The
Jaffa riots were riots and killings that took place in the
British Mandate of Palestine between 1 and 7 May 1921. Together with the previous year's
Nebi Musa riots, they are commonly considered as the first violent confrontation in what would become the
Arab-Israeli Conflict and
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - though Israel as a state would only be formed decades later.
On the night before 1 May 1921, the Jewish Communist Party (precursor of the Palestine Communist Party) distributed Arabic and Yiddish fliers calling for the toppling of British rule and the establishing a "Soviet Palestine". The party announced its intention to parade from Jaffa to neighbouring Tel Aviv to commemorate May Day. On the morning of the parade, despite a warning to the 60 members present from one of Jaffa's most senior police officers, Toufiq Bey al-Said, who visited the party's headquarters, the march headed from Jaffa to Tel Aviv through the mixed Jewish-Arab border neighbourhood of Menashia (Manshiyya).[1]
Another large May Day parade had also been organised for Tel Aviv by the rival socialist Ahdut HaAvoda group, with official authorisation. When the two processions met, a fistfight erupted.[1] Police attempted to disperse the about 50 communist protestors,and Muslims and Christians intervened to help the police against the Jews. A general disturbance quickly ensued and spread to the southern part of town.[2]
Hearing of the fighting and believing that Arabs were being attacked, the Arabs of Jaffa went on the offensive.[citation needed] Dozens of British, Arab, and Jewish witnesses all reported that Arab men bearing clubs, knives, swords, and some pistols broke into Jewish buildings and murdered their inhabitants, while women followed to loot.[citation needed] They attacked Jewish pedestrians and destroyed Jewish homes and stores.[citation needed] They beat and killed Jews in their homes, including children, and in some cases split open the victims' skulls.[1]
