The riots of 1929 were driven by a campaign of incitement and lies perpetuated by Grand Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini, the spiritual and political leader of Palestine’s Muslims under the British Mandate. Husseini had spent the year preceding the massacre galvanizing Islamic sentiment against Palestine’s Jewish minority. He fomented support for his cause by claiming that the Jews of Palestine sought to destroy Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque to rebuild their ancient Temple, upon whose ruins Al-Aqsa was built. In sermons at Al-Aqsa the day before the massacre in Hebron, clerics called on the faithful to defend Al-Aqsa from the Jews. Armed worshippers flowed from the mosque and down to the Old City, where they attacked Jewish passersby and set fire to Jewish shops. Within hours, the riots spread throughout the country, killing 133 Jews across Palestine and wounding nearly 400 others.
Hamas, the radical Islamist group that openly calls for Israel’s annihilation, is the spiritual heir of Grand Mufti Al-Husseini. Just as the mufti used The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to support his claim that the Jews of Palestine were planning to destroy Al-Aqsa, Hamas perpetuates those claims today. Hamas has long used the defense of Al-Aqsa as its calling card. Its self-proclaimed heroic operation on Oct. 7 was named “Al-Aqsa Flood.” Much like the rioters of 1929 praised Allah as they slaughtered men, women, and children, so too did Hamas fighters, in footage they uploaded to social media.
Remembering the Farhud and the Jewish Nakba 