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The Hebron massacre of 1929 was the murder by Arab rioters of 67 Jews in Hebron, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine.

The massacre had a deep and lasting effect on the Jewish community of Palestine. The supporters of a bi-national solution, such as Rabbi Judah Leon Magnes, were demoralized. The massacre also led to the re-organization and development of the community defense organization, the Haganah, which became the nucleus of the Israel Defense Forces.

Background

Hebron is one of the four holiest cities in Judaism. Jews believe that Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah are buried in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the the Cave of Machpelah, the second holiest site in Judaism. David was anointed King of Israel in Hebron and reigned there until the capture of Jerusalem. Jewish community of Hebron existed for millennia under various imperial powers.

On August 20, 1929, Haganah leaders proposed to provide defense for 750 Jews of the Yishuv in Hebron, or to help them evacuate. However, the leaders of the Hebron community declined these offers, insisting that they trusted the A'yan (Arab notables) to protect them.

The next Friday, 23 August, Arabs, inflamed by rumors that Jews were about to attack al-Aqsa Mosque, started an attack on Jews in the Old City of Jerusalem. The violence quickly spread to other parts of Palestine. (See also: 1929 Palestine riots)

The worst killings occurred in Hebron and Safed and other killings occurred in Moza, Kfar Uriyah, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. In Safed, 18 Jews were killed and 80 injured (See also: '1929 Safed massacre').

Hebron massacre

In Hebron, Arab mobs killed 65-68 Jews, wounded 58, and raped women. There was only one British policeman in the town, Acting-Superintendent Raymond Cafferata, one overage Jewish officer, and some Arab police. Some of the Arab police joined the rioters. Caffarata called for reinforcements that didn't arrive until noon -five hours later- when six British policemen braved sniper fire to relieve the siege.

Cafferata later testified that:

"On hearing screams in a room I went up a sort of tunnel passage and saw an Arab in the act of cutting off a child's head with a sword. He had already hit him and was having another cut, but on seeing me he tried to aim the stroke at me, but missed; he was practically on the muzzle of my rifle. I shot him low in the groin. Behind him was a Jewish woman smothered in blood with a man I recognized as a police constable named Issa Sherif from Jaffa in mufti. He was standing over the woman with a dagger in his hand. He saw me and bolted into a room close by and tried to shut me out-shouting in Arabic, "Your Honor, I am a policeman." ... I got into the room and shot him."

Some Jews survived by hiding in their Arab neighbors' houses while others survived by taking refuge in the British police station at Beit Ramon on the outskirts of the city. The surviving Jews were later evacuated to Jerusalem. One third of the killed were students of the Hebron yeshiva. After the massacre, the remaining yeshiva was also moved to Jerusalem.

On September 1, Sir John Chancellor condemned "the atrocious acts committed by bodies of ruthless and bloodthirsty evildoers... murders perpetrated upon defenseless members of the Jewish population... accompanied by acts of unspeakable savagery."

Aftermath

Altogether 195 Arabs and 34 Jews were sentenced by the courts for crimes related to the 1929 riots. Death sentences were handed down to 17 Arabs and 2 Jews, but these were later commuted to long prison terms except in the case of 3 Arabs who were hanged. Large fines were imposed on about 25 Arab villages or urban neighborhoods. Some financial compensation was paid to persons who lost family members or property.

A few dozen Jewish families returned to Hebron in 1931, but were evacuated again during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. The city had no Jewish population for 37 years until after the Six Day War in 1967, when Jews again came to live in Hebron. These Jews are known as 'settlers'.

As of 2006, hundreds of Jews live in Hebron again, some on land owned by Jews in 1929. (See also Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict)

Specific accounts of the massacre

Rabbi Boruch Kaplan

One person who survived the Hebron massacre was Haredi Rabbi Boruch Kaplan, at the time of the massacre a young man who was a student in the Hebron yeshiva. Rabbi Kaplan accused the Zionists of provoking the Arabs saying that the massacre didn't occur simply because the Arabs were "bad people" or "terrible killers who liked attacking Jews". . Some of the survivors strongly disagree with Kaplan's claims while others agree with him. Rabbi Kaplan later emigrated to the United States where he founded the main Beis Yaakov girls' school of Boro Park, New York.

The House of Eliezer Dan Silonim

Eliezer Dan Silonim was born in Hebron in 1900. He was the son of Rabbi Yaacov Yosef, the Rabbi of Hebron. Eliezer was a member of the city council, appointed by the government. He was also a director the Anglo-Palestine Bank. Eliezer had excellent relations with the British and the Arabs and they assured him that no riots will occur.

Baruch Katinka, a member of the Haganah tells about his encounter with Eliezer Dan before the massacre :

"Two days before the massacre, they told us about a need to go to Hebron with 10-12 people with weapons in order to defend the place. I believe we were 10 men and 2 women... We came to Hebron after midnight, and went into the house of Eliezer Dan Silonim, the head of the bank in the area and the head of the community. We woke him up and told him that we brought weapons and people. He started yelling and said that if he wanted any weapons he would request them but there's no need for them because he has an understanding with the Arabs, they need the credit, they're under his influence, and that they will not harm him. On the contrary he said, new faces in Hebron might just tease them.

During the argument, two Arab policemen went in and ordered us to go to the Police. The officer Cafferata met us in pyjamas and asked us who we were and what were we doing. We said we came for a walk. The officer preached us how dare we walk around during this time and said we must go back to Jerusalem escorted by the police. Two men stayed with suitcases in Silonim's house. They had the bombs with them, but the day after they came back to Jerusalem too, because Silonim forced them to leave. The next day , the massacre occurred".

After the first victim was killed on Friday, 40 people assembled in Dan's house, confident that because of his influence, no harm would come. On Saturday, the rioters approached the Rabbi and offered him a deal. If all the Ashkenazi yeshiva students were given over to the Arabs, the rioters would spare the lives of the Sephardi community. Rabbi Slonim refused to turn over the students and was killed on the spot, along with his wife and 4 year old son (another son, 3 years old, survived). In the end, 12 Sephardi Jews and 55 Ashkenazi Jews were murdered.

Nineteen local Arab families saved dozens, perhaps 100s of the Jews. Zmira Mani wrote of an Arab named Abu Id Zaitoun who brought his brother and son to rescue her and her family. The Arab family protected the Manis with their swords, hid them in a cellar along with other Jews who they had saved, and found a policeman to escort them safely to the police station at Beit Romano.

References

1. http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel/hebron6-03.htm
2. Katinka, From then till now, Hebrew, p. 271 and archive of the Haganah
3. The Hebron Massacre of 1929 by Shira Schoenberg (Jewish Virtual Library)

See also

• 1929 Palestine riots

External links

• The Hebron Massacre of 1929 - Zionism-Israel.com
• The Hebron Massacre of 1929 - Jewish Virtual Library
• The Hebron Pogrom of August 1929 - Eyewitness accounts
• Photos of the massacre and survivors
• "Who Has Destroyed More, the Arabs or the Zionists?", by Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman (PDF file)

• Arab-Israeli conflict
• History of Israel
• Terrorist incidents before 1970
• Palestine
• Racial massacres
• Pogroms
• Riots in Israel and Palestine