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Tuesday, October 05, 2021

83 years ago: A massacre at Tiberias, Arabs murder 19 Jews - 11 of whom were children

From the October 3, 1938 Boston Globe:

Wikipedia adds:

 Arab rioters killed 19 Jews in Tiberias, 11 of whom were children. During the massacre, 70 armed Arabs set fire to Jewish homes and the local synagogue. In one house a mother and her five children were killed. The old beadle in the synagogue was stabbed to death, and another family of 4 was killed. 

A representative of the British mandate reported that: "It was systematically organized and savagely executed. Of the nineteen Jews killed, including women and children, all save four were stabbed to death."
The targets weren't the Haganah or even "Zionists" - Tiberias was settled by Jews multiple times before modern Zionism. The targets were Jews - Jewish families, Jewish women, Jewish children, and a synagogue.

The massacre seems to have been the handiwork of Abu Ibrahim al-Kabir, a disciple of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam. 

Al-Kabir is still considered a hero to Palestinians  - here is a Fatah page dedicated to him that compliments him on a 1932 bombing in Nahalal that killed a Jewish father and son. Here's a video praising him that includes a song in his honor.

Palestinian nationalism and antisemitism are two sides of the same coin.