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 Jerusalem 2 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
