Unprovoked Carnage: The Hebron Massacre of 1929

In the eyes of many, the Hebron massacre is the defining event of the 1929 Arab riots in Palestine.

For centuries, the small Jewish community of Hebron coexisted alongside a much larger Muslim community. Although Jews were never accorded full equality and often faced rampant discrimination and even extreme violence, at times relations were cordial.

1929 was a seminal year for the inhabitants of the Holy Land, as violent Arab riots against Jewish immigration swept through Palestine, which was then administered by the British.

Triggered by a baseless rumor that Jews were planning to march to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and claim ownership of their holiest place, thousands of Arab villagers streamed into Jerusalem to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, many armed with sticks and knives. The crowds worked themselves into a frenzy, with some 20-30 gunshots reported fired in the vicinity of the Temple Mount by rabble-rousers. A British report on the events describes the excited Arab crowds as intent on mischief and possibly murder. Fed by rumors that two Arabs had been killed by Jews elsewhere in Jerusalem, Arabs in the Old City went on the rampage, attacking and murdering Jews.

The rumors, and the violence  they prompted, spread swiftly across the land – most notably to Hebron, where a massacre unfolded.

Related Reading: Five Facts About Hebron You Won’t Learn on a Breaking the Silence Tour

The Massacre Begins

As Jews prepared to mark Shabbat, the holy day of rest, reports of the violence in Jerusalem made their way to their Arab neighbors.

The first to be targeted were the Ashkenazi Jews, who lived separately from both the Sephardi Jewish community and from the Arab population. Although their community had been established in the town for at least a century, their isolation fed the Arab views that these “Zionist immigrants” were suspicious and thus hated.

Despite the suspicion borne towards the Ashkenazi Jews, some recall being on good terms with the Arab neighbors. So peaceful was the city that only one British policeman guarded the entire city.

He oversaw a small force of 18 mounted police, together with 15 constables on patrol. All but one of whom were Arabs. Many were infirm and elderly.

Arab youths took to hurling rocks at the Ashkenazi yeshiva students passing by. That afternoon, a Jewish student named Shmuel Rosenholtz went to learn at the yeshiva. Around 4pm, Arab rioters forced their way in to the building. The caretaker managed to hide in a well, but Rosenholtz wasn’t so lucky. Absorbed in study, he didn’t see his attackers till too late.

The killing frenzy had started.

Seeing the warning signs, a number of Jews took shelter in the home the son of Rabbi Slonim, Eliezer Dan Slonim that night. The following day, he was approached by the rioters. They offered him a deal. If he agreed to hand over all the Ashkenazi yeshiva students to the Arabs, the rioters would spare the lives of the Sephardi community.

Such an act would have meant certain death for dozens of Jews. Slonim refused, saying “we are all one people”. In retaliation, he, his wife and 4-year-old son were promptly shot dead.

The following hours were hell for Hebron’s Jewish community, as the attacks turned into a massacre of the helpless Jewish community.

The following day, 24 August, saw Arab mobs gather and attack the Jewish quarter. The resulting carnage became known as the Hebron Massacre of 1929.

By 8am on Saturday morning, Arabs began to gather around the Jewish community. Armed with clubs, knives and axes, the mobs prepared to attack. Women and children threw stones while men ransacked Jewish houses and destroyed Jewish property.

With only a single police officer in all of Hebron, the Arabs were able to enter Jewish courtyards with literally no opposition.

Jews of all ages were attacked at random – men, women and children alike were the targets of the fury of the Arab mob. Women were raped, children were bludgeoned to death, and men stabbed and mutilated.

The Beit Romano police station turned into a shelter for the Jews on the morning of Saturday, August 24. It also became a synagogue when the Orthodox Jews gathered there said their morning prayers. As they finished praying, they began to hear noises outside the building. Thousands of Arabs descended from Har Hebron, shouting “Kill the Jews!” in Arabic. They even tried to break down the doors of the station.

The small police force was overrun and utterly incapable of stemming the mob. Some Arab policemen even joined in the killings.

The Beit Hadassah Jewish hospital, operated by the Hadassah Medical Organization, which provided equal treatment for Arabs and Jews alike, wasn’t spared. The rioters destroyed the pharmacy, and torched a synagogue on the top floor, destroying the Torah scrolls inside. The pharmacist there, a crippled man who had served both Jews and Arabs for four decades, was forced to watch as his daughter was raped and then murdered. He was then killed himself.

Photographs from the time show a girl struck on the head by a sword with her brain spilling out, a woman with bandaged hands, people with their eyes gouged out, a man whose hand had been savagely amputated, and other grisly sights.

Related Reading: Five Facts About Hebron You Won’t Learn on a Breaking the Silence Tour

It’s important to note that some Arabs did try to help Jews as the Hebron massacre unfolded. Nineteen Arab families saved dozens, if not hundreds, of Hebron’s Jews. Zmira Mani wrote about an Arab named Abu Id Zaitoun who brought his brother and son to rescue her family. The Arab family protected the Manis with their swords, hid them in a cellar along with other Jews they had saved, and eventually found a policeman to escort them safely to the police station at Beit Romano.

The Aftermath of the Hebron Massacre

In all, 67 Jews were murdered, and dozens injured.

Following the attacks, the British High Commissioner Sir John Chancellor visited Hebron. He later wrote to his son, “The horror of it is beyond words. In one house I visited not less than twenty-five Jews men and women were murdered in cold blood.” Sir Walter Shaw concluded in The Palestine Disturbances report that “unspeakable atrocities have occurred in Hebron.”

With their homes laid to waste and their synagogues destroyed, the few hundred Jewish survivors were evacuated to Jerusalem by the British.  Although a small number of Jews returned in 1931, their stay was to prove short-lived as the events of the Arab revolt between 1936-1939 led to the entire Jewish population being removed once more.

The following decade, Israel was established, but Hebron was captured by King Abdullah’s Arab Legion during the 1948 War of Independence and ultimately annexed to Jordan.

Jews only returned to the city in 1968, a year after Israel liberated Hebron from Jordanian control in the Six-Day War.

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