Palestine. Statement with Regard to British Policy

Following the Arab riots in August 1929 in which many Jews were killed, there were numerous "Zionist complaints against the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, against the Palestine Arab Executive, and against the Government.” (p. 6). It beggars the imagination that the Commission absolved the notorious Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini of responsibilty for the pogrom: “Whatever activities he may have indulged in outside the knowledge of the Government, in public the Mufti, both at noon on the 23rd August and thereafter throughout the period of the disturbances, exerted his influence in the direction of promoting peace and restoring order" (ibid.). In reply to the Jewish accusation that the British colonial police were remiss in their duty to defend the Jews against the Arab rioters, the fact-finding commission concluded that "the presence of troops or of British police in larger numbers on the 23rd August, 1929, would not necessarily have prevented an outbreak” (p.10).