1920s: The British Mandate over Palestine

The British administration brought a new element to Palestine, the rule of law, or at least attempts to enforce the rule of law. As virtually all Arab-Jewish crime and violence was initiated by the Arabs they saw the British as unfairly supporting the Jews.

Palestinian Direct Action Against the Zionists

Saleh in "The Palestinian Issue" refers to mob attacks as 'uprisings' to infer they were political in nature. It's accepted by historians that the persecution of Jews by Muslims was less than that by Christians but there is a documented history of sporadic attacks by Muslim mobs on Jewish communities throughout the Islamic empires. In Mandate Palestine these did not warrant the term 'uprisings' as the did not attack the British officials and the British Mandate administrators did not recognise them as such, they were usually called 'riots.' They were mostly begun by the notables ordering speeches be made at mosques claiming that the Jews were attempting to take contol of the Haram al-Sharif or pray at the Al-Buraq wall in Jerusalem or something similar.

The Palestinian Issue: Historical Background & Contemporary Developments - Dr Mohsed Mohammed Saleh, Al-Zayouna Centre

The uprising of al-Quds or Mawsim al-Nabi Musa (Prophet Moses Season) took place on 4-10/4/1920 in Jerusalem (five Jews were killed and 211 were injured, compared to four Arabs were killed and 24 injured)
Wikipedia: "The riots coincided with and are named after the Nebi Musa festival, which was held every year on Easter Sunday. Arab religious leaders gave speeches during the festival (in which large numbers of Muslims traditionally gathered for a religious procession) that included slogans referencing Zionist immigration and previous confrontations over outlying Jewish villages in the Galilee. On Monday, as disturbances grew worse, the Old City was sealed off by British authorities and no one was allowed to exit the area. Martial law was declared, but looting, burglary, rape, and murder continued. Several homes were set on fire, and tombstones were shattered. British forces found that the majority of illicit weapons were concealed on the bodies of Arab women"

The Jaffa Uprising erupted between 1-15/5/1921 and included parts of northern Palestine (47 Jews were killed and 146 were injured, while 48 Arabs were killed and 73 injured). Wikipedia: "Dozens of British, Arab, and Jewish witnesses all reported that Arab men bearing clubs, knives, swords, and some pistols broke into Jewish buildings and murdered their inhabitants, while women followed to loot. They attacked Jewish pedestrians and destroyed Jewish homes and stores. They beat and killed Jews in their homes, including children, and in some cases split open the victims' skulls … At 1:30 pm, an immigrant hostel run by the Zionist Commission and home to a hundred people who had arrived in recent weeks and days was attacked by the mob … A fourteen-year-old girl and some men managed to escape the building, but each was in turn chased down and beaten to death with iron rods or wooden boards"

The al-Buraq Uprising lasted from 15th August until 2nd September 1929 and erupted due to the dispute over al-Buraq Wall (The Western Wall of the al-Aqsa Mosque) which the Muslims were defending against Jewish Zionist claims and aggressive attitude. The uprising spread all over Palestine, where 133 Jews were killed and 339 were injured, and 116 Arabs were killed and 232 were injured. Wikipedia: As a result of Arab rioting throughout Palestine, the British established a Commission of Inquiry whose purpose was to determine the cause of the rioting. The Shaw Commission found that the violence occurred due to "racial animosity on the part of the Arabs, consequent upon the disappointment of their political and national aspirations and fear for their economic future."

Most of the Jewish deaths and injuries in these three uprisings were caused by the Arabs, while most of the Arab deaths and injuries were inflicted by the British troops and the British police. Haj Amin al-Hussaini, the mufti of Jerusalem, secretly played a prominent role in both al-Quds and al-Buraq Uprisings.

The Haycraft Commission Report 1921

"… we have no doubt that the Arabs were the first to turn this quarrel into a race conflict, and, when once this issue was joined, they behaved with a savagery which cannot be condoned. Dr. Beadles, the Principal Medical Officer, Jaffa, thus speaks of his examination of the dead bodies on the 1st May: "I was struck most with the number of wounds on each body, and the ferocity of the wounds. I am speaking particularly of broken skulls. Some of the victims had dozens of wounds"

"In none of these five cases can the conduct of the Arabs be excused or condoned. Most of the colonists had lived for years on quite friendly terms with their Arab neighbours, and had in many cases given them regular employment on a large scale. The bloodthirsty attacks on these peaceful settlements, which had been guilty of no provocation whatever, are among the worst features of the disturbances."

"As in most countries, the desire for loot appears to have asserted itself strongly immediately the position got out of hand. Looting was carried out in Jaffa and Menshich on an extensive scale on Sunday and Monday, the 1st and 2nd May, but the looters appear to have been restricted to the poorer and more ignorant elements of the community. The looters were almost exclusively Arabs, the victims almost exclusively Jews.

Palin Commission Report 1921

The Palin Commission that investigated the attacks of 1920 was explicit: "But it is perfectly clear that with these few exceptions the Jews were the sufferers, and were, moreover, the victims of a peculiarly brutal and cowardly attack, the majority of the casualties being old men, women and children."

From these figures it is clear that the incidence of the attack was against the Jews and that the attack against them was made in customary mob fashion with sticks, stones and knives. All the evidence goes to show that these attacks were of a cowardly and treacherous description, mostly against old men, women and children and frequently in the back. The total retaliatory efforts of the Jews and the Military Authorities resulted in only 25 recorded casualties.

In addition, 5 Christians (two wounded by firearms) and 7 soldiers are reported wounded - all apparently at the hands of the Arab mob.

It is interesting to add that no attack was made at any time against the officers and men of the British regiment, nor were British officers molested if we except one or two attempts at rescue of prisoners: the attack was entirely directed against the Jews.

Shaw Commission Report on the al-Buraq / Western Wall Disturbances of August, 1929

On the 1st of September Sir John Chancellor, the High Commissioner issued the following Proclamation:- "I have returned from the United Kingdom to find to my distress the country in a state of disorder and a prey to unlawful violence. I have learned with horror of the atrocious acts committed by bodies of ruthless and blood-thirsty evil-doers, of savage murders perpetrated upon defenceless members of the Jewish, population regardless of age or sex, accompanied, as at Hebron, by acts of unspeakable savagery, of the burning of farms and houses in town and country and of the looting and destruction of property. These crimes have brought upon their authors the execration of all civilized peoples throughout the world."

(A) GENERAL CONCLUSIONS ON MORE IMPORTANT MATTERS.

(1) Nature of the outbreak.

The outbreak in Jerusalem on the 23rd of August was from the beginning an attack by Arabs on Jews for which no excuse in the form of earlier murders by Jews has been established. (Chapter H I , page 63.)
The outbreak was not premeditated. Disturbances did not occur simultaneously in all parts of Palestine but spread from the capital through a period of days to most outlying centres of population and to some rural districts. (Chapter IV, page 81.)
As will be realized from the brief account of the disturbances given on pages 62 to 65 of Chapter III , they took the form, for the most part, of a vicious attack by Arabs on Jews accompanied by wanton destruction of Jewish property. A general massacre of the Jewish community at Hebron was narrowly averted.

Palestinian Political Action Against the Zionists

Zionists focused on building infrastructure and security for a future Jewish national home. The Palestine Zionist Executive (Jewish Agency) to liaise with the Mandate government; the Histadrut labor federation formed and established a cooperative movement; the Keren Hayesod (Foundation Fund) to fund immigration, settlement, and economic development; the Haganah an underground Jewish defense force to protect against Arab riots. The began to construct an alternative, segregated, autonomous Jewish economic and social structure. Only Jewish workers were to be hired, they acquired land for exclusive Jewish settlements, established Kibbutzim agricultural cooperatives, created autonomous health, education, and defense structures parallel to, but separate from the Mandate governments.

The Palestinians formed political parties, had congresses, complained to the British government, refused to interact with Mandate commissions, continued small scale attacks on Jews. The al-Hussaini and al-Nashashibi families fought over leadership of the Palestine which was still basically feudal with patron-client relationships. The Grand Mufti, Hajj Amin al Husseini was e´minence grise promoting violence and a policy of complete rejection of compromise through his domination of politics and Islamic Sharia religious-legal establishment.

References

The Palestinian Issue - Mohsen Mohammad Saleh