This section follows some of the atrocities perpetrated by Palestinians on innocent Jewish civilians prior to 1948, the year of Israel’s independence. (To be precise - prior to 1947 when Israel war of liberation began.) Recorded in pictures, that – much like the English here are not of the best quality, and with translations from the Hebrew press of that era.

Most of these news reports are as the story develops news bites, grouped into a single news story. It is the closest thing to breaking news in a time and place in which phone or messengers transferred most of the information. Then there was no television, of course, and the radio arrived to that part of the world only in 1938. Therefore newspapers were the dominant form of public media. The fact that they are available as archives makes them very useful for the research and study of history.

An elderly Jewish survivor of the Hebron
massacre, 1929; source, The Pillar of Fire.

These are not all of the atrocities; they are quite numerous, especially from the mid 1930’s during the so-called Arab revolt, which was in fact a campaign of murderous violence by rioting mobs and armed marauding gangs incited by the Mufti Hajj Amin El – Husseini.

At that time the block of the defense of the Jewish community (also called the Hebrew community, since like present day Israelis, they all spoke and wrote in Hebrew), fell on Jewish defenders. The first were known as Gaffirs, they were underarmed guards hired locally, with the approval of the British authorities. Being insufficient to the task, the British had to agree to the demands of the Jewish leadership and formed a Jewish defense force for the protection of Jewish communities. In Hebrew they were called Notrim (Noter in singular), the British referred to them as the ‘Jewish Settlement Police’, ‘JSM’. They were better equipped and more reliable then the Arabs who served under the British command, so much so that other Jewish manned police forces were formed, such the railway police, airport, northern frontier, and costal guard.

We will come across both these groups, Gaffirs & Notrim as we follow the the horrifying and heroic stories of that era.

The Nebi Musa Riots - April 1920