10 August 1947 – 24 Av 5707
Four Jews were killed and seven injured in an outbreak of violence in Hawaii Gardens, a night-club and restaurant north of Tel Aviv. The relative quiet between Arabs and Jews that had lasted throughout the Second World War was just beginning to break down, with increasing incidents involving violence and robbery. Hawaii Gardens was owned jointly by a group of Jewish soldiers released from the British army, and Sheikh Ibrahim el-Bidas, a resident of the nearby Arab village of Sheikh Munis, a fine example of the harmonious co-existence then still in evidence in Mandate Palestine. On August 10 1947, after a disagreement between el-Bidas and Fauzi Abu-Kishek, a member of an opposing Arab family, an Arab gang broke into Hawaii Garden when the restaurant was full and opened fire. The owner was killed along with four Jewish customers, including actor Meir Teomi. Though it was claimed that this was a criminal attack, not an act of terrorism, Tel Aviv’s Jewish residents were outraged. The Hagana mounted a series of counter-attacks in response, targeting the Arabs involved in the murder, but resulting on one occasion in civilian casualties as well.