by Ann Williams
Rabbi Slonim attempted to shelter as many as the Jewish population as he could, and when the Arab rioters found out they offered him a deal. They told him that if he handed over all the Ashkenazi yeshiva students over to the Arabs, they would spare the lives of the remainder of the Sephardi community. When Rabbi Slonim refused to comply with their request, he was killed instantly. By the end of the day, 55 Ashkenazi and 12 Sephardi Jews were slaughtered.
Many Arabs not involved in the rioting tried to shelter the Jews, and a total of 19 families saved dozens, possibly hundreds of Jewish people. Warding off the rioters with swords, many of the families hid the Jews in their cellars until they could be escorted to safety to the police station in Beit Romano. On the morning of August 24, not only did the police station turn into a refuge for the fleeing Jews but it also acted as a synagogue, where the Orthodox members said their morning prayers. Not long after they had completed their prayers, the inhabitants of the police station heard noises outside the building. Thousands of Arabs had gathered from Hebron and they were shouting, ‘Kill the Jews! Kill the Jews!’ trying their hardest to break down the doors. The Arabs besieged Beit Romano for three days before eventually giving up.
Although the worst of the fury flared up in Hebron, the rioting was also very bad in Safed, another religious community, which was once a centre for kabbala. The Jewish quarter was burned down, leaving hundreds without homes, and almost 24 Jews were killed. Throughout Jerusalem and the surrounding area, the violence continued for seven days until in total 133 Jews and 116 Arabs were killed, and 339 Jews and 232 Arabs were injured. When the massacre was finally over, the surviving Jews were forced to leave their home city and settle in Jerusalem. During the following years the Arabs had found pogroms were an effective political tool because of the lack of British response towards violence directed at the Jewish population.
However, as a direct result of the rioting throughout Palestine, the British established a Commission of Inquiry, with the intent of determining the cause of the violence. They formed the Shaw Commission, headed by Sir Walter Shaw, which introduced policies that they hoped would prevent any further violence from erupting in Palestine.
Through their investigations the Shaw Commission found that the pogroms 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.
Basically the report claimed that the Arabs were afraid of being displaced by Jewish immigrants, and they feared political domination by a group who, they felt, seemed to have some form of funding from outside of Palestine. The Commission also blamed the ambiguity of British statements that had been made to both Arabs and Jews, and it recommended that in future the government clearly define its intentions for Palestine. Also on the Commission’s recommendation, immigration was halted until they could find a resolution to the problem.
Of course the Arabs were very pleased with the outcome of the Shaw ommission as it was considered to be very much in their favour. However, on the other side of the counter there was a strong outcry from Jews all over the world.
Although a few Jewish families returned to Hebron in 1931, the community never re-established itself, and by the end of 1936 there were no Jews remaining in Hebron.
Haj Amin al-Husseini’s part in the 1929 riots was a matter of controversy at the time. The Jewish Agency, which was originally formed for the singular purpose of rebuilding the Jewish national home in the Land of Israel, charged him with inciting the violence. The Shaw Commission, however, were not in agreement with their decision and concluded that:
. . . no connection has been established between the Mufti and the work of those who either are known or are thought to have engaged in agitation or incitement . . . After the disturbances have broken out the Mufti co-operated with the Government in their efforts both to restore peace and to prevent the the extension of disorder.
The Bombing Of King David Hotel
Israel is still the only country in the world against which there is a written document to the effect that it must disappear.
Menachem Begin
The bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on July 22, 1946, was the largest attack against the British government of Palestine in the history of the Mandate, when Palestine was administered by Britain. The attack was carried out by a militant Zionist group called the Irgun, which was headed by Menachem Begin.
The hotel was built by the Moseri family, members of a wealthy Jewish establishment. It was a luxurious seven-storey building with 200 rooms, and it was opened to the public in 1931. In 1938, the Mandatory government took over one entire wing of the hotel for the British Military Command, and later it also served as the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department. The King David Hotel was chosen because of its prime location and because it was easy to safeguard against attack. A military communications centre was set up in the basement area, and so that they could link the hotel to an army camp based on the south side of the hotel, they added an extra door on the side of the building. Only about one-third of the original hotel was now available for civilian use.
THE ATTACK
On June 29, 1946, British troops unexpectedly entered the premises of the Jewish Agency and confiscated large quantities of documents. These documents disclosed details about the Agency’s operations, including intelligence activities in Arab countries. The documents were taken back to the King David Hotel, where they were going to be analyzed by the CID. At around the same time, an estimated 2,500 Jews from all over Palestine were placed under arrest.
The Irgun, a secret Jewish organization, saw the hotel as a military building and decided they would use it as their target for vengeance and also as a way of destroying the documents stolen by the British. Begin, the leader of the Irgun, was sent a coded letter by the chief of the Haganah General Headquarters, Moshe Sneh, with clear instructions to blow up the King David Hotel. The operation was delayed on several occasions at the request of the Haganah, due to the ever-changing political situation.
The terrorists assembled on the morning of Monday, July 22, 1946, and were briefed about their mission. The first group of ‘porters’ travelled to the hotel by bus and waited at the side entrance to help unload the milk churns from the van. The next band of terrorists left in a van loaded with seven milk churns, each one containing 50 kg (110 lb) of explosives. The leader of the operation, Yisrael Levi (Gidon), was dressed as a Sudenese waiter, while all the other members were dressed as Arabs to avoid arousing too much suspicion. The van drove through the streets of Jerusalem with a tarpaulin over the back to cover the milk churns and the other occupants. They stopped at the side entrance of the hotel, which is where food was taken in for the cafe´ in the basement.
One British officer standing nearby, was suspicious of the group of Arab men and started to ask a few questions. He was shot, and a policeman stationed at the tradesman’s entrance also suffered the same fate when he challenged the Irgun men. The gang hurried to the basement, searched all the rooms and then made all the kitchen workers assemble in one room. Then they returned to the van and took the milk churns into the restaurant, placing them beside the pillars, which were directly beneath the military section of the hotel. Gidon then set the fuses to go off in 30 minutes and ordered his men to get out of the hotel. The staff were told to leave in another 10 minutes to avoid getting hurt.
When they ran from the hotel two of the Irgun men were wounded by guards, and one of them, Aharon Abramovitch, later died of his wounds.
Two women fighters who were waiting nearby were told by Gidon to carry out their part of the mission, which was to go the nearest telephone booth and phone the hotel receptionist and the Palestine Post, giving the following message:
I am speaking on behalf of the Hebrew underground. We have placed an explosive device in the hotel. Evacuate it at once – you have been warned.
The French Consulate, whic
h was adjacent to the hotel, was also issued a warning, telling them to open their windows to avoid being damaged by the forthcoming explosion.
Twenty-five minutes after the warnings were given a devastating explosion shook the King David Hotel that reverberated throughout Jerusalem. The entire south wing of the hotel was destroyed. For some unknown reason the warnings were not heeded, which accounted for the large number of people who were trapped in the debris. Rescue workers started searching the rubble immediately in the desperate hope of finding survivors. Road blocks that had been set up by the Jews hindered the Royal Engineers, who were stoned and jeered at as they attempted to get to the scene of the explosion with heavy lifting equipment.
Rescue workers toiled for the next three days and nights, each shift working eight hours at a time. Most were totally exhausted, and even those that could hardly stand refused to give up looking for survivors. From the rubble the rescuers only managed to save six people. Due to the unstable condition of the building the use of mechanical equipment had to be limited, and it wasn’t until the last hope of finding anyone alive that they started to dig away at the wreckage. At the end of a week they had removed 2,000 lorry loads of rubble and had recovered 91 bodies. It was the height of summer and the stench of decaying flesh made their job even more unbearable.
Not all of the 91 people killed were members of the British Military. Among the dead were 15 Jews who had been working at the hotel.
REPERCUSSIONS
For years afterwards the British denied that they had received any warnings about the forthcoming explosions. However, in 1979 a member of the British Parliament produced evidence that the Irgun had in fact issued just such a warning. He said that a British officer had overhead other officers joking in the King David Hotel bar about a Zionist threat. The officer who had overhead the conversation left the hotel straight away and survived.
The Irgun issued an initial statement stating that they were the group responsible for the attack, but blamed the deaths on the fact that their warnings went unheeded.
Just a few hours after the explosion the British army commander in Palestine issued a publication that instructed that any Jewish place of entertainment, for example, restaurants, shops and even Jewish homes, were out of bounds to all British military soldiers and officers. The publication ended with the following sentence:
The aim of these orders are to punish the Jews in a way the race dislikes as much as any, namely by striking at their pockets.
This communication reached the ears of the Irgun’s intelligence service, which they immediately made public knowledge. The tone of the letter greatly embarrassed the British government due to its anti-Semitic tone, and the order was duly rescinded just two weeks after it was issued. This did unrepairable damage to the British cause in Palestine and made them realize that their term of Mandate was coming to an end.
The following year, on July 22, 1947, the Irgun issued a second statement saying:
On July 1 – two days after the British raid on the National Institutions and on our towns and villages – we received a letter from the headquarters of the United Resistance, demanding that we carry out an attack on the centre of government at the King David Hotel as soon as possible . . .
Execution of this plan was postponed several times – both for technical reasons and at the request of the United Resistance. It was finally approved on July 22 . . .
Notwithstanding this, days later, Kol Yisrael broadcast a statement – in the name of the
United Resistance – abhorring the high death toll
at the King David caused by the actions of the ‘dissidents’ . . .
We have kept silent for a whole year. We have faced incitement, such as this country has never before known. We have withstood the worst possible provocations – and remained silent. We have witnessed, evasion, hypocrisy and cowardice – and remined sillent.
But today, when the United Resistance has expired and there is no hope that it will ever be revived . . . There are no longer valid reasons why we should maintain our silence concerning the assault against the centre of Nazi–British rule – one of the mightiest attacks ever carried out by a militant underground. Now it is permissible to reveal the truth; now we must reveal the truth. Let the people see – and judge.
The British, whose popularity had now dwindled, and seeing the situation quickly spiralling out of hand, decided to terminate their Mandate and withdrew their forces from Palestine by May 1948. On the news of their withdrawal the Jewish provisional government declared the formation of the state of Israel, and the provisional government said that it would grant full civil rights to all within its borders, whether they were Arab, Jew, Bedouin or Druze. The declaration stated:
We appeal . . . to the Arab inhabitants of the state of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
By creating this new state it meant that any inhabitants inside the newly formed state of Israel, whether they were Palestinian Jews or Palestinian Arabs simply became known as Israeli.
The Qibya Massacre
The orders were utterly clear – Qibya was to be an example for everyone.
Excerpt from Ariel Sharon’s diary
The massacre that took place in Qibya, a village on the Arab West Bank, in October 1953, also became known as the ‘Qibya Raid’ or ‘Qibya Operation’. The massacre was a result of clashes between the borders almost directly after the signing of the armistice in 1949, which divided the new Jewish state of Israel from other parts of Mandate Palestine. Israel was being heavily infiltrated by a band of Palestinians, and it appeared that the Arab Legion in Jordan were either unwilling to curb the infiltration or unable to stop it.
ARIEL SHARON
Ariel Sharon has always been a controversial figure, and for the majority of his career he fought for the maximum political rights for the Jews and the minimum for the Palestinians. His enemies described him as a leader with a dangerous obsession, believing that whatever action he took for his own cause was justifiable.
When Israel was formed Ariel Sharon was a platoon commander in the Alexandroni rigade. He was promoted to company commander in 1949 and finally in 1951 to intelligence officer. After a couple of years’ break, while he studied history and Middle Eastern Culture at the University of Jerusalem, he returned to active service under the rank of major. He became the leader of Israeli’s special forces unit, Unit 101. This Unit, under the encouragement of Sharon, carried out a series of raids against the Palestinians and neighbouring Arab states, which, it is claimed, was to improve the Israeli image and morale. However, this caused much bloodshed and in 1951, 137 Israelis, the majority of whom were civilians, were killed by Palestinian infiltrators. The following year the death toll was 162, and in 1953 a further 160 met their fate. On October 12, 1953, an innocent Jewish woman and her two children were killed by the infiltrators in the Israeli town of Yahud, and it was after this appalling attack that the Israeli government decided to retaliate.
ATTACK ON QIBYA
On the evening of October 14, 1953, a raid was carried out on the Jordanian village of Qibya. It started with an artillery barrage until the Israeli troops could get close enough to the village itself. They laid landmines on the approaching roads to prevent any Jordanian troops from joining in the action. When the Israelis received no further resistance from the village, they placed explosives directly outside many of the houses and, after warning the residents to leave their homes, they detonated their bombs. During a six-hour killing spree the troops murdered a total of 69 people, blew up more than 40 houses, a school, a water pumping station, a mosque, a police station and a telephone office. By dawn, considering their attack was complete, the Israeli troops withdrew with not one single casualty – the village of Qibya had been totally defenceless. The remainder of the population of Qibya, around 2,700 people, had evacuated under the instruct
ions of Ariel Sharon’s forces.
When the rescue forces entered the village the following day, of the 42 bodies recovered, 38 of them were innocent women and children. One man, who had survived the massacre, had lost 11 members of the family. There was carnage everywhere, and bullet-ridden bodies lay near the doorways and inside the houses, which, despite the rumour that they had been warned to leave, proved that the inhabitants had been forced to stay inside their homes until they were blown up around them.
AFTER THE MASSACRE
After the appalling, and seemingly needless, massacre of Qibya, condemnation by the United Nations Security was swift in coming. On October 16 the UN issued a statement expressing the deepest sympathy for the victims of Qibya and telling the surviving population that they would do everything in the power to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Of course for many years the world has known who was responsible for the massacre and yet no legal action has ever been taken. In fact, Ariel Sharon, has rarely been criticized for giving instructions to his Unit 101 to destroy the village of Qibya, even though his orders categorically stated ‘destruction and maximum killing’.
Another appalling fact is that Qibya was not the only large-scale killing that was instigated by Sharon. Almost 30 years later, in 1982, he was the person who ordered the abhorrent atrocities that occurred at Sabra and Shatilla, the Southern Lebanon refugee camps. Here, the total of people killed were believed to have been between 800 and 3,000 civilians. The Palestinians described the action as ‘genocide’.
