The following are eyewitness accounts of the events leading up to and including the Hebron Pogrom of August 23 - 24, 1929. The accounts were recorded and published within a time frame that would eliminate any doubt as to the validity or detail of the testimony. As one can see from the sources, we can also eliminate the possibility of ``Zionist right-wing extremist propaganda.''

Dr. Elkana of Hebron:

For many days before the horror began, the poison of incitement was felt everywhere. The Arabs spoke openly, shamelessly, and fearlessly of the massacre of the Jews to be arranged in the near future. They did not hesitate to reveal their whole detailed plan ... Facts and evidence are in the hands of the survivors. The landlord of the Hotel, Nachman Segal, said to the lessee of the hotel on Thursday: ``Pay me the rent today, because tomorrow no one among you will be saved.''

At about half past two on Friday (August 23) we saw a young Arab arrive by motorcycle from Jerusalem. He alarmed the Arab inhabitants of Hebron, saying that the blood of thousands of Moslems in Jerusalem was being shed like water. He called to the Arabs to avenge this blood. The unrest among the Arabs of Hebron was very strong, particularly after the motor cars began to arrive from Jerusalem with news of disturbances.

Incitement of feeling against the Jews goes on, particularly round Jerusalem and Hebron. Rumors are being spread by unknown persons that on Saturday last the Jews cursed the Moslem religion and that it is the duty of Moslems to take revenge.

The world will see (as a result of an impartial inquiry) that Jews, whose aggressions have surpassed political aims to religious ones, whose provocations have lately become insupportable, as admitted by [British Mandatory] Government, etc., were responsible for the present troubles, together with the policy supporting them.

On Friday morning, the day of the outbreak in Jerusalem, the Jews of Hebron were already alarmed. The day before, Aref el-Aref, Arab Governor of Be'ersheva, had been in the City and had preached in the Mosque (Ha' Machpelah). His words were repeated to the Jews; in the midst of open incitement to riot recurred those familiar and sinister words: ``The Government is with us!''

The visit of Aref el-Aref to Hebron on Thursday bore very early fruit. On Friday morning the Jews of Hebron received, from an Arab source, the news that the Arabs were arming. Rabbi Ya'acov Slonim, head of the Sephardic Jewish community, and Rabbi Frank, head of the Ashkenazic community, turned to the Arab Governor of Hebron, Abdullah Kardos. The Governor calmed us and said: ``There is no fear of anything happening. The British Government knows what it has to do. In the place where two soldiers are needed, it sends six.'' And he added: ``I tell you in confidence that they have many soldiers in the streets, in civilian clothes; these soldiers circulate among the crowds, and in the hour of need they will fulfill their duty.''

On Friday afternoon, an Arab mob broke into the Yeshiva, and killed the only student who had remained there - Samuel Rozenholtz, known among the Jews of Hebron as a matmid, a name given to those who distinguish themselves by their devotion to study. On Saturday morning, before the slaughter began, the Rabbis again appealed to the Governor for help. Again they received the same astounding assurances. Bewildered, they turned to Mr. Cafferata, the British officer in charge of the Police. From him, too, they received assurances of safety. I find such difficulty in believing this story, that I have looked at every record of eyewitnesses, without finding a contradiction.

For two hours on the morning of Saturday, August 24, there raged in Hebron a scene which is not easy to parallel even in the medieval annals of the Jewish people. For two hours neither the Governor of Hebron nor the British officer interfered. From English papers I cull a story of the heroism of Mr. Cafferata in attempting to stop the massacre.

From our knowledge, we say with certainty that it would have sufficed to issue a warning, or to fire some shots into the air, and the crowd would have scattered. It was only after there had been sufficient butchery, plunder and rape, and the pogromists were about to attack an English officer, that some shots were fired, and the mob dispersed at once.

The massacre lasted an hour and a half. There were then heard six shots and the murderers scattered. Those that would not scatter were fired on by the English commander. Then twenty-five Arabs fell.

In the name of sixty-five slaughtered, fifty-eight wounded, and many orphans and widows; in the name of the remnants of the plundered and tortured we accuse:

1. The [British Mandatory] Government, which did not fulfill its duty and provide protection for its peaceful and defenceless charges.
2. The Governor, Abdullah Kardos, and the Commander, Cafferata, who deprived us of the means of appealing for help and defence, betrayed us with empty promises and gave the murderers and robbers their opportunity.
3. The police, which did not fulfill its duty, and behaved with contemptible baseness.
4. The emissaries of the Mufti and the Moslem Council, in particular the Sheikh Talib Narka and his colleagues, those mentioned above, as well as those who have not been mentioned, who proclaimed the massacre and permitted murder and rape.
5. Also the inhabitants of Hebron (with the exception of some families) who did not rise up to help their brothers and neighbors in accordance with the commandments of the Koran...

...the Holy Land was in turmoil. Life came to a standstill as the ordinary safeguards of government ceased to function. The mob, in itself not very numerous or impressive, dominated the scene. Sir John Chancellor, the High Commissioner, was on leave of absence, and his place at the top had been taken by Harry Luke, the Chief Secretary, as Acting High Commissioner.

This gentleman appeared to be in a blue funk (disappointed, nervous) in the first days of the rioting, when I called on him at Government House in Jerusalem. ``The situation has gotten out of hand,'' he repeated over and over again, ``and just at a moment when there are no troops within easy call.''

I asked him if there were no arms on hand either.

``Plenty,'' he said.

``Well, then there is nothing to be afraid of,'' I suggested. ``Give me a gun and give a few more British subjects a gun, and we can keep order. If need be, you could arm a few thousand Jews. They are being attacked by people who seem to have plenty of arms. It would be logical, in view of the fact that the government does not possess the means to protect them, that they be allowed to defend themselves.''

``But that would mean civil war,'' objected Mr. Luke.

``Well, you pretty well have a civil war on your hands as it is.''

``We, the government, would merely become a third party of disorder if I carried out your suggestion,'' he said.

``Disorder? By suppressing disorder you do not become disorderly,'' I remarked. ``The Mufti's clique is the party of disorder, The Jews, whatever your objection to them may be, are the party of order. I have looked at the Arab rioters in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and elsewhere. They are the lowest dregs of the population, uncouth hooligans, gangsters and cutthroats. As against them the Jews represent civilization here.''

``Ah,'' he objected again, ``but you must keep in mind that the government is neutral, must be impartial in this quarrel between Jews and Arabs. We are the watchdog...''

``Neutral and impartial when it is a question of barbarism versus civilization, when it is a case of gangsters attacking peaceful innocent citizens as those whose bodies I just saw piled up in a house in Hebron? .... Can one be neutral in a case like that? Isn't being neutral in such a case, tantamount to taking sides, if one leaves the way open for more attacks, more murders of women and children?''

``By the way,'' Mr. Luke broke in, ``are you a Jew?''

``No,'' I answered, ``must one be a Jew to want fair play?''

``What then do you suggest?'' he asked.

``I can suggest nothing,'' I replied, ``I am only a newspaperman looking on ....''

``Quite so,'' he came back, ``But you could be immensely useful to the government of Palestine. You represent a great liberal journal in America (the late New York Evening World), and we are very sensitive to American public opinion. I want you to have full facilities to probe the matter, to find out what really happened here, and to tell in what a grave predicament the government of Palestine was placed, caught between two fires, as it were...''

``But I cannot say that,'' I returned. ``You have just said the government is neutral. I can never hope to explain to the American newspaper reader that in the presence of an unprovoked attack by gangs of hoodlums on a peaceful community, the government looked on as an impartial spectator. Americans won't understand that. They expect something else from a government.''

``What, for instance?''

``Well, a whiff of grapeshot, for instance - a few volleys fired into the air by the police ... you can't be neutral in a case like that.''

``Well, no, but impartial we are...''

``You call that impartiality when a man like Captain Caffaretta of Hebron comes in and calmly relates how he watched the mob invade a rabbi's home and slaughter twenty-seven persons there.''

``There were only twenty-six killed,'' interrupted Mr. Luke.

``Yes, twenty-six adults and one baby of three months, that makes twenty-seven by my count .... Watch human beings being killed, he an officer in the British army, with a police guard at his beck and call and a service revolver in his pocket. One or two shots in the air by Caffaretta, and the mob would never have entered Rabbi Slonim's house.''