The first major riots against the Jewish population in Palestine were the Jaffa riots in 1921 . As a result of the Jaffa riots , the Haganah was founded as a defense force for the Jewish population of the British Mandate for Palestine . Religious tension over the Kotel and the escalation of the tensions between the Arab and Jewish populations led to the 1929 Palestine riots . In these religious-nationalist riots , Jews were massacred in Hebron . Devastation also took place in Safed and Jerusalem . In 1936 , as Europe was preparing for war , the Supreme Muslim Council in Palestine , led by Amin al-Husayni , instigated the 1936 – 39 Arab revolt in Palestine in which Palestinian Arabs rioted and murdered Jews in various cities . In 1937 Amin al-Husayni , who was wanted by the British , fled Palestine and took refuge successively in Lebanon , Iraq , Italy and finally Nazi Germany
1929 Palestine riots
1929 Palestine riots
History of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict