1929 Hebron massacre

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

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 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, 67 Jews were murdered. Most of them were Ashkenazi men, but there were also a dozen women and three children under the age of three. Seven of the victims were yeshiva students from the United States and Canada. Dozens of people were wounded, including many women and children. Several cases of rape, mutilation and torture were reported.

In Hebron itself all of the officials were Arabs and of its 40 policemen, only one was a Jew. Raymond Cafferata, the Assistant District Superintendent of the Palestine Police, had at his command 18 mounted policemen and 15 foot, the latter old men and of little use. On hearing from car-drivers of fighting in Jerusalem, Cafferata deployed special pickets to report any unusual movement from the city and issued a request to headquarters for reinforcements. Early on Saturday a crowd armed with staves and axes appeared in the streets and stoned to death two boys. Cafferata shot two of the mob and emptied his revolver into the crowd, but his saddle slipped and he fell to the ground, whereupon the crowd began attacking every Jewish house. Cafferata instructed his men to fetch rifles and to open fire, which they did, dispersing a portion of the crowd, but some of the remaining rioters, shouting "on to the Ghetto", managed to break through the pickets. Cafferata continued shooting, hitting many of the rioters, but his efforts were in vain; repeated calls for reinforcements from Jerusalem, Jaffa and Gaza did not produce help in time. Both Jewish and Arab businesses in the Bazaar were looted. A consignment of police was sent from Jerusalem but was delayed by other violence on the way to Hebron and arrived hours too late. This later became the source of considerable acrimony.

Cafferata testified to the Commission of Enquiry in Jerusalem on 7 November that he had seen an Arab cutting a child's head with an axe. Behind him was an ex-police-constable standing over a woman with a dagger in his hand. Cafferata shot the assailant, who shouted "Your Honor, I am a policeman". The Times reported Cafferata's evidence to the Commission that "until the arrival of British police it was impossible to do more than keep the living Jews in the hospital safe and the streets clear [because he] was the only British officer or man in Hebron, a town of 20,000".

Many 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

The Baltimore News header reads: Massacre of women, children at Hebron told by refugees.

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.

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

Specific accounts of the massacre

The House of Eliezer Dan Silonim

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

Raymond Cafferata

After the massacre began, most of the Arab constables deserted, leading the rioters to where Jews were hiding. Cafferata testified:

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[n Arab] 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.

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.

See also

• 1929 Palestine riots
• 1938 Tiberias massacre
• Shaw Report
• Boruch Kaplan (a survivor of the massacre)

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