I'll have you know that nothing has changed. As I write this, there are still Arab riots in Israel. Today is Friday, the 13th of October; 14 Tishrei, 5761. You might say these are riots, but in reality it is a war. Both the riots of the past and the ones this very day, are no more than acts of war. The only difference between riots and wars is that riots are within a nation while wars are fought between nations. It's true that the riots of the past should have been called massacres, and the riots of today could be called terrorist attacks, but I prefer not to distinguish between the two, as the Arab riots have always been only a smaller scale war.
It is the Arabs against Israel, and only one side can win. Those who are for the Arabs, should ask themselves what they want. I know what Israel is and I know why my nation has been reborn. There can be no agreements as long as the Arabs fight Israel and are antagonistic towards its existence. The Arabs cannot live in Israel, for the people of Israel must follow the Laws of G-d. There are many Arab countries, but there is only one Israel. Trying to make Israel like any other nation, overcrowding its Land with foreigners and foreign thoughts, has the same affect as an attack against Israel, as both would lead to the destruction of my nation. Israel must defend itself, and it is against these things that Israel must be defended.
The Origins of the "Palestinian" Arabs
by Daniel Pipes
No "Palestinian Arab people" existed at the start of 1920, but, by December, it took shape in a form recognizably similar to today's.Until the late nineteenth century, residents living in the region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean identified themselves primarily in terms of religion: Moslems felt far stronger bonds with remote co-religionists than with nearby Christians and Jews. Living in that area did not imply any sense of common political purpose.
Then came the ideology of nationalism from Europe; its ideal of a government that embodies the spirit of its people was alien but appealing to Middle Easterners. How to apply this ideal, though? Who constitutes a nation and where must the boundaries be? These questions stimulated huge debates. Some said the residents of the Levant are a nation; others said Eastern Arabic speakers; or all Arabic speakers; or all Moslems. But no one suggested "Palestinians," and for good reason. Palestine, then a secular way of saying Eretz Yisra'el or Terra Sancta, embodied a purely Jewish and Christian concept, one utterly foreign to Moslems, even repugnant to them.
This distaste was confirmed in April 1920, when the British occupying force carved out a "Palestine." Moslems reacted very suspiciously, rightly seeing this designation as a victory for Zionism. Less accurately, they worried about it signaling a revival in the Crusader impulse. No prominent Moslem voices endorsed the delineation of Palestine in 1920; all protested it. Instead, Moslems west of the Jordan directed their allegiance to Damascus, where the great-great-uncle of Jordan's King Abdullah II was then ruling; they identified themselves as Southern Syrians.
Interestingly, no one advocated this affiliation more emphatically than a young man named Amin Husseini. In July 1920, however, the French overthrew this Hashemite king, in the process killing the notion of a Southern Syria.
Isolated by the events of April and July, the Moslems of Israel made the best of a bad situation. One prominent Jerusalemite commented, just days following the fall of the Hashemite kingdom: "after the recent events in Damascus, we have to effect a complete change in our plans here. Southern Syria no longer exists. We must defend Palestine." Following this advice, the leadership in December 1920 adopted the goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state. Within a few years, this effort was led by Husseini.
Other identities--Syrian, Arab, and Moslem--continued to compete for decades afterward with the "Palestinian" one, but the latter has by now mostly swept the others aside and reigns nearly supreme.
*The writer is director of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum.*
In 1919, the border between Eretz-Israel and Syria was the subject of a dispute between the British and French authorities. The four Jewish settlements of Metullah, Hamrah, Tel Chai, and Kfar Giladi were situated in this area. The British agreed that this northern section of the upper Galilee would be under French jurisdiction. However, Arab groups loyal to Feisal [the leader of the Arab movement] in Syria, who was himself sympathetic to the British, attacked the settlements. [Meaning, once the Arabs succeeded in negotiating the transfer of these settlements to the Syrian mandate, they attacked the Jews that lived there in order to drive them off the Land.] An evacuation of Metullah and Hamrah had already been completed but the Jewish forces led by Joseph Trumpeldor attempted to hold their ground at Tel Chai. Despite the arrival of some reinforcements, the settlement was overrun and Trumpeldor and seven of his comrades were killed.
When the town of Kiryat Shmonah was created shortly after the establishment of the State, it took its name from the eight fighters who had lost their lives in the defense of Tel Chai during this period.
The racial strife was begun by the Arabs, and rapidly developed into a conflict of great violence between Arabs and Jews, in which the Arab majority, who were generally the aggressors, inflicted most of the casualties.
The outbreak was not premeditated or expected, nor was either side prepared for it; but the state of popular feeling made a conflict likely to occur on any provocation by any Jews.
...When the disturbance had once begun an already acute anti-Jewish feeling extended it into an anti-Jewish riot. A large part of the Moslem and Christian communities condoned it, although they did not encourage violence. While certain of the educated Arabs appear to have incited the mob, the notables on both sides, whatever their feelings may have been, aided the authorities to allay the trouble.
The police were, with few exceptions, half-trained and inefficient, in many cases indifferent, and in some cases leaders or participators in violence.
...The raids on five Jewish agricultural colonies arose from the excitement produced in the minds of the Arabs by reports of Arabs being killed by Jews in Jaffa. In two cases unfounded stories of provocation were believed and acted upon without any effort being made to verify them.
After a series of disturbances in 1920-1921, the Yishuv [the settlements in pre-State Israel] continued to develop in relative peace and security. The Yishuv's main concern at that time was its financial difficulties; the economic crisis of 1926-1928 led many to believe that the Zionist enterprise would fail due to lack of funds. Zionist leaders attempted to rectify the situation by expanding the Jewish Agency to incorporate non-Zionists who were willing to contribute to the practical settlement of Israel.
The prospects for renewed financial support for the Yishuv alarmed Arab leaders who feared economic domination by the Zionists. Led by the Mufti hajj amin al-husseini, rumors of a Jewish plot to seize control of the holy places began to spread. Violence erupted soon after, causing extensive damage.
Rioting and looting were rampant throughout Israel. First in Jerusalem, the disturbances spread to Hebron and Tzfat, including many settlements in between. At the end of the rioting, 133 Jews were killed, with more than 300 wounded.
Though fully aware of the situation, the British government took no steps to gain control of the situation. Afterwards, the British appointed Sir William Shaw to head an inquiry into the causes of the riots.
[The Shaw Commission would later report (in March 1930) 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." It would say that the Arabs thought Israel would be theirs, and that the British had been vague in their promises to the Arabs and the Jews. The commission recommended that the British government clearly define its intentions in Israel, saying Jewish immigration to Israel should be more carefully considered, in order to avoid "a repetition of the excessive immigration of 1925 and 1926." Immigration was then halted until the Hope-Simpson Report was later issued (in October 1930), which recommended the cessation of Jewish immigration. At the same time the Passfield White Paper was issued, and it stated that the development of a Jewish National Home in Israel was not considered central to the mandate. As a result, Jewish immigration and Land purchase was limited to a much greater degree. In short, the Arabs gained the support of Britain by rebelling and killing the Jews.]
...1929 Riots in-Depth
The Hebron Massacre of 1929
by Shira Schoenberg
For some time, the 800 Jews in Hebron lived in peace with their tens of thousands of Arab neighbors. But on the night of August 23, 1929, the tension simmering within this cauldron of nationalities bubbled over and, for 3 days, Hebron turned into a city of terror and murder. By the time the massacres ended, 67 Jews lay dead and the survivors were relocated to Jerusalem, leaving Hebron barren of Jews for the first time in hundreds of years.
The summer of 1929 was one of unrest in Israel. Jewish-Arab tensions were spurred on by the agitation of the Mufti in Jerusalem. Just one day prior to the start of the Hebron massacre, three Jews and three Arabs were killed in Jerusalem when fighting broke out after a Muslim prayer service on the Temple Mount. Arabs spread false rumors throughout their communities, saying that Jews were carrying out "wholesale killings of Arabs." Meanwhile, Jewish immigrants were arriving in Israel in increasing numbers, further exacerbating the Jewish-Arab conflict.
Hebron had, until this time, been outwardly peaceful, although tension hid below the surface. The Sephardi Jewish community in Hebron had lived quietly with its Arab neighbors for centuries. The Sephardi Jews (Jews who were originally from Spain, North Africa, and Arab countries) spoke Arabic and had a cultural connection to their Arab neighbors. In the mid-1800s, Ashkenazi (native European) Jews started moving to Hebron and, in 1925, the Slobodka Yeshiva, officially the Yeshiva of Hevron, Knesset Yisrael-Slobodka, was opened. Yeshiva students lived separately from the Sephardi community, and from the Arab population. Due to this isolation, the Arabs viewed them with suspicion and hatred, and identified them as Zionist immigrants. Despite the general suspicion, however, one yeshiva student, Dov Cohen, still recalled being on "very good" terms with the Arab neighbors. He remembered yeshiva boys taking long walks late at night on the outskirts of the city, and not feeling afraid, even though only one British policeman guarded the entire city.
On Friday, August 23, 1929, that tranquility was lost. Arab youths started throwing rocks at the yeshiva students. That afternoon, one student, Shmuel Rosenholtz, went to the yeshiva alone. Arab rioters later broke in and killed him, and that was only the beginning.
Friday night, Rabbi Ya'acov Slonim's son invited any fearful Jews to stay in his house. The rabbi was highly regarded in the community, and he had a gun. Many Jews took him up on this offer, and many Jews were eventually murdered there.
As early as 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, Arabs began to gather en masse. They came in mobs, armed with clubs, knives, and axes. While the women and children threw stones, the men ransacked Jewish houses and destroyed Jewish property. With only a single police officer in Hebron, the Arabs entered Jewish courtyards with no opposition.
Rabbi Slonim, who had tried to shelter the Jewish population, was approached by the rioters and offered 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. In the end, 12 Sephardi Jews and 55 Ashkenazi Jews were murdered.
A few Arabs did try to help the Jews. Nineteen Arab families saved dozens, maybe even hundreds of Jews. Zmira Mani wrote about 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.
The police station turned into a shelter for the Jews that morning of August 24. It also became a synagogue as the orthodox Jews gathered there and said their morning prayers. As they finished praying, they began to hear noises outside the building. Thousands of Arabs descended from Har (Mount) Hebron, shouting "kill the Jews!" in Arabic. They even tried to break down the doors of the station.
The Jews were besieged in Beit Romano for three days. Each night, ten men were allowed to leave to attend a funeral in Hebron's ancient Jewish cemetery for the murdered Jews of the day.
When the massacre finally ended, the surviving Jews were forced to leave their home city and resettled in Jerusalem. Some Jewish families tried to move back to Hebron, but were removed by the British authorities in 1936 at the start of the Arab revolt. In 1948, the War of Independence granted Israel statehood, but further cut the Jews off from Hebron, a city that was captured by king Abdullah's Arab legion and ultimately annexed to Jordan.
When Jews finally gained control of the city in 1967, a small number of massacre survivors again tried to reclaim their old houses. Then defense minister Moshe Dayan supposedly told the survivors that if they returned, they would be arrested, and that they should be patient while the government worked out a solution to get their houses back. Years later, settlers moved to parts of Hebron without the permission of the government, but for those massacre survivors still seeking their original homes, that solution never came.
Sources: Arutz Sheva, Interview with Rabbi Dov Cohen, (August 1, 1999). Ben-David, Calev, "To live and die in Hebron," The Jerusalem Post, (July 23, 1999).
Violence again erupted in Israel in April, 1936. In that month, six prominent Arab leaders overcame their rivalries and joined forces to protest Zionist advances in Israel. The Arab high command, as the group was known, was led by the Mufti hajj amin al-husseini, and represented Arab interests in Israel until 1948.
The Arab high command began their protest by calling for a general strike of Arab workers and a boycott of Jewish products. These actions swiftly escalated into terrorist attacks against the Jews and the British. This first stage of the "Arab revolt" lasted until November, 1936. The second stage began in September, 1937, shortly after the Peel Commission recommended the partition of Israel. In this second phase, clashes with the British forces became much more severe, as did the attacks on Jewish settlements.
In an effort to quiet the revolt, the British sanctioned the arming of the Hagana. The two groups cooperated until, in 1939, the disturbances came to an end. The ending of the disturbances was largely due to Orde Wingate, an officer in the British army. Wingate, pro-Zionist and a Christian, organized Special Night Squads of Jewish volunteers to combat the attackers.
Once the rebellion was supressed, the Yishuv entered a period of relative peace with the Arabs of Israel. It was only the UN announcement of partition which would bring on additional hostilities and tensions.
Arab Riots
For Israelis Ab...
Violence again erupted in Israel in April, 1936. In that month, six prominent Arab leaders overcame their rivalries and joined forces to protest Zionist advances in Israel. The Arab high command, as the group was known, was led by the Mufti hajj amin al-husseini, and represented Arab interests in Israel until 1948. 
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