The Origins of Israel, 1882–1948: A Documentary History

40. Response to the Arab Riots (1930) - General Federation of Laborers in the Land of Israel

218 40 Response to the Arab Riots (1930)           This document applies the most cherished principles of Labor Zionism to the understanding of Jewish–Arab relations in the Yishuv and the origins of Palestinian–Arab violence against Jews. The doctrine of class conflict and belief in the trickle-down benefit of technological progress underlie this representation of Arab resistance to Zionism as the product of ignorance and manipulation rather than national consciousness or fears of displacement. This analysis is very different from the one the Revisionists applied to the Arab–Jewish conflict in Palestine at the time, which they viewed through a nationalist and political prism: as the struggle of two competing national movements for control over the land (see document 45). ❖ 1. About two months ago, our country was the scene of murder, bloodshed, looting, and severe attacks upon towns and villages. Ghastly murders were committed, for the most part at Safed and Hebron, two old Jewish Communities, the residents Source: Executive Committee of the General Federation of Labor in Palestine, “Memorandum on the August Disturbances, Submitted to the British Labour Party and the Socialist International,” in Documents and Essays on Jewish Labour Policy in Palestine (Tel Aviv, 1930), 69–87. of which are either tradesmen or divinity students who have lived in peace with the Arabs for many generations. Recent immigrants, and especially workers, not yet having settled in these two places, there was a total absence of any element capable of self-defense or able to prevent bloodshed. Over eighty persons were murdered here, without offering any resistance, both men and women, aged and children. Hundreds were wounded. Houses were burned. Stores and warehouses were ransacked. The Jewish inhabitants were removed from their homes to government buildings. Their property left unprotected was destroyed. Gruesome murders were perpetrated in one of the Jerusalem quarters, and in the agricultural settlement of Motza, near Jerusalem, where there was no selfdefense . Other small settlements, which had been evacuated, were looted, burned, and completely destroyed. On the other hand, at many places the assailants were met by the Jewish self-defense, which succeeded in throwing back mob attacks and preventing a repetition of the Hebron and Safed horrors in other parts of the country. In twenty-seven points attacked in Jerusalem, in all Jewish quarters in Haifa, in the Jewish city of Tel Aviv, in the Jewish agricultural settlements, even in the most distant, isolated, and sparsely populated spots, the settlers resisted either the fierce attacks of hordes, kindled with the fire of religious fanaticism, or of bands especially summoned to rob and loot, which had been assured by their instigators that Jewish blood might be shed and Jewish property looted without fear of government interference. The work of the Jewish defense saved not only those positions where it was directly active, but prevented attacks on other points, so that the majority of the strong, centralized Jewish settlements were not exposed to mob attacks. However , those nine days of rioting in the country cost hundreds of lives, over 130 Jews and the same number of Arabs having been killed, and hundreds of Arabs and Jews wounded. Besides these human sacrifices, the nine days of rioting caused heavy loss of property: hundreds of houses were burned, whole quarters and settlements were looted and destroyed, shops and warehouses that had afforded a livelihood to scores of families, were burned and demolished; settlements built by pioneers at a tremendous effort went up in flames. 2. This bloodshed and destruction is not an outgrowth of strained relations and quarrels of long standing between Jews and Arabs. The last years have seen quiet and steady development whereby the economic ties between all sections of the population have been strengthened. Jewish immigration brought labor Response to the Arab Riots (1930) 219 and capital into the country, and, in their wake, progress in all branches of life. During the last ten years, about 90,000 Jews have come to Eretz Israel from various countries, bringing in capital amounting to at least £15,000,000. Sandy wastes have been transformed into orange groves. Swamps, formerly hotbeds of disease and pestilence, have been drained and made habitable. During this period, the plantation area increased fourfold, land already cultivated was improved, and agricultural methods modified and perfected. This progress was not confined to sections of land under Jewish control. Old Arab villages, influenced by...