ABSTRACT
The riots of August 1929 provided a security and political crisis which put into question the very foundations of Zionist-Ab-British relations in Palestine. On Yom Kippur, 23-24 September 1928, an apparently trivial incident touched off a chain of events which was to result in rioting and bloodshed in August 1929.1 The sensitive question of maintaining the status quo with respect to Jewish rights of worship at the Muslim-owned Western (“Wailing”) Wall in Jerusalem2 unleashed a public controversy, which was fanned primarily by the leading Muslim authorities in Palestine —the Supreme Muslim Council (S.M.C.) under the Presidency of Hajj Amin al-Husaini, Mufti of Jerusalem-and by Revisionist Jews, who combined to elevate the controversy from one involving religious rights to one of national prestige.3
