Hebron synagogue was desecrated and plundered (Image: Jewish Virtual Library)[Missing Credit]
The Hebron Massacre was part of a wider movement of unrest known as the Arab Riots – instigated by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al Husseini, as a reaction to increased Jewish immigration, and fuelled by the lie that Jews were planning to seize control of the Temple Mount.
For many, the Hebron Massacre is seen as a pivotal moment in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since October 7, many have drawn parallels between the two massacres, and in the book Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine that Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict – which was released last year – journalist Yardena Schwartz examines this relationship.
Wounded Jewish boys in Hebron, August 1929 (Image: Courtesy of The Hebron Archives)[Missing Credit]
“October 7 completely transformed this book… After October 7, I still tried to write the book as I had envisioned, but I couldn’t get the words onto the paper. It didn’t make sense anymore. I felt that the parallels between Hebron 1929 and October 7 were just so overwhelming, haunting, and chilling that that was what I had to write about,” she told The Times of Israel.
“I realized that the book I needed to write was about what the echoes of Hebron 1929 on October 7 tell us. It would be about the failure to heed the lessons of history, what those failures have brought, and how a century of history has been ignored in the process of trying to resolve this conflict. We’re only going to be destined to another century of massacres if we continue to ignore those lessons.”
Speaking to Israeli academic and activist Shai Davidai earlier this year about the brutality of the Hebron Massacre, she explained: “Children watched as their parents were butchered by their neighbours. Many people had their limbs cut off. Stomachs were cut open. One man had his head burnt over his stove, he was burnt alive.
"The pharmacist who had worked at the Hadassah clinic, this was a Jewish clinic that had provided free treatment to needy Arabs and Jews alike… he was slaughtered before the eyes of his children and wife. His eyes were gouged out, his daughter was raped before his eyes, his wife was killed. Their five children became orphans that day. And there were many orphans that day.”
