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bIn the early-morning hours of May 2, six Jewish bodies bwere found in the Abu Kabir section between Jaffa and Tel Aviv. bThey included the famous writer Y. C. Brenner, and the news bhorrified the Jewish community. The six had been beaten to bdeath, their bodies stripped and mutilated. bThe reaction of the Jews was instructive. Zionist leaders bNahum Sokolow, Pinchas Ruttenburg, Meir Dizengoff, and oth- bers met and decided to seek conciliation. The Jaffa Arab b“notables” agreed to accept the offer of peace from the victims, bbut at the meeting held in the Jaffa municipality, and to the loud bapplause of the Arabs, Omar Al-Bittar, the mayor, declared that bhe could not speak for the “Arab nation” and each person would bhave to use his individual initiative to calm passions. Nothing bdaunted, the Tel Aviv Jewish town council announced that “the bsheikhs have promised us that they will persuade the inhabitants bto be calm.” Those who had lived in European exile in which btheir safety and security depended on the whim of the Gentile bfelt right at home in the Exile of Ishmael. bThe results of the Jaffa massacre were 43 Jews murdered, b134 wounded, and untold property damage. It was now 27 bNisan, May 5. Petah Tikva’s turn. bThe news of the Jaffa pogrom encouraged the Arabs of the bvillages near the large settlement of Petah Tikva to cast covetous beyes on that thriving Jewish colony. By May 3 all the Arab bworkers had left, a sure sign of impending attack. The two small bcolonies of Ein Hai and Kfar Saba had heard of frenzied meet- bings in the nearby Arab villages of Kalkilya, Tira, and Miski, bwhere plans had been formulated for destruction of the Jewish bsettlements. The Jews hastily evacuated the two colonies, and bafter being attacked and having part of their cattle plundered by bthe Bedouins of Abu-Kishk, they arrived, fearfully, in Petah bTikva. bOn the evening of 26 Nisan (May 4), watchmen saw the bflames of Kfar Saba and Ein Hai, which had been torched by btheir Arab neighbors. Scouts reported that hundreds of Arabs bfrom all the villages in the area were now on their way to attack bPetah Tikva. A group of riders under the leadership of veteran bAvraham Shapira rode out to meet the attackers and found them bleading away 700 of the settlement’s cattle. Under a hail of bul- blets the Jews had to flee. The Jews in the settlement awaited the b
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