Israel-Hamas War: Yardena Schwartz Examines Hebron Disinformation and Media Amnesia

The Forgotten Massacre: How 1929 Hebron Violence Shaped a Century of Conflict

Journalist Yardena Schwartz’s research into a pivotal historical event reveals how disinformation campaigns about holy sites have repeatedly triggered violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for nearly a century.

The journey began with an unexpected discovery: a box of letters found in a Memphis family’s attic, written by David Schoenberg, a young American Jew who traveled to study at the Hebron Yeshiva in 1928. His correspondence ended abruptly when he became one of 67 Jews killed in the Hebron massacre of 1929 – what Schwartz describes as “the deadliest pogrom ever perpetrated outside of Europe” at that time.

“This massacre was ground zero of the Arab-Israeli conflict as we know it,” Schwartz concluded after years of research, noting the absence of any English-language book focused on this pivotal event.

The violence, according to Schwartz’s findings, stemmed from a disinformation campaign initiated in 1928 by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. He spread claims that Jews were plotting to take over Al-Aqsa Mosque to rebuild the Jewish Temple. In Hebron specifically, similar rumors circulated about Jewish designs on the Tomb of the Patriarchs, known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque.

“This lie that began a century ago has sustained itself and actually intensified,” Schwartz explains, pointing to more recent examples like the naming of the “Al-Aqsa Intifada” (Second Intifada) and Hamas’ “Al-Aqsa Flood” (their term for the October 7 attack). Even practical security measures like metal detectors at the holy site in 2015 triggered violent backlash because of this persistent narrative.

Perhaps most controversial in Schwartz’s research is her documentation of the Grand Mufti’s close alliance with Nazi Germany. “He wasn’t just a supporter of the Nazis. He himself was a Nazi,” she states, describing how he lived in Berlin from 1941 to 1945, directed the Arab Bureau of the Nazi Propaganda Ministry, and recruited thousands of Muslims into the Waffen-SS.

Despite being placed on a list of wanted Nazi war criminals after World War II, the Mufti’s role has been minimized in most historical accounts. “When we’re taught about the Holocaust, we really only hear about how the Holocaust played out in Europe,” Schwartz notes, arguing that this erases the significant Middle Eastern dimension of Nazi alliances.

Schwartz also highlights a connection often overlooked: Yasser Arafat, widely considered the first Palestinian leader, was actually the Grand Mufti’s cousin and “closest disciple.” She describes how they grew close in post-WWII Egypt, where Arafat became involved in weapons-smuggling while the aging Mufti gathered allies to wage jihad against Jews in Mandatory Palestine.

Following the 1929 massacre, Schwartz identifies a propaganda pattern that she says continues today: first deny atrocities occurred, then blame Jews for orchestrating them. She cites a statement from an Arab leader at the time claiming that Jews in Hebron “were slaughtered by Jewish Yeshiva students who wanted to raise funds from the Diaspora.”

In her contemporary reporting in Hebron and the West Bank, Schwartz encountered similar denial. Many locals either didn’t know about the 1929 massacre or claimed Jews initiated the violence. Some leaders she interviewed rejected Jewish historical connections to the land entirely, including claims that Abraham was Muslim, not Jewish.

Schwartz also observes a shift in Western media coverage over time. “In newspapers like the New York Times, the massacre was presented as a massacre by Arabs of unarmed Jews,” she says of 1929 reporting. “What was really shocking to me was to see how journalism has fallen. Now journalism is ‘he said, she said.'” She pinpoints the 1980s as when coverage began to change, coinciding with Israel no longer being viewed as the underdog.

As a working journalist, Schwartz reports increased difficulty placing stories critical of Palestinian leadership since October 7, 2023. “If it’s critical of Israel, they’ll run it. But if it’s critical of the Palestinians, it’s just not going to be touched,” she says.

Despite these challenges, Schwartz’s research also uncovered hopeful stories, including accounts of Arab families who risked their lives to save approximately 250 Jewish neighbors during the 1929 violence. She also includes Jewish wrongdoing in her account, such as Baruch Goldstein’s 1994 massacre at the same site.

Schwartz advocates for persistence in countering disinformation rather than surrendering to it. “We can’t afford to stop drawing attention to these cases of journalistic failure,” she says, expressing belief in a “silent majority that still believes in truth and is still able to see who’s right and who’s wrong.”

Despite the historical darkness she’s documented, Schwartz maintains cautious optimism: “I keep holding out hope that the world will turn back right side up.”