Joan Winters' Last Winter, in Jerusalem

I found out about Joan Winters, who was murdered in Jerusalem in 1933, from my friend Robert Avrech's blog.  She had arrived by boat on October 29 and was killed on November 1 in the evening. It was a time of Arab rioting*.

I looked for some newspaper clippings.

From the Palestine Post

and

and this from Davar

That report adds that not only were the two victims shot multiple times in the back but their heads were crushed by rocks.

Due to the general press censorship because of the several days of Arab riots, a report that shots had been heard in the area on the previous Wednesday night had been suppressed. 

The murder site was Gethsemane and, coincidentally, here is a picture of the Mufti entering the city three weeks later with the location in the background:

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*  On the riots ---

ARAB RIOTS.Trouble in Jerusalem.  LONDON, Oct. 30.
More rioting has occurred in Jerusalem. A mob made an attempt to penetrate the police cordon, but was dispersed by the police. Home-made bombs used by the rioters exploded harmlessly, but stones were thrown and sticks used, compelling a British non-commissioned officer to fire a few shots. Two rioters were killed, and 15 were injured. Veiled women, screaming from housetops, incited the mob. The whole city is filled with excited Arabs eager to demonstrate. They compelled Jewish shops in the main street to close, and smashed one Jewish establishment. They also compelled one British shopkeeper to put up his shutters. Members of the Arab executive have been arrested. Other Arabs have protested against the police firing at Jaffa, and have demanded the release of their leaders...

and

Arab Rioting in Palestine Continues, Mob Repulsed in Raid on Haifa DepotJerusalem (Oct. 28)
Reinforced detachments of police and British troops were stationed in strategic points throughout Palestine tonight ready to cope with any Arab disturbances which, starting in Jaffa yesterday, continued last night and today. A strong feeling of tension prevailed over a wide area, from the port cities of Jaffa and Haifa to Safed, in Galilee, to the north, and Hebron and Jerusalem to the south, as spasmodic attacks on the authorities by Arab mobs continued.

In Jaffa, scene of a battle yesterday between 10,000 Arabs and police who broke up a demonstration against Jewish immigration into Palestine, which resulted in the death of ten rioters, the wounding of more than a hundred, the death of a native policeman and the wounding of others...In Jerusalem, the police this morning dispersed a crowd which gathered at the home of Musa Kazem, head of the Palestine Arab Executive, with the intention of demonstrating its sympathy with the victims of yesterday’s rioting.

Later in the day, police here were compelled to fire several volleys into the air to disperse a mob engaged in stoning a mounted British constable carrying dispatches.  A general strike, proclaimed in Jerusalem by the Palestine Arab Executive, closed all Arab shops and suspended bus line schedules...

From the official report Gt. Britain presented to the Mandates Commission in Geneva:

...A campaign against Jewish immigration began in the Arab Press about the end of August, and rapidly developed in intensity. The general purport was that the Government was flooding the country with Jews regardless of its absorptive capacity with the object of displacing the Arabs from the land and depriving them of their employment. It was also alleged that a mass immigration of Jews was being allowed and encouraged by Government so that when the Legislative Council was introduced the Jews would be in a majority.
At the beginning of September, the President of the Arab Executive Committee delivered a speech on the subject at the Moslem festival of Nebi Rubin and telegraphed to the High Commissioner demanding the immediate stoppage of immigration. After the festival, the agitation was fostered by means of the Press and public meetings, organized by the Independence Party, by the Moslem Young Men's Association, and by the Moslem Christian Association. Arab spokesmen found material to hand in Press reports of arrivals of Jewish immigrants at the ports: the Jewish Press displayed no reticence in the publication of this kind of news, and at the Zionist Congress at Prague immigration was discussed in such terms as to inspire alarm in the minds of the Arab population.
The hostile feeling against Jewish immigration was intensified by knowledge of the recent settlement in Palestine of a large number of Jews, estimated at some 10,000, without permission. The Arabs argued that these circumstances revealed the inability of Government to control immigration, and consequently exaggerated the number of those arriving; and they further contended that, even if they accepted selected immigration under Government authorization, which they should not, the entry of 10,000 unselected and unsuitable, or perhaps undesirable, persons was altogether more than could be borne.
Wherever opportunity offered, the Government made it clear that there had been and would be no change in the policy by which immigration into Palestine is regulated in accordance with the economic capacity of the country to absorb new arrivals.
The Arab Executive, however, bitterly attacked during the campaign in the Arab Press for apathy and inertia, adopted a resolution to declare a general strike on Friday, the 13th October, and on the same day to demonstrate in procession in Jerusalem from the Haram esh Sharif to Government Offices against Government's policy in the matter of immigration. Government made it clear to the responsible leaders personally and to the public by proclamations and through the Press that no procession, which would be likely to endanger the peace, would be allowed. In defiance of Government's prohibition a procession was held on the appointed day and the Police were obliged to disperse an unruly crowd by baton charge. Towards the end of October and in November, a train of similar causes led to serious rioting in various towns of Palestine, and it was necessary for the Police to use their firearms to restore order. Troops, however, were not required to intervene. A detailed account of the disturbances and the events immediately preceding them and of the precise nature and sequence of those events is given in the Report of the Special Commission of Enquiry which was appointed for the purpose and which sat in Palestine during December under the Chairmanship of Sir William Murison, K.C., formerly Chief Justice in the Straits Settlements. Printed copies of the Report have been sent to the members of the Permanent Mandates Commission.
A strike of Arab shopkeepers was almost generally observed throughout Palestine between the 27th October and the 3rd November, while the state of disorder and tension lasted. In view of the false or exciting reports which were published after the outbreak at Jaffa on the 27th October, a censorship of the Press was imposed under the Defence Order-in-Council, 1931, which had been proclaimed some days earlier as a precaution in case of an unfavourable development of the situation. The censorship was maintained for five days. The Arab Press went on strike as a protest against the imposition of this censorship and for six days no Arabic newspapers appeared. The Palestine Government for that period distributed an official bulletin containing a report of the events of the day and other items of general interest concerning governmental activities.
In Jerusalem, on the 13th October, the collision of Arab demonstrators with the Police resulted in five constables and eleven civilians being slightly injured. The total casualties in the subsequent rioting in Jaffa, Jerusalem, Haifa and Nablus were one constable and twenty-four civilians killed or died of wounds, twenty-eight constables and two hundred and four civilians wounded.
10. There was some echo of these troubles in Trans-Jordan and minor demonstrations of sympathy took place; but thanks to the helpful influence of His Highness the Amir, the Trans-Jordan Government by their firm attitude prevented any repercussions which might have proved embarrassing to the Palestine Government.
11. While Palestinian Arabs were impelled to demonstrate against the policy of the Palestine Government in regard to Jewish immigration, as being unduly generous and inconsiderate of Arab interests, dissatisfaction with that policy by Jews on the ground of its niggardliness and severity to themselves was equally expressed, at least on one occasion, in the form of an illegal procession. This happened at Tel Aviv on Saturday, the 11th December, following a protest meeting arranged by the Revisionist Organization; in the resulting clash with the Police, who were compelled to make baton charges against a shower of stones, eleven police officers and eight civilians were injured...

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