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A British Officer Saved Dozens of Jews during the 1921 Arab Riots

(Ha'aretz) Ofer Aderet - On May 1, 1921, Arabs attacked Beit Hehalutz (Pioneer House) in Jaffa, which served as a hostel for Jewish pioneers in Palestine upon their arrival. 15 Jews were murdered and 30 were wounded; another 50 survived by hiding on the building's second floor. Their lives were saved by British Maj. Lionel Mansell Jeune, 41, who arrived on the scene and fired a warning shot in the air. The Arab rioters fled. "The officer's arrival saved them from certain death," said Samuel Giler, 75, whose uncle, Yitzhak, was among those murdered. Giler, a historian of Jaffa, discovered that on the same day, Jeune also saved Jewish merchants whose stores were broken into; forced Arab rioters out of the French Hospital, not far from Beit Hehalutz, where the wounded were taken; and extricated Jews who hid in the homes of Arab neighbors. Chaim Weizmann, the president of the World Zionist Organization and later Israel's first president, wrote to Jeune, "[None of us can] ever forget how much we owe to you for your gallant and courageous conduct at Jaffa." The Arabs saw Jeune as collaborating with the Jews and demanded that he be dismissed. Jeune protested the fact that he didn't get backing from his superiors and was finally compelled to leave the British Army. He returned to military service in World War II as an intelligence officer and died in the line of duty in Egypt in 1943.
2021-05-13 00:00:00
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