August 23 1929 – 17 Av 5689
Thousands of Arab villagers flocked to Jerusalem on Friday, August 23 1929 for mass prayers on the Temple Mount, many of them armed with staves and knives. Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini told the British reserve commandant of Jerusalem that they were fearful of provocation attempts by Jews. Violence was in the air, and around 9:30 am Jewish shop-keepers began closing their stores. Close to 11am, twenty to thirty shots rang out from the Temple Mount, apparently to incite the worshipers to riot. Hundreds of them burst into the Arab market and began attacking Jewish passersby. Moving on, the rioters attacked the nearest Jewish neighborhoods to the Old City’s Damascus Gate, the Georgian quarter (Eshel Avraham) and the Nisan Beck houses (Kirya Ne’emana). Nineteen Jews were murdered, houses and synagogues were destroyed and their Torah scrolls and prayer-books ripped and trampled in the streets. Meah Shearim was also attacked, as were the Bukharan quarter and the new neighborhood of Bayit Vegan. Dr. Nahum Kurkidi was badly wounded when shots were fired into Misgav Ladach hospital. The rioting went on for a week, spreading to Hebron and Gaza, where the ancient Jewish communities of both towns were wiped out amid acts of intense cruelty. In Tel Aviv Jaffa and Haifa, Jewish defenders held back the rioters, and in Beth Shean and Safed, British police protected the Jews. In the small, isolated Jewish villages of Be’er Tovia, Hulda, Har Tov and Kfar Uriya, the residents had to be evacuated and their homes were destroyed.