Participation in grade 11history class, when the school year started, left me with several peeving questions. So far we have learned about Israel in the 20's, including the first riots to take place under the British mandate: 1920-1 and 1929 riots.

Back at 1921, we were told that the Arabs rioters harassed the Jews, and weren't told about any Jewish revenge. All the Jews were defenders. "The British arrested Arab rioters as well as Jewish defenders[1]".

 

erbert Samuel released the arrested Jewish and Arabs. "But on side releasing Jabotinsky and his friends (who acted for defense against the  Arab rioters) he also released Arab rioters which there was no justification to release”[2].

One day I decided to go to the library, to see if this was really the case. Arab rioters against Jewish defenders, good vs. evil. Could the Jews do anything wrong? Not according to my teacher.

 

Let's see what wonders will I find. Apparently Jews murdered 5 souls, including a women and a child. E. Golomb: "Our friends entered an orchard and killed a hunchbacked Arab with his children"[3]. Was there really no justification to release the people who did it?

 

On to 1929. Everywhere, the Arabs massacred the Jews. The Haganah were always "guarding". Do the historical facts backup this version, that the Jews are always blameless victim?

 

Those riots started in Jerusalem. The provocative Betar demonstration was noted, however the day the riots started is described as an Arab assault on the Jews. The truth is more complicated. 2 or 3 Arabs were murdered in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem, and they might even be the first casualties of those riots.[4]

 

Although there was a massacre of the Hebron Jewish community, there were Arabs who hid the Jews in their homes while risking themselves. It wasn’t a rare occasion worth only a mere notation, as its reporting hints. In fact, 435 Jews, two thirds of the community were saved this way. A. Rupin noted in his diary: "There were Jews who went beyond disgracefully from the limits of self defense." Jews also lynched Arabs, murdered women and children and according to Arabs, even harmed Arabs who gave them shelter. [5]

 

Except the lessons in the class, what do our textbooks say about the subject?

I checked 3 textbooks found in the school's library.

Two of them didn’t report about the Arab casualties at all. The third reported on their loss at the 1929 riots. None reported about the Jewish brutality and revenge actions that were not different than the Arab rioting. [6] The death toll was almost equal in both cases: 47 Jews and 48 Arabs in 1921, 1323 Jews and 116 Arabs in 1929, while many, if not most of the Arab casualties were inflicted by the British forces.

 

It’s frightening that we are learning a partial, biased and one-sided version of our history. We should learn it objectively. Israel is strong enough to treat our past impartially without losing our right to exist or the Zionist ideology. Even if the past has disturbing facts, we must remember that lie is bad and truth is good.