The Jaffa riots of April 1936, refers to a spate of violent attacks on Jews that began on 19 April 1936 in

Jaffa Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...

. 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 A popular uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against the British administration, later known as the Great Revolt, the Great Palestinian Revolt, or the Palestinian Revolution, lasted from 1936 until 1939. The movement sought i ...

Background

The British Mandatory authorities and other contemporary sources dated the

to 15 April, the date of the Anabta shooting in which Arab followers of

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam (; 1881 or 19 December 1882 – 20 November 1935) was a Syrian Muslim preacher and a leader in the local struggles against British and French Mandatory rule in the Levant and an opponent of Zionism in the 1920s and 1930s. Qassam was born in ...

set up a roadblock on the

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

Tulkarm Tulkarm or Tulkarem (, ''Ṭūlkarm'') is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the West Bank, the capital of the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine. The Israeli city of Netanya is to the west, and the Palestinian territories, Palestinia ...

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 The Irgun (), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel or IZL (), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of th ...

shot and killed two Arab workers sleeping in a hut near

Petah Tikva Petah Tikva (, ), also spelt Petah Tiqwa and known informally 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 the Old Y ...

.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 (, lit. ''National Bank''; ) 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 () Limited formed before in London by members of the Zionist ...

. Members of the

Palestine Police Force The Palestine Police Force (, ) was a British colonial police service established in Mandatory Palestine on 1 July 1920,Sinclair, 2006. when High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel's civil administration took over responsibility for security from ...

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 () or the Higher National Committee was the central political organ of Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine. It was established on 25 April 1936, on the initiative of Haj Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Je ...

. According to Aryeh Avneri, citing the ''History of the Haganah'', the rioting broke out first among the migrant 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 compet ...

, 20 April 1936, p. 1. The rioting went on for a total of 3 days, it was finally suppressed by British security forces.

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 ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

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, .

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). Uris was a co-founder of the Write ...

's criticized and once 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 work , ''Days of Fire'', Shmuel Katz, a senior member of the

, wrote of arriving in Tel Aviv from Jerusalem on 19 April to find the town in turmoil with reports of stabbing in nearby Jaffa.

References

{{Massacres or pogroms against Jews 1936 riots 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine 1936 in Mandatory Palestine April 1936 Military history of Jaffa Riots and civil disorder in Israel Tel Aviv in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict