Haj Amin and the Buraq Revolt Ilan Pappe1

During the winter of 1920-21, a major topic of discussion among the elders of the prominent Husayni family was who would succeed the ailing Mufti Kamil Husayni: the mufti's brother 26-year-old Amin, or his son, Taher III. During Ottoman times, the empire's Grand Mufti would have chosen the heir, most certainly from the lineaged Husayni family. But under British rule, the matter was put to a vote by selected ulama in March 1921. The Husayni family was shocked when Amin only placed fourth in the poll. Now Amin's appointment, once the subject of some internal disagreement, had become a matter of family prestige. The Husaynis rallied to solicit hundreds of petitions from all over the country in support of the young Amin; the British authorities were subsequently obliged

1 Taken with permission from The Aristocracy of the Land: The Husayni Family (Jerusalem: Mossad Byalik, 2003). For notes and references, please see Chapter Nine of the original text. 6

February18.p65 6 12/04/24, 02:29 ã to overturn the vote and name Amin over the of ancient Israel. But the wall is also the elected candidate. To solidify his position, western wall of the Haram al-Sharif, and is Amin closely engaged British authorities, called by Muslims "al-Buraq", after Prophet earning him the title of "opportunist" from Muhammed's famous horse. It abutted on both Palestinian and Jewish critics. what was known as the neighbourhood of the Magharibah (North Africans), and throughout With the creation of the Higher Muslim the Ottoman period, until the Great War, it Council at Palestinian behest, Amin rose in was part of a religious property named after standing at its head. He now had significant one Abu Madiyan. All through those years financial resources at hand with which to Jews had to obtain permission from the reward the constituencies around the country Muslim authorities to visit the site, which where his power resided. Slowly, Amin's they were not allowed to treat as a place of generation of Husaynis continued to pilgrimage and regular worship.2 Sometimes "nationalize" the family, and their objection the Jews appealed to the Ottoman authorities, to Zionism was unequivocal. But amid the but these generally ruled for the Muslims. great verbiage remaining from that period, an The British authorities eased conditions for uncharacteristic statement by Amin stands the Jewish worshippers to some degree, while out - that if it were not for the Balfour agreeing with both sides to preserve the status Declaration, he would have consented to quo with regard to all the holy places. After Jewish immigration and settlement. These World War I, however, the Jewish community comments indicate that at that time this was the largest in Jerusalem and the new generation of Husaynis remained uncertain government tended to be pro-Zionist, so it about their attitude to Zionism; that was natural that the status of the Jewish holy uncertainty was to vanish in the thirties. places would be affected. Muslim anger Even before the first spark ignited the Arab about these changes led to the bloody events revolt throughout Palestine, Jerusalem of 1929, and would focus on the disputed experienced the second wave of violence in religious site. the Arab-Jewish conflict. The ancient city has The British takeover of Jerusalem made the experienced all kinds of religious strife - Jews feel more confident, and they broke diverse Christian sects, Muslims and Jews, some of the conditions to which they had have all on occasion grabbed one another by been subjected under the Ottomans. The the throat for some reason connected with Mandatory government enabled the Zionists their religions and rites. In the late Ottoman to increase their presence on the site by small period the Muslims ruled all aspects of life in increments. Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann the city, and all religious disputes - including was actively engaged in the matter and those concerning the status of the "Western immediately after Allenby's conquest of Wall" (as named by the Jews) and "Waqf Abu Jerusalem proposed to Governor Ronald Madiyan" (its Muslim name) - were resolved Storrs to purchase the Wall. The Magharibah by the Ottoman government in favour of the community, which had lived in the area ever Muslims. since coming to Jerusalem as pilgrims, were The wall in question was the western outer interested in Weizmann's offer of some wall of the Herodian temple, which had been built on the ruins of the Temple of Solomon. 1 Editor's note: This edition of Jerusalem Quarterly File Since the Middle Ages it had been a place of includes two slightly differing historical accounts of prayer and lamentation (hence its popular Jewish worship at the Western/al-Buraq Wall. Please see "Bab al-Magharibah: Joha's Nail in the Haram al- name, the Wailing Wall) for the fallen glory Sharif."

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February18.p65 7 12/04/24, 02:29 ã 70,000 Palestinian pounds if they evacuated Amin also hoped that this achievement would the site, but the Palestinian leaders prevented eclipse the mayor of Jerusalem. the deal. The atmosphere was growing increasingly While Kamil al-Husayni was Mufti, the tense. Already in 1925 there was a flare-up Muslim authorities reacted mildly to the near the Western Wall, following which the Jewish breaches of the status quo at the Wall, Jewish Agency demanded that the British but once the High Muslim Council was government compel the Muslim religious launched, and the Jews' confidence grew, the authorities to sell the Wall. The following clashes at the site intensified. Increasingly the year the Agency proposed purchasing fifty Jews brought chairs and benches into the metres of the Haram al-Sharif, including the area, and the Palestinians connected this Wall, and began to negotiate the deal with the behaviour to statements made by Jewish and government, but it fell through. At the end of Zionist figures about the need to build the 1928, Weizmann wished to offer 61,000 "Third Temple." Haj Amin, testifying before Palestinian pounds for the property, but the government commission that investigated accepted the advice of the High the events of 1929, referred to those Commissioner, John Chancellor, to wait for a statements. more opportune moment. The Husayni family could take pride in Amin, who avidly guarded After the establishment of the High Muslim the Haram; it was as if the Ottoman Sultan at Council, Amin kept calling the government's the end of the eighteenth century had attention to the fact that the Jews were foreseen the future when he entrusted the bringing more objects and religious guardianship of the holy places in Jerusalem appurtenances into the area in front of the to Abd al-Latif al-Husayni and his progeny. Wall. The Council also presented the government with retouched photographs Early on 23 September 1928, the eve of Yom showing the Jewish Temple standing on the Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the janitor of Haram al-Sharif, pictures that were being sent the Sephardi congregation came to Haj out to potential Zionist donors overseas. Amin's office to report that he had just seen Throughout the twenties, the Palestinian the janitor of the Ashkenazi congregation Executive and the High Muslim Council sent bringing into the area in front of the Western delegates and appeals to all parts of the Wall an arch, from which he suspended a Muslim world, asking for assistance against large curtain, as well as pallets and oil lamps. the threat of a Jewish takeover of the Haram The curtain was an unusually large screen, al-Sharif. and provoked the Mufti's anger when he saw it for himself. It was a provocation not only One of the Mufti's most effective ways of against the Muslims, but also against the enhancing local and regional interest in Sephardi janitor, who would not receive the Jerusalem was by restoring the shrines of the traditional fee for the job. The Muslim Haram al-Sharif. They had already been in leadership immediately complained to need of such work in Ottoman times, but now Edward Keith Roach, deputy governor of the the main impetus for the enterprise was Jerusalem district, who ordered the janitor to political. In 1923-1924, Haj Amin managed remove the architectural addition from the to raise substantial contributions from all Wall's forecourt. But the following day the over the Muslim world, and started the screen was still standing - the orthodox Jews renovation, whose climax was the gold- would not do any work on the holy day, nor plating of the Dome of the Rock. The would they allow anyone else to do it for historian Zvi al-Peleg has suggested that

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February18.p65 8 12/04/24, 02:29 ã them. The installation of this screen any hateful or inciting material. Why? separating men and women on the eve of the Because the Mufti did not wish to do Day of Atonement in 1928 set off the first anything that might divert the Mandatory clash. In response, the High Muslim Council government from its growing sympathy with created a committee, "For the Defense of al- the Palestinian position. But when a week Buraq." passed and the government did nothing, he decided to act. How did this incident set off a violent clash, the bloodiest since the start of the British Throughout that week the Jewish reactions Mandate, between the two national were fierce and the atmosphere grew heated. movements? Palestinian historians would Bialik, the Hebrew newspapers and Zionists praise the Mufti for turning a marginal event spokesmen overseas, all communicated a into a national one, thus establishing his clear message, that the Western Wall was in leadership, while Israeli historians have danger, and needed to be protected from accused the Mufti of exploiting a trivial those who threatened it. The Hebrew daily discord to incite Muslims to murder Jews. Doar Hayom described those who threatened However, the Mufti was the not the first to it as "hooligans, like the Russian pogromists." drag the opponents into a battlefield. It was On 30 September the High Muslim Council the World Zionist Federation which, shaken rallied thousands of Muslims from Jerusalem by the incident, charged the British police and environs to the al-Aqsa Mosque, where with aggression against the Jewish three of Amin's loyalists, Shaykh Abd al- worshippers who refused to dismantle the Ghani Kamla, Izzat Darwazeh and Shaykh arch and the screen they had set up. Four days Abu al-Saud, made speeches denouncing the later a big Jewish demonstration took place in Jewish aspiration to take over the Western Jerusalem, in which the more extreme Wall. elements threatened to seize the policeman who had dismantled the screen and tear him Now the Jewish National Executive realized limb from limb. Then a general strike was the danger and tried to defuse the situation. declared. The Hebrew papers poured fire and On 10 October it published an open letter brimstone on the gentiles - specifically the stating categorically that there was no Jewish Muslims - and the national poet H. N. Bialik intention to seize the Temple Mount. But at bemoaned the desolate Western Wall. the same time various Jewish leaders, led by Subsequently Harry Lock of the government Chaim Weizmann, continued to address the Secretariat stated that "Jewish public opinion Jewish public, at home and abroad, about the has turned what was essentially a religious need to resist Muslim intentions. Such matter into a political-racial one." statements could not be kept hidden from the public in Palestine. Among historians, the Palestinian Philip Mattar, and following him the Israeli Zvi al- All through September 1928 Amin resisted Peleg, have questioned the thesis upheld by a the idea of acting in opposition to the laws of good many Palestinian scholars and adopted the Mandatory government. When he was by the Israeli Yehoshua Porath, namely, that approached that month by the extremist the Mufti had consciously turned a minor Syrian Shakib Wahab, with a proposal to incident into a violent clash. Mattar states organize guerrilla groups to fight the that Amin said nothing for six days after the government, he rejected it outright. A month incident at the Wall, and that even his later, however, he decided to take stronger publication al-Jamaa al-Arabiya did not print measures. His role as head of the Council and

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February18.p65 9 12/04/24, 02:29 ã guardian of the Muslim religious properties, Palestine decided to intervene, and as a first his ambition to lead the Palestinian people, step published a White Paper. Considering the opposition's carping about his feeble the mounting confrontation as part of the reactions, and the inflammatory Zionist conflict about the future of the country as a propaganda, all these impelled him to take whole, the White Paper linked the issue of the action. He launched the campaign of "al- Wall with that of the legislative assembly. Buraq", which is still considered the finest The Colonial Office backed the Mufti's passage in his career and one of the few to positions both on the legislative assembly (he become part of the Palestinian ethos. As he held that its membership should reflect the saw it, he was faced with a triple alliance - demographic ratio in the land), and on the the British government, the local Jewish ownership of the Wall. On the ground, leadership and the Jews of the United States - however, the Jewish presence at the Western against which he hoped to rally the Muslim Wall continued to increase, and the practical and Arab world. On 1 November he talks about creating a parliament in Palestine convened and conducted a conference of were not renewed. Arab solidarity with Palestine, with 700 Amin felt frustrated by the government's delegates from several Arab countries. The attitude and launched a "holy war" - in his conference appointed a "committee for the words - for the Haram. At first the war was defence of the holy Muslim places in vocal - he stationed a muazin above the wall, Jerusalem," and sent a delegation to the Chief who five times a day called on the Muslims Government Secretary Sir Harry Charles to come and defend the wall, disturbing the Lock, who was deputizing for High Jewish prayers below. To the same end the Commissioner Chancellor, then on home Muslims also revived the loud zikr rites, leave. The delegation demanded, inter alia, commonly practiced by Sufi sects. Held near the dismissal of the pro-Zionist Jewish the little garden close to the Wall, they filled prosecutor Norman Bentwich, whose position the air with a deafening noise. "We promised enabled him to influence decisions our Mughrabi brothers, who are attached to concerning the Western Wall. the Sufi tradition, to reinstate these rites as in Amin also wrote Lock a personal letter past times," the Mufti explained to the Shaw arguing that the reactions of the Jews proved Commission, which was appointed to that not only did they seek to deprive the investigate the violent outbreaks. He also Muslims of the religious property of Abu ordered an additional wing to be added to the Madiyan, they were plotting to take over the Sharia court building, and the stonemasons' entire Haram al-Sharif. Early in October hammering and shouting made things harder Amin's paper al-Jamaa al-Arabiya published still for the Jewish worshippers. articles about the Muslim right to the Abu In the fifties, the Mufti would argue that the Madiyan religious property. Though in struggle had been directed against the British, October and November 1928 the Jewish too, but this does not seem to have been the leadership in Palestine tried to respond case. Though many Palestinian historians moderately and defuse the tension, its have accepted this argument, others, such as overseas representatives - as usual - took a Philip Mattar, have not. Indeed, during that more radical stand and suggested that the time Amin was trying to cooperate with the British government compel the sale of the British authorities and urge them to adopt a Western Wall to the Jews. pro-Palestinian position. He was suspicious In the winter of 1928 the British authorities in about the British government in London, but

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February18.p65 10 12/04/24, 02:29 ã inclined to trust many individuals among the was experiencing an economic decline, Mandatory authorities. giving rise to internal migration to the growing cities, a process that would The year 1928 passed without an outbreak, accelerate in the thirties. Shanties began to but the war of words intensified and tension surround the growing towns and cities, kept mounting. In April 1929 the High providing cheap labour for the urban Commissioner John Chancellor suggested to population, both Jewish and Arab, and their the Mufti to sell the religious property and misery could be used to political objectives. enable to Jews to build a courtyard in front of Long working hours in inhuman conditions the Western Wall. The Mufti responded intensified the bitterness and produced mildly, saying he could understand that the pockets of wretchedness that in 1929, as at Jews' needed to pray, but such a concession any historical crossroads, could explode into would endanger Muslim standing throughout violent action. It was easy to persuade the the Haram al-Sharif. Palestinian populace that their misery was caused by historiography, including recent work that Zionism, since the internal migration, the loss draws on newly revealed material, suggests of land and employment, were connected to that the Mufti's concern was not baseless, and the growth of the Jewish community. This that there really was a Jewish plan to seize volatile situation was made worse by the the entire Haram. But this does not activities of the Zionist rightwing movement, correspond to the pragmatic Zionism of the Beitar, which launched a series of time, which would have been satisfied with provocations that made the outbreak of the Western Wall and would have regarded its violence unavoidable. possession as a major step forward for Zionism. Yet the first half of 1929 passed relatively peacefully. Despite the tension in the city, It should be noted that the 1929 outbreak was Amin had the leisure to cooperate with an caused not only by the events in Jerusalem, urban project that had been close to his heart but by larger circumstances. Some 90,000 for some time - the construction of a hotel to Jews immigrated to Palestine between 1921 accommodate the potentates of the Arab and and 1929, and though the influx ebbed in the Muslim world. Appropriately, he named it the years 1926-1928, the presence of so many Palace Hotel. This not only advanced the new immigrants in the labour market, and the development of Jerusalem, it also answered efforts of the Zionist organizations to the demands of Palestinian tourist interests, purchase land for them, made Zionism into a who watched anxiously as Jews became the tangible factor in the lives of many ordinary principal hoteliers in the city. To pay for the Palestinians. If in 1920 Jews bought a total of construction of the new hotel, Amin used the 262 acres, in 1925 they bought 44,000 acres. funds of the Muslim religious properties. The During those "quiet years," which saw no site chosen was in the heart of the Mamilla violent clashes, the Jews purchased a third of neighbourhood, provoking a protest which is all the land they would acquire throughout only too familiar in our time - Muslim the British Mandate, though never at such a religious scholars protested that it would be tremendous rate as in 1925. By the end of built on top of Muslim graves, as though 1928 there were about 100 Jewish settlements there can be in Jerusalem a site that does not in the country, the leading commercial contain tombs. concessions were in Jewish hands, and the percentage of Jews in trade and industry kept At long last the objections were dropped and growing. At the same time, rural Palestine the building rose. Designed by an imaginative

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February18.p65 11 12/04/24, 02:29 ã and experienced Turkish architect, it blended Amin came to the site every day to observe Arab and Western elements in an elegant the progress, and often expressed his way. The contractor, oddly enough, was a Jew satisfaction with the work of the Jewish - the engineer Baruch Katinka, who with contractors. He was so pleased with them, Tuviah Dunya, owned a construction that he hired them to build his new house in company that operated in Haifa and Shaykh Jarah. "It was 1929," Katinka Jerusalem during the twenties. recalled, "and the tension between Jews and Arabs was mounting day by day. But my It had come about like this: early in 1927, association with the Mufti had reached the Katinka heard from a Palestinian stage of warm personal conversations." Amin acquaintance that the High Muslim Council revealed to Katinka that his financial had published a tender for the construction of situation did not allow him to finish his house a hotel, which the acquaintance thought - "The foundations have been laid, but the would be a suitable project for Katinka and rest is stuck." After studying the plans, Dunya. Moreover, he suggested that they add Katinka offered to build the house cheaply his name - Oud - to the bid, so that it could and complete it in two years. appear as a Jewish-Arab enterprise. To their surprise, the contractors won the tender, and Amin's house rose next to the hotel, both built as Katinka recalled, they continued to be by the Jewish contractors. This was not a surprised at their meeting with Haj Amin and trivial matter - Dunya was Chaim Hilmi Pasha: "They received us courteously, Weizmann's brother-in-law and friend, and and got down directly to drafting the Amin knew it. Dunya recalled that Amin contract." Other preconceived ideas were tried to send political messages through him, dispelled in the course of the negotiations. but he politely declined. When the pressure Amin demanded that the contractors meet the grew, Dunya told Amin the following story: a stiff timetable he had set for the project. Jew from a small town in Central Europe migrated to America, and in that land of An elaborate Arabic inscription was unlimited opportunities he set up a stall for painstakingly carved and placed high on the selling pancakes. Eventually he became the hotel's facade. The entire building was owner of a chain of pancake stalls. One day a designed in arabesque style, expressing the man arrived from his native town and asked taste of the Turkish architect, Nihas Bey. him for a loan. The successful immigrant Amin demanded that the contractors give pointed to the nearby bank and explained that priority to Arab workers, which they did. As he had an agreement with the bankers - he often happens in Jerusalem, on the second would sell pancakes, and they would extend day of the project Katinka came across loans. His relations with Chaim Weizmann, ancient burials, but the worried Mufti asked Dunya said, were much the same - he built him to keep it secret, fearing that the work houses and Weizmann dealt in politics. would be stopped. He knew only too well that Ragheb al-Nashashibi would not hesitate to One message that Amin did communicate to turn the "desecration" to his political ends. Dunya (though not to Weizmann) was that his "And so I became the Mufti's confidant," opposition to the partition of the country was wrote Katinka in his memoirs. He found not personal but political, because it would Amin "a fairly easy person, intelligent, sharp not be accepted by the majority of the and polite." This was probably the last Palestinians. "When I stand before the Arab favourable comment made by a Zionist about people and announce that I have come to an Haj Amin. agreement with the Jews, based on

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February18.p65 12 12/04/24, 02:29 ã Al-Nabi Musa was an important Muslim festival where worshippers processed from Jerusalem to Moses’ traditional burial site near Jericho. Source: Before the Diaspora

concessions I made them, the entire Arab new King David Hotel eclipsed it as people would ostracise me and denounce me Jerusalem's most palatial hostelry.) as a traitor who sold his homeland." The Mufti continued to cooperate with the At the hotel opening ceremony Amin British authorities through the spring and publicly praised Katinka and Dunya, and summer of 1929, in the hope of stopping the thereafter always invited them to the Nabi escalation, and was bitterly disappointed Musa celebrations. He also sent them platters when it turned out to have been in vain. In the with warm dishes at the end of Passover, so summer of 1929, a new government came to they could enjoy fresh risen bread as soon as power in London - the first Labour possible. Dunya and Katinka "repaid" him by government - led by the vacillating Ramsay using the hotel to hide two arms caches for MacDonald, and with a Colonial Secretary, the Hagana. Sidney Webb, who had yet to acquaint himself with the issues. Between them they This kind of local and personal cooperation suspended all British action and initiative in did not extend to the political arena. Tensions Palestine, and in the absence of clear rose from day to day, leading to the eruption directives, the Mandatory government dealt of 1929. (The Palace Hotel, incidentally, with the symptoms. The Mufti was pressured lasted for five years, then closed when the to stop the Sufi performances near the

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February18.p65 13 12/04/24, 02:29 ã Jerusalem stores near Jaffa Gate closed in protest during the 1929 al-Buraq revolt. Source: Before the Diaspora

Western Wall, and when he gave in, he was less occupied with the Western Wall, but the accused by his opponents, notably the young men and many other Palestinians Nashashibis, of surrendering to the British. anxiously followed the developments there, Seeking to counteract these charges, he and waited for the Mufti and other leaders to started a restoration of the wall near the take firm action. Just before the outbreak, section where the Jews prayed. Young Beitar Amin met again with High Commissioner men stopped the work, and were praised by John Chancellor, who expressed the hope that the chief rabbi, Rabbi Kook. However, the the Mufti was satisfied with the government's leaders of the 16th Zionist Congress in Zurich position. The Mufti responded that he was were less impressed, and asked Vladimir loyal to the government, but added that if the Jabotinsky to moderate his followers' Muslim community did not receive any aggressive behaviour. Still, it only grew substantive proposals, he could not vouch for worse. Two thousand young Beitar men, led continuing law and order. At this point by Yosef Klausner, circled the city walls, Chancellor, who had hitherto been pleasant, proclaiming that they were "the Western Wall frowned and said sharply, "You need not Defence Committee." worry about law and order, these matters are my responsibility." This arrogance was one of In the summer of 1929, Amin began to feel the reasons the British were taken by surprise the ground rumbling beneath his feet. He was

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February18.p65 14 12/04/24, 02:29 ã in the summer when, for the first time since scene, but for his regular summer vacation - they occupied the country in 1917, violence he had been accustomed to go to Turkey erupted on a large scale. every August, but since he suffered from seasickness, he decided on an overland In August 1929, the seeds of disaffection holiday. sown the previous winter sprouted a venomous crop. On a Thursday, in the middle That Thursday Jamal al-Husayni called on of the month, a group of young Beitar men Harry Lock, the government secretary, who gathered in front of Government House and was trying to arrange a Jewish-Arab meeting began to march towards the Western Wall. to cool the atmosphere. But the two sides There, facing the western wall of the Haram could not agree, and decided to hold another al-Sharif, they raised the Zionist flag, sang meeting the following Monday. By then, "Hatikvah", and shouted, "The Wall is ours!" however, scores of Jews and Arabs had paid Rumours about the Zionist demonstration in with their lives for the aborted reconciliation. the Mughrabi neighbourhood spread quickly, That Friday a wave of violent unrest swept inflated with a claim that Muslims had been over the country that lasted a whole week. beaten up. Tension grew higher. The That day, 23 August, Amin was urgently following day, during Friday prayers, it summoned from home by Alan Saunders, the reached an intolerable point. Muslims held an acting commander of the Jerusalem police anti-Jewish demonstration, and a Jewish boy and deputy commander of the Mandatory who had kicked a ball into his neighbours' police. Thousands of Muslims, armed with tomato patch was murdered. The next day, a clubs and knives and a few rifles, had Muslim boy was stabbed. The funeral of the gathered on the Haram al-Sharif, claiming Jewish boy was big and forceful. It was that the Mufti had told them to wreak organized by the Jewish Agency, which the vengeance on the Jews. In reality, the Mufti Arabs of Jerusalem regarded as a particularly was not responsible for this rumour. When he intimidating, rich and powerful body. The reached the plaza he heard the cry, "Sayf al- following week Beitar held another din, al-Haj Amin!" He and Said al-Khatib, the demonstration, which was met with a mass imam who conducted the Friday worship, counter-demonstration by villagers from the agreed that the sermon that day would be a vicinity of Jerusalem, to whom Amin moderate one, to calm the hotheads. addressed a fiery speech. Unable to contain their rage, the crowd broke into the area in On Saturday Amin and Musa Kazem al- front of the Western Wall. In the following Husayni were summoned to the house of the few hours they also burst into most streets in High Commissioner, who demanded that the the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. Mufti do more to defuse the tension. Amin replied that there would be no point in his That Thursday the Mufti consulted with his issuing such a call, unless the Jewish leaders associates about the developments. He had did the same. "It's Saturday, the Jewish not forgotten his persecution by the British in Sabbath," Keith-Roach replied. "They can't 1920, and tried to obtain a visa to go to Syria, be reached by telephone." That day Amin but the local consul refused to give him one. summoned the headmen of the surrounding In any event, he did not have to confront the villages and asked them to calm their people. British authorities. Testifying before the "The government is looking after the interests commission of inquiry that would later of the Arabs," he assured them. But neither investigate the events of 1929, Amin stated there nor on the Haram, nor later at the that he had not asked for a visa to flee the Nablus Gate, was the Mufti able to stem the

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February18.p65 15 12/04/24, 02:29 ã irate human tide. Jewish attacks on Sur Baher 500 Jews, and these contributed to the deadly and an attack on the Nashashibi house at Bab score. Three days after this decision a furious al-Sahra, ignited an all-out Arab assault. A mob surrounded Amin's house, demanding baseless rumour that an Arab had been weapons, and Amin lost his head for the first lynched in the orthodox Jewish time. He telephoned Harry Lock and asked neighbourhood of Meah Shearim made it into him to receive a delegation led by Musa the first arena. Thus the first casualties were Kazem; Amin sent Musa Kazem only when non-Zionist Jews of that neighbourhood, and the situation was physically dangerous. At the later of Yemin Moshe, who had always been urging of the delegation, the authorities on good terms with their Arab neighbours. agreed to disarm forty Jewish policemen, as a The Mufti's call, "Arm yourselves with countermeasure to the arming of 500 Jewish compassion, wisdom and tolerance, because civilians. Allah is always with the tolerant!" fell on As soon as the violence subsided, the deaf ears. Together with his friend George Mandatory government took harsh measures, Antonius, he addressed the crowd: blaming the Mufti and the Palestinians for "Calm yourselves, go home and leave me to what had occurred. The High Commissioner, do all I can. The government is not against John Chancellor, had returned from home you, nor the police. It is the duty of the leave the day before the massacre in Safad. It government to maintain order. You know my was 1 September 1929. He published an feelings and views - I have always advised announcement placing all the blame on the you to trust your leaders." leaders of the Muslim community. Later the commission of inquiry would exonerate the But his voice was submerged by the roar of Mufti and place the blame on both sides, but the crowd. Antonius saw that the Mufti's by then a gulf had opened between the presence stirred the people rather than calmed Palestinians and the British, and thereafter the them, and at his urging Amin went home. Arab population judged Amin by his anti- Amin held talks with the leaders of Nablus British as much as by his anti-Zionist and Hebron, but failed to pacify them, position. especially where the Hebronites were Already in November 1929 there were concerned, since his standing in that town indications that the violent eruptions were was shaky and they would not listen to him. due to a mistaken British policy, rather than There the Nashashibis were better to inherent Muslim aggression. The High entrenched, Israeli historiography Commissioner thought so, and so did the notwithstanding. They incited the mob government in London. On 19 November the against the Jewish community, with the result Colonial Secretary issued a statement that 64 Hebronite Jews were massacred. The promising the Palestinians that the Haram al- same thing happened in Safad, where 26 Jews Sharif would be restored to its former were murdered. The opposite camp, Zionist situation. But this was no longer sufficient, and British, was no less ruthless - in Jaffa a and the Palestinians, or at any rate their Jewish mob murdered seven Arabs, and all in political elite, expected a more substantive all 133 Jews and 116 Muslims perished change in the British policy concerning the during that bloody week. conflict. Most of the Arabs were shot by British policemen and soldiers. Already on 24 August the government had decided to arm Ilan Pappe teaches at Haifa University.

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February18.p65 16 12/04/24, 02:29 ã