Page:Report of the Commission on the Palestine Disturbances of August 1929 cmd 3530.djvu/66

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On the 25th and 26th of August, Jerusalem was quieter but desultory attacks were made on outlying districts of which the great majority were attacks by Arabs on Jews. Isolated attacks on Jewish colonies continued; many such colonies were attacked and in six cases their destruction was complete and was accom- panied by looting and burning. In Haifa and in Jaffa the’ situa- tion deteriorated; attacks were made on Hadar Hacarmel, a Jewish suburb of Haifa, and there was an outbreak in the old town of Haifa which centred round a Jewish flourmill factory. A Police Officer who opened fire on an Arab crowd succeeded in beating off an attack on the quarter which lies between Jaffa and Tel Aviv. In this quarter there occurred the worst instance of a Jewish attack on Arabs in the course of which the Imam of a mosque and some six other people were killed. On the 26th of August there also occurred a Jewish attack on the Mosque of Okasha in Jerusalem, a sacred shrine of great antiquity held in much veneration by the Moslems. The mosque was badly damaged and the tombs of the prophets which it contains were desecrated. On the 27th and 28th of August conditions im- proved and, with the arrival of more troops, it seemed that control was being regained. At about 5.15 p.m. on the 29th of August, Arab mobs attacked the Jewish ghetto in Safed, a re- mote town situated in Upper Galilee nearly 3,000 feet above sea level. Captain Faraday, the Police Officer in charge at Safed, had for some days feared that an outbreak might occur; a small detachment from the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force had: been sent to Safed and a further detachment of British troops was on the way there when the outbreak occurred. Unfortunately they arrived about two hours after the Arab attack, in the course of which some 45 Jews were killed or wounded, several Jewish houses and shops were set on fire, and there was a repetition of the wanton destruction which had been so promineriy a feature of the attack at Hebron.

With the outbreak at Safed the disturbances came to an end and, apart from isolated incidents, the situation, both internal and external, showed improvement from day to day. - During the disturbances 183 Jews were killed and 339 were wounded, of whom 198 were treated in hospital; 87 Arabs were killed and 181 who had been wounded were treated in hospital: Many of the Arab casualties and possibly some of the Jewish casualties were caused by rifle fire by the police or military forces. The figures which we have given in the case of the Jewish casualties have taken into account statistics supplied by the Jewish authori- ties; in the case of the Arab casualties the figures given are those of the killed or wounded actually admitted to the hospitals. The Director of Health in his report on this subject states that

Note.—A return, received from the High Commissioner since this report was signed, giving the following amended figures for Arab caenaliies ' — Killed or died in hospital .. wi a — - eee 116 Injured and treated in hospital om oma wee wes | 282

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