palestine, which was accepted by the Arab leadership. Scholars have also pointed to the transfer of land to the Jewish National Fund, which, along with rising concerns over land sales and immigration, contributed to socioeconomic anxieties that helped fuel the outbreak.
The riots took the form, for the most part, of attacks by Arabs on Jews accompanied by destruction of Jewish property. During the week of riots, from 23 to 29 August, 133 Jews were killed by Arabs, and 339 Jews were injured, most of whom were unarmed. There were 116 Arabs killed and at least 232 wounded, mostly by the Mandate police suppressing the riots. Around 20 Arabs were killed by Jewish attackers and indiscriminate British gunfire. After the riots, 174 Arabs and 109 Jews were charged with murder or attempted murder; around 40% of Arabs and 3% of Jews were subsequently convicted. During the riots, 17 Jewish communities were evacuated.
The British-appointed Shaw Commission found that the fundamental cause of the violence was the Arab opposition to the political and national consequences of Zionism, including disappointment over their political and national aspirations and fear for their economic future. The commission described this as an "Arab feeling of animosity and hostility towards the Jews", but attributed it in particular to fears that Jewish immigration would threaten their livelihood and could result in Jews becoming "a possible overlord of the future". With respect to the triggering of the riots, the Commission found that the incident that contributed most to the outbreak was "the Jewish demonstration [...] at the Wailing Wall" on 15 August 1929. The 1930 Hope Simpson report subsequently examined concerns over Jewish immigration and land acquisitions and their impact on the livelihoods of Arab residents, and recommended measures to limit Jewish immigration.
Avraham Sela described the riots as "unprecedented in the history of the Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine, in duration, geographical scope and direct damage to life and property".
Background
Religious significance
The Western Wall is one of the holiest of Jewish sites, as it is a remnant of the ancient Second Temple compound destroyed in 70 CE. As the last remaining vestige of the Second Temple, the site had been "regarded with the greatest reverence by religious Jews", making the Western Wall a traditional site for Jewish prayer, a custom that the Shaw Commission stated dates back to the Middle Ages. As part of the Temple Mount, the Western Wall was under the control of the Muslim religious trust, the Waqf. Muslims consider the wall to be part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, and according to Islamic tradition the place where Muhammad tied his steed, Buraq, before his night journey to heaven. There had been a few serious incidents resulting from these differences.
1925 ruling
As a result of an incident that occurred in September 1925, a ruling was made which forbade the Jews to bring seats and benches to the Wall even though these were intended for worshippers who were aged and infirm. The Muslims linked any adaptions to the site with "the Zionist project" and feared that they would be the first step in turning the site into a synagogue and taking it over.
In 1928 Zionist leader Menachem Ussishkin gave a post-Passover celebration speech calling for "a Jewish state without compromises and without concessions, from Dan to Be'er Sheva, from the great sea to the desert, including Transjordan." He concluded, "Let us swear that the Jewish people will not rest and will not remain silent until its national home is built on our Mt. Moriah," a reference to the Temple Mount. Historian Tom Segev writes that among other things this "provided a foundation for the popular Arab belief in the Jewish threat", a fear exploited by the Mufti of Jerusalem.
1928 incident
In September 1928, Jews praying at the Wall on Yom Kippur placed a mechitza that looked like a simple room divider of cloth covering a few wooden frames to separate the men and women. Jerusalem's British commissioner Edward Keith-Roach, while visiting a Muslim religious court building overlooking the prayer area, mentioned to a constable that he had never seen it at the wall before, although the constable had seen it earlier that day and had not given it any attention. The sheikhs hosting the commissioner immediately protested the screen on the grounds that it violated the Ottoman status quo forbidding Jews from bringing physical structures, even temporary furniture, into the area due to Muslim fears of Zionist expropriation of the site. The sheikhs disclaimed responsibility for what could happen if the screen was not taken down, and Keith-Roach told the Ashkenazic beadle to remove the screen because of the Arabs' demands. The beadle requested that the screen remained standing until the end of the prayer service, to which Keith-Roach agreed. While the commissioner was visiting a synagogue, Attorney General Norman Bentwich had his request to keep the screen until after the fast rejected by the commissioner, who ordered the constable to ensure that it was removed by morning. The constable feared that the screen meant trouble, and had the commissioner's order signed and officially stamped, speaking again with the beadle that evening. When the screen remained in the morning, the constable sent ten armed policemen to remove it. The policemen charged the small group near the screen and were urged by nearby Arab residents to attack the assembled Jews. Jewish worshipers who had gathered began to attack the policemen. The screen was eventually destroyed by the policemen. The constable had infuriated his superiors due to his use of excessive force without good judgement, but the British government later issued a statement defending his actions.
Rabbi Aaron Menachem Mendel Guterman (1860–1934), the third rebbe of the Radzymin Hasidic dynasty, while visiting Jerusalem from Poland, is described as being the person responsible for erecting the canvas screen that became the center of the 1928 incident. Although Guterman used his own funds to erect the screen, the lack of any prior consultation with the British and Arab authorities resulted in their anger over the event.
Although screens had been set up temporarily at the site before, and other prohibitions were ignored or relaxed at times, the violent confrontation over the latest screen would engender further violence. The internal politics of both sides were also willing to adopt extreme positions and make use of religious symbols to stir up popular support.
Subsequent events
According to historian Tom Segev, "[t]he Zionists had no plans to destroy the mosques, and building the Third Temple was not on their agenda." Despite this, Zionist literature published throughout the world used provocative, Judaized imagery of the Dome of the Rock, primarily for fundraising purposes. One Zionist publication featuring a Jewish flag atop the Dome of the Rock was picked up and redistributed by Arab propagandists.
Haj Amin al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, distributed leaflets to Arabs in Palestine and throughout the Arab world which claimed that the Jews were planning to take over the al-Aqsa Mosque. The leaflet stated that the Government was "responsible for any consequences of any measures which the Moslems may adopt for the purpose of defending the holy Burak themselves in the event of the failure of the Government...to prevent any such intrusion on the part of the Jews." A memorandum issued by the Moslem Supreme Council stated, "Having realized by bitter experience the unlimited greedy aspirations of the Jews in this respect, Moslems believe that the Jews' aim is to take possession of the Mosque of Al-Aqsa gradually on the pretence that it is the Temple," and it advised the Jews "to stop this hostile propaganda which will naturally engender a parallel action in the whole Moslem world, the responsibility for which will rest with the Jews."
The Shaw Commission stated that some sections of the Arabic press had reproduced documents concerning the Wailing Wall which "were of a character likely to excite any susceptible readers." In addition, it stated that "there appeared in the Arabic Press a number of articles, which, had they been published in England or in other western countries, would unquestionably have been regarded as provocative." One consequence was that Jewish worshippers frequently were subjected to beatings and stoning.
In October 1928, the Grand Mufti organised new construction next to and above the Wall. Mules were driven through the praying area often dropping excrement, and waste water was thrown on Jews. A muezzin was appointed to perform the Islamic call to prayer directly next to the Wall, creating noise exactly when the Jews were conducting their prayers. The Jews protested at these provocations and tensions increased.
Zionists began making demands for control over the wall; some went as far as to call openly for the rebuilding of the Temple, increasing Muslim fears over Zionist intentions. Ben-Gurion said the wall should be "redeemed," predicting it could be achieved in as little as "another half a year." During the spring of 1929 the Revisionist newspaper edited by right-wing leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky, ran a long campaign claiming Jewish rights over the wall and its pavement, going as far as calling for "insubordination and violence," and pleading that Jews not stop protesting and demonstrating until the Wall is "restored to us."
On 6 August the British police force in Palestine established a police post beside the wall. On 14 August the Haganah and Brit Trumpeldor held a meeting in Tel Aviv attended by 6,000 people objecting to 1928 Commission's conclusion that the Wall was Muslim property.
March to the Western Wall and counter-demonstrations, 14–15 August
Joseph Klausner, who formed the Pro–Wailing Wall Committee, helped organize several demonstrations, beginning on 14 August 1929 when 6,000 youths marched around the wall of the old city of Jerusalem. On Thursday, 15 August, during the Jewish fast of Tisha B'Av, several hundred members of Klausner's right-wing group – described by Professor Michael J. Cohen as "brawny youths with staves" - marched to the Western Wall shouting "the Wall is ours".
Most of the protestors were members of the Defense of the Language and also included members of Vladimir Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionism movement Betar youth organization, under the leadership of Jeremiah Halpern. Historian Tom Segev writes that "The police allowed the demonstration to proceed, but the protesters then violated the conditions of their permit: they made political speeches, waved the Zionist flag, and sang the "Hatikva." Rumors circulated among the Arabs that the procession had attacked local residents and cursed the name of Muhammad. The Shaw Report later concluded that the crowd was peaceful and allegations that the crowd were armed with iron bars were not correct, but that there may have been threatening cries made by some "undesirable elements" in the Jewish procession. Leaders of the Palestine Zionist Executive were reportedly alarmed by the activities of the Revisionists as well as "embarrassed" and fearful of an "accident" and had notified the authorities of the march in advance, who provided a heavy police escort in a bid to prevent any incidents.
On Friday, 16 August after a sermon, a demonstration organized by the Supreme Muslim Council marched to the Wall. The Acting High Commissioner summoned Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini and informed him that he had never heard of such a demonstration being held at the Wailing Wall, and that it would be a terrible shock to the Jews who regarded the Wall as a place of special sanctity to them. At the Wall, the crowd burnt prayer books, liturgical fixtures and notes of supplication left in the Wall's cracks, and the beadle was injured. The demonstrations spread to the Jewish commercial area of town.
Inflammatory articles calculated to incite disorder started to appear in the Arab media and one flyer, signed by "the Committee of the Holy Warriors in Palestine" stated that the Jews had violated the honor of Islam, and declared: "Hearts are in tumult because of these barbaric deeds, and the people began to break out in shouts of 'war, Jihad ... rebellion.' ... O Arab nation, the eyes of your brothers in Palestine are upon you ... and they awaken your religious feelings and national zealotry to rise up against the enemy who violated the honor of Islam and raped the women and murdered widows and babies."
On the same afternoon, the Jewish newspaper Do'ar HaYom – of which Jabotinsky was the editor – published an inflammatory leaflet describing the Muslim march, based partially on statements by Wolfgang von Weisl, which "in material particulars was incorrect" according to the Shaw Report. On 18 August, Haaretz criticised Doar HaYom in an article entitled "He Who Sows the Wind Shall Reap the Whirlwind": "The poison of propaganda was dripping from its columns daily until it poisoned the atmosphere and brought about the Thursday demonstration.... and this served as a pretext to the wild demonstration of the Arabs."
Escalation, 16–22 August
The next day an incident which "in its origin was of a personal nature" was sparked when a 17-year-old Sephardic Jew named Abraham Mizrachi was fatally stabbed by an Arab at the Maccabi grounds near Mea Shearim and the Bukharim quarter, on the outskirts of the village lands of Lifta, following a quarrel which began when he and his friends tried to retrieve their lost football from an Arab girl after it had rolled into an Arab-owned tomato field. A Jewish crowd attacked and severely wounded the policeman who arrived to arrest the Arab responsible, and then attacked and burned neighbouring Arab tents and shacks erected by Lifta residents and wounded their occupants; the wounded included an Arab youth named 'Ali 'Abdallah Hasan who was chosen at random to be stabbed in retaliation.