The
Jaffa
Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...
riots of April 1936, refers to a spate of violent attacks on Jews that began on 19 April 1936 in
Jaffa
Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...
. A total of 14 Jews and 2 Arabs were killed during the riots.
The event is often described as marking the start of the
1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, later known as The Great Revolt (''al-Thawra al- Kubra'') or The Great Palestinian Revolt (''Thawrat Filastin al-Kubra''), was a popular nationalist uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine a ...
.
Background
British Mandatory authorities
and other contemporary sources dated the
1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, later known as The Great Revolt (''al-Thawra al- Kubra'') or The Great Palestinian Revolt (''Thawrat Filastin al-Kubra''), was a popular nationalist uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine a ...
to 15 April,
[ the date of the Anabta shooting in which Arab followers of ]Izz ad-Din al-Qassam
Izz ad-Din Abd al-Qadar ibn Mustafa ibn Yusuf ibn Muhammad al-Qassam (1881 or 19 December 1882 – 20 November 1935) ( ar, عز الدين بن عبد القادر بن مصطفى بن يوسف بن محمد القسام / ALA-LC: ) was a Syria ...
set up a roadblock on the Nablus
Nablus ( ; ar, نابلس, Nābulus ; he, שכם, Šəḵem, ISO 259-3: ; Samaritan Hebrew: , romanized: ; el, Νεάπολις, Νeápolis) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a populati ...
to Tulkarm
Tulkarm, Tulkarem or Tull Keram ( ar, طولكرم, ''Ṭūlkarm'') is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located in the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine. The Israeli city of Netanya is to the west, and the Palestinian cities of N ...
road, stopping about 20 vehicles to demand cash and weapons; separating out 3 Jews from other occupants of the vehicles. The Arabs then shot the 3 Jewish men; only 1 survived.[ The two killed Jewish drivers were Israel (or Yisrael) Khazan, who was killed instantly, and Zvi Dannenberg, who died five days later. The following day members of ]Irgun
Irgun • Etzel
, image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px
, caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
shot and killed two Arab workers sleeping in a hut near Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva ( he, פֶּתַח תִּקְוָה, , ), also known as ''Em HaMoshavot'' (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of ...
.[Gilbert, Martin (1998), ''Israel: A History'' Black Swan, p. 80.] On 17 April, the funeral for Khazan was held in Tel Aviv, attracting a crowd of thousands, some of whom beat Arab passersby and vandalized property.
Riots
On 19 April, rumors spread in the Arab community that "many Arabs had been killed by Jews", and Arabs began to attack Jews in the streets of Jaffa. An Arab mob marched on the Jewish-owned Anglo-Palestine Bank
Bank Leumi ( he, בנק לאומי, lit. ''National Bank''; ar, بنك لئومي) is an Israeli bank. It was founded on February 27, 1902, in Jaffa as the ''Anglo Palestine Company'' as subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust (Jüdische Kolonia ...
. The British Mandatory police guarding the bank defended themselves by firing into the mob, killing two of the rioters. This incited the mob to "fury" and Jews began to be killed in the streets.[
Manuela Williams describes this as the "peak" event in a series of violent attacks leading up to the declaration of a general strike by the ]Arab Higher Committee
The Arab Higher Committee ( ar, اللجنة العربية العليا) or the Higher National Committee was the central political organ of the Arab Palestinians in Mandatory Palestine. It was established on 25 April 1936, on the initiative o ...
.
According to Aryeh Avneri, citing the ''History of the Haganah'', the rioting broke out first among the Haurani dockworkers in Jaffa Port. A mob of Arab men rampaged through the mixed Muslim, Christian and Jewish streets of Jaffa, killing and beating Jews and wrecking Jewish homes and businesses.[Rose, Norman. "The Debate on Partition, 1937-38: The Anglo-Zionist Aspect: I. The Proposal", ''Middle Eastern Studies 6'', no. 3 (1970): 297-318]
11 people were reported dead in the first day's rioting. These included 2 Arabs "shot by British police in self-defense," and 9 Jews, with dozens of others wounded, "most of the Jewish injured bore knife wounds.["9 Jews, 2 Arabs Dead, 54 Hurt In Jaffa Riots: Moslems Slain by British Police, Foes Knifed in Batlle (sic) Following Killing of a Jew by Bandits," ]New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
, 20 April 1936, p. 1. The rioting went on for a total of 3 days, it was finally suppressed by the British military.[
]
Impact
Refugees
The continuing threat of violence combined with the destruction of Jewish property and arson attacks that destroyed Jewish homes forced 12,000 Jews to flee Jaffa as refugees. 9,500 were housed by the Tel Aviv municipality, imposing a heavy financial burden on the city. Seventy-five temporary shelters were created in schools, synagogues, government and industrial buildings.[Marginal Populations and Urban Identity in Time of Emergency: The Case of the 1936 Refugees in Tal Aviv," Arnon Golan, ''Journal of Modern Jewish Studies,'' Vol. 9 , Iss. 2, 2010.] During May and June the Haganah
Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...
was able to stabilize the security situation to the point where about 4,000 of the refugees were able to return to their homes.[ Others found housing privately, so that by July only 4,800 remained in public refugee camps; 3,200 of these were utterly destitute.][ By November, Jewish charities had placed even the destitute refugees in housing, and the refugee camps were closed.][
]
Annexation of Jaffa to Tel Aviv
One impact of the riot was the start of a political demand that the Jewish neighborhoods of Jaffa be separated from Jaffa and incorporated into Tel Aviv.[ Tamir Goren (2016) "The Jews of Jaffa at the Time of the Arab Revolt: the emergence of the demand for annexation," Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 15:2, 267-281, DOI: 10.1080/14725886.2015.1090113.]
Literary references
Chapter 11 of Leon Uris
Leon Marcus Uris (August 3, 1924 – June 21, 2003) was an American author of historical fiction who wrote many bestselling books including '' Exodus'' (published in 1958) and ''Trinity'' (published in 1976).
Life and career
Uris was born in Ba ...
's bestselling 1984 novel, The Haj, is entitled ''Jaffa - April 19, 1936.''[ Leon Uris, "The Haj'' 1984.][Ted Swedenberg, Popular Memory and the Palestinian National Past, in Jay O'Brien, ''Golden Ages, Dark Ages: Imagining the Past in Anthropology and History,'' University of California Press, 1991, p. 161.] In ''The Blood of His Servants,'' Malcolm MacPherson
Malcolm MacPherson (18 August 1904 – 24 May 1971) was a Scottish Labour politician.
Biography
Malcolm MacPherson was born on The Isle of May, in the Firth of Forth, where his father, John McPherson, was one of the lighthouse keepers. Malc ...
writes of 19 April as the day when the Arab revolt on Palestine began, and a "campaign of armed attacks" started. In his 1968 book, ''Days of Fire'', Shmuel Katz, a senior member of the Irgun
Irgun • Etzel
, image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px
, caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
, wrote of arriving in Tel Aviv from Jerusalem on 19 April to find the town in turmoil with reports of stabbing in nearby Jaffa.
See also
* 1938 Tiberias massacre
The Tiberias massacre took place on 2 October 1938, during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Tiberias, then located in the British Mandate of Palestine and today is located in the State of Israel.
After infiltrating the Jewish Kiryat Shmuel neighb ...
* 1921 Jaffa riots
References
{{reflist, 2
1936 riots
1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
1936 in Mandatory Palestine
Anti-Jewish pogroms by Muslims
April 1936 events
Jaffa
Riots and civil disorder in Israel