Jewish immigration to
Palestine increased. By 1931, 17 percent of the population of Palestine were Jews, an increase of six percent since 1922.
[11] Jewish immigration increased soon after the Nazis came to power in Germany, causing the Jewish population in Palestine to double.
[12] Palestinian Arabs saw this rapid influx of Jewish immigrants as a threat to their homeland and their identity as a people. Moreover, Jewish policies of purchasing land and prohibiting the employment of Arabs in Jewish-owned industries and farms greatly angered the Palestinian Arab communities.
[13] Demonstrations were held as early as 1920, protesting what the Arabs felt were unfair preferences for the Jewish immigrants set forth by the British mandate that governed Palestine at the time. This resentment led to outbreaks of violence. In March 1920, a first violent incident occurred in
Tel Hai, later that year
riots broke out in Jerusalem.
Winston Churchill's
1922 White Paper tried to reassure the Arab population, denying that the creation of a Jewish state was the intention of the Balfour Declaration.
In 1929, after a demonstration by
Vladimir Jabotinsky's political group
Betar at the
Western Wall, riots started in Jerusalem and expanded throughout Palestine; Arabs murdered 67 Jews in the city of Hebron, in what became known as the
Hebron Massacre. During the week of riots, at least 116 Arabs and 133 Jews
[14] were killed and 339 wounded.
[15] By 1936, escalating tensions led to the
19361939 Arab revolt in Palestine.
[16]