Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929

313 Pages·2015·23.18 MB·English

by  Hillel Cohen

HILLEL COHEN
YEAR ZERO
OF THE
ARAB-ISRAELI
CONFLICT
1929
Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929

The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies
Editors ➢ S. Ilan Troen ➢ Jehuda Reinharz ➢ Sylvia Fuks Fried
The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies publishes original scholarship of
exceptional significance on the history of Zionism and the State of Israel. It
draws on disciplines across the academy, from anthropology, sociology, political
science, and international relations to the arts, history, and literature. It seeks
to further an understanding of Israel within the context of the modern Middle
East and the modern Jewish experience. There is special interest in developing
publications that enrich the university curriculum and enlighten the public at
large. The series is published under the auspices of the Schusterman Center for
Israel Studies at Brandeis University.
For a complete list of books in this series, please see www.upne.com
Hillel Cohen, Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929
Calvin Goldscheider, Israeli Society in the Twenty-First Century:
Immigration, Inequality, and Religious Conflict
Yigal Schwartz, The Zionist Paradox: Hebrew Literature and Israeli Identity
Anat Helman, Becoming Israeli: National Ideals and Everyday Life in the 1950s
Tuvia Friling, A Jewish Kapo in Auschwitz: History, Memory, and the Politics
of Survival
Motti Golani, Palestine between Politics and Terror, 1945–1947
Ilana Szobel, A Poetics of Trauma: The Work of Dahlia Ravikovitch
Anita Shapira, Israel: A History
Orit Rozin, The Rise of the Individual in 1950s Israel: A Challenge to Collectivism
Boaz Neumann, Land and Desire in Early Zionism
Anat Helman, Young Tel Aviv: A Tale of Two Cities
Nili Scharf Gold, Yehuda Amichai: The Making of Israel’s National Poet
Itamar Rabinovich and Jehuda Reinharz, editors, Israel in the Middle East:
Documents and Readings on Society, Politics, and Foreign Relations, Pre-1948
to the Present
Published in
cooperation with the
Israel Institute
YEAR ZERO
OF THE
ARAB-ISRAELI
CONFLICT
1929
Hillel Cohen
Translated by Haim Watzman
Brandeis University Press ➢ Waltham, Massachusetts
Brandeis University Press
An imprint of University Press of New England
www.upne.com
© 2015 Brandeis University
All rights reserved
For permission to reproduce any of the material in this book,
contact Permissions, University Press of New England, One Court
Street, Suite 250, Lebanon NH 03766; or visit www.upne.com
Published in Hebrew as TaRPa’’T: shnat haefes basikhsukh
hayehudi-aravi by Keter Jerusalem, 2013
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cohen, Hillel, author.
[Tarpat. English.]
Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929 / Hillel Cohen;
translated by Haim Watzman.
pages cm. — (The Schusterman series in Israel studies)
“P ublished in cooperation with the Israel Institute.”
Includes bibliographical references.
isbn 978-1-61168-810-8 (cloth: alk. paper) —
isbn 978-1-61168-811-5 (pbk.: alk. paper) —
isbn 978-1-61168-812-2 (ebook)
1. Arab-Israeli conflict —History. 2. Jewish-Arab relations.
3. Palestine —History —Arab riots, 1929. I. Title.
ds119.7.C6323413 2015
956.94'04 —dc23 2015004536
Dedicated to the rescuers,
Jews and Arabs,
and to the memory of my parents,
Esther and Aharon

Contents
Introduction ➢ xi
Chronological Overview of the Events ➢ xvii
Casualties in the 1929 Riots ➢ xxi
1 Jaffa and Tel Aviv
Sunday, August 25, 1929 ➢ 1
2 Jerusalem
Friday, August 23, 1929 ➢ 59
3 Hebron
Saturday, August 24, 1929 ➢ 122
4 Motza
Saturday, August 24, 1929 ➢ 166
5 Safed
Thursday, August 29, 1929 ➢ 188
6 After the Storm
A Postmortem ➢ 207
Afterword ➢ 255
Acknowledgments ➢ 261
Bibliography ➢ 263
Index ➢ 273