The 1920 Jerusalem riots took place under British Mandate of Palestine on April 4–7, 1920 in and around the Old City of Jerusalem.
The events coincided with and are named after the Muslim Nabi Musa festival and followed rising tensions in Arab-Jewish relations over Zionist immigration. Concurrently, there were Arab attacks on Jewish settlements in the Galilee.
Speeches by Arab religious leaders during the festival led to an outbreak of violent assaults on the city’s Jews. Five Jews and four Arabs were killed and several hundreds were wounded.
Sheikhs of 82 villages around the city and in Jaffa, claiming to represent 70% of the Arab population, issued a document protesting the violence against the Jews.
The Palin Court of Inquiry sent to the region in May 1920 by the British authorities placed the blame for the riots on the Zionists, “whose impatience to achieve their ultimate goal and indiscretion are largely responsible for this unhappy state of feeling.”
The document was never published.