What happened
A massacre occurred in Hebron on August 24, 1929, where over 3,000 Muslim men attacked the ancient Jewish quarter, killing 67 Jewish men, women, and children, and wounding dozens more. The attack was sparked by a campaign of disinformation initiated by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini, who claimed that Jews were conspiring to destroy Al-Aqsa mosque.
The massacre bore similarities to the October 7, 2023, attack, but its significance extends beyond these parallels. In 1929, Jews represented 20% of the population, and there was no persecution or oppression of Palestinians. However, the disinformation campaign led to a wave of violence against Jews in Palestine.
The aftermath of the massacre saw atrocities denied and blamed on Jewish victims, with murderers glorified as heroes and the religious underpinnings of the violence obscured. The British government sided with the Arab majority, concluding that a peaceful Jewish demonstration at the Western Wall sparked the riots, and rewarded the attackers by issuing quotas on Jewish immigration and restricting Jewish land purchases.
