Following mounting communal Arab-Jewish tensions, violence brakes out between Arabs and Jews in the old city of Jerusalem surrounding the annual Nebi Musa festival. The British administration immediately and controversially withdraws police and soldiers from the old city, allowing violence to foment. In all, four Arabs and five Jews are killed. Palestinian leaders Hajj Amin al-Husayni and Aref el-Aref flee Jerusalem to Transjordan after the British accuse them of stoking the flames of the uprising. Over 200 others are put on trial as a result of the riots, 39 of whom are Jewish. This catalyzes early mistrust between the British, the Jews and Arabs in Palestine. Within two years, inexplicably, Hajj Amin is appointed to head the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem.
April 4, 1920
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