Chancellor, Sir John Herbert. (High Commissioner for Palestine) Minshar [“Manifesto”-Emergency Decree of the British High Commissioner concerning the 1929 Riots]

(ZIONISM)

Press of the Greek Monastery, September 4th

Jerusalem

1929

Printed Broadside. Text in Hebrew. Seal of the British High Commissioner of Palestine

On August 23rd, 1929 an Arab mob attempted to attack the Jews in Jerusalem, following a ten-month build-up of tension over the disputed rights of Jews to pray at the Western Wall. The outbreak of violence spread to other parts of the country and on the following day, the Arabs murdered some seventy Jews in Hebron. In the week of bloody violence that ensued, there were attacks in Tel Aviv, Haifa and 18 Jews were killed by an Arab mob in Safed. Before the week had passed, large detachments of British troops were brought in, many were arrested (both Jew as well as Arab), before order was restored. In this Emergency Decree, the British High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir John Herbert Chancellor announced special powers were to be given to the Courts in conducting the trials of those arrested. The aim being to ensure a fair trial and to determine whether the attacks were spontaneous or premeditated. He also announced the formation of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry to be headed by Sir Walter Shaw to inquire into the immediate causes of the outbreak of violence. Finally, he concludes, the incidents will not result in a change of British Government policy with regard to Palestine as laid down in the 1917 Balfour Declaration, namely to favor the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Despite Sir John’s final assurance in this emergency Decree, the Shaw Commission decided the cause of the riots had been Arab feelings of animosity consequent upon the disappointment in their national aspirations and fear for their future Thus the Commission proposed restriction of Jewish migration to Palestine and restrictions on of the purchase of land by Jews. As a result, in October 1929, the Colonial Secretary Lord Passfield, issued a “White Paper” which further whittled down the meaning of the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate and foreshadowed fresh restrictions on Jewish immigration and settlement in Palestine. See EJ, IX, cols. 343-4.