With all due respect to R’ Baruch Kaplan, his understanding of the Chevron massacre was historically inaccurate because of how tensions built up for a week and a half prior. Some frum groups asked the Waqf for permission to use a mechitzah at the Kosel on Tisha B’av; a far cry from the boogeymen who the anti-Zionists on this forum describe. The Mufti then used that as a pretext for claiming Jews wanted to take over al-Aqsa. Violent incidents based on this claim as a motive didn’t start in Chevron, the pressure keg exploded in Jerusalem first.
This was recorded at the time in the Palestine Post and other Hebrew-language newspapers published then. That’s why there were Zionist youths riding around Chevron on motorcycles a day prior; they knew what was happening and legitimately patrolled to protect its Jewish community. No Zionist CAUSED the massacre, although the Old Yishuv has slightly more blame (they didn’t directly cause it either); nobody knew what that simple request would cause.
It is highly unlikely that anyone in the Chevron Yeshiva was reading printed daily versions of the Palestine Post, Haaretz, or any other newspapers. Saying they did contradicts the whole function of what yeshivas of that nature are intended to be. If one doesn’t know current events, and it then affects them, it’s entirely inaccurate that it’s targeting them personally. One who doesn’t know about rising tensions will be caught ill-prepared and certainly does not have an entirely accurate picture of what happened.
Anyone who wants to challenge this series of events as described should review archives of the Palestine Post, Haaretz, and other Jewish dailies in Palestine and abroad, roughly between August 15-28, 1929. You’ll see how tensions climbed from Tisha B’av onward, regardless of individuals who chose to ignore it. Much of this is available as scans from the National Library of Israel; publicly accessible on their website page of Historical Jewish Press.
Mr. HaKatan and his ilk have never responded to such claims because there is no answer. Leave me on read and ignore this if you’d like; this isn’t for you but for anyone who actually cares about historical accuracy, not political soapbox.
