Here’s an adjusted synthesis of our conversation, incorporating the key evidence from the Fondapol study by historian Georges Bensoussan (“Pogroms in Palestine before the creation of the State of Israel, 1830-1948“).

Core Adjustment to the Framing

The palestine-index.org/massacres list presents a selective narrative of “Zionist massacres” as if they represent unprovoked colonial aggression. This framing is incomplete and misleading because it largely erases or downplays the long preceding history of anti-Jewish pogroms and riots in the region. These attacks targeted Jews (both long-established “Old Yishuv” communities and newer Zionist immigrants) well before the creation of Israel in 1948, and often before significant Zionist settlement. fondapol.org

Bensoussan’s study, drawing on primary sources (archives, traveler accounts, inquiry commissions), documents a pattern of murderous violence against Jews in Palestine under Ottoman rule and the British Mandate. The violence was rooted in the traditional dhimmi status of Jews (inferior protected minority under Islamic rule), religious incitement, and growing opposition to Jewish national aspirations. It intensified with waves of Jewish immigration and political events like the Balfour Declaration, but the underlying hostility predated modern Zionism.

Key events from the Fondapol study (pre-1948 anti-Jewish violence)

• 1834 Safed Pogrom: Over 500 Jews killed, raped, or mutilated; synagogues looted and burned. Triggered by local Arab revolt against Egyptian reforms under Mehemet Ali that slightly improved non-Muslim status. Armed Arab villagers and Bedouins attacked.
• 1838 Safed Pogrom: Repeated violence by Druze and Arab forces; homes plundered, women assaulted, ransom demands. Jewish community severely reduced.
• 1920 Jerusalem (Nebi Musa) Pogrom: 5–6 Jews killed, over 200 injured (stabbings, rapes). Arab mobs chanted “We will drink the blood of the Jews” and “Slaughter the Jews,” incited during a religious festival. Arab police participated or stood by.
• 1921 Jaffa Pogrom: About 50 Jews killed (including writer Yosef Haim Brenner). Started from clashes but quickly turned into indiscriminate attacks on Jews regardless of Zionist affiliation. Spread to other areas.
• 1929 Riots/Pogroms (most notorious before 1948):
  • Hebron: 67 Jews slaughtered in hours (including women and children); extreme torture, mutilation, beheadings, rape. Many victims were non-Zionist Orthodox Jews. Arab police refused to intervene or colluded.
  • Safed: 44 Jews killed with similar atrocities.
  • Jerusalem and elsewhere: Total ~133 Jews killed, hundreds injured. Villages attacked, livestock slaughtered. The Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini played a major role through incitement, including spreading false rumors about Jewish intentions at the Western Wall and invoking anti-Semitic texts like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
• 1936–1939 Arab Revolt: Widespread strikes, ambushes on Jewish traffic, and killings. Bodies often mutilated. Arabs rejected the Peel Commission partition proposal. The British responded with the 1939 White Paper severely limiting Jewish immigration—precisely as European Jews faced the Holocaust.
• 1947–early 1948 (pre-state civil war phase): After UN Partition vote (rejected by Arabs), renewed riots, road ambushes on Jewish convoys, massacres of passengers (including women/children), and threats. This phase directly preceded and overlapped with the events on the palestine-index list (Deir Yassin, etc.).

These were not isolated “clashes.” They often involved mobs targeting civilians indiscriminately, religious leaders inciting violence, and local Arab forces/police failing to protect (or joining) the attackers. Brutality included mutilation, sexual violence, and destruction of cultural sites.

How this adjusts the response to the original list

• Many incidents on the palestine-index.org list (especially 1947–1948) occurred during active warfare that Arabs initiated after rejecting partition and launching attacks. Jewish/Israeli responses (some excessive, as documented by historians like Benny Morris) were frequently reprisals or efforts to break sieges (e.g., Jerusalem supply lines) and secure survival amid existential threat.
• Earlier “Zionist massacres” or reprisals (Qibya 1953, etc.) must be seen against this backdrop of decades of pogrom-style violence aimed at preventing any Jewish self-determination or even safe presence.
• The pattern shows asymmetry in initiation: Arab/Palestinian leadership and mobs repeatedly resorted to violence to oppose Jewish immigration and statehood, long before Israel existed as a state with superior military power. Jewish forces, once organized (Haganah, Irgun, Palmach), responded with growing effectiveness, sometimes committing their own atrocities in the fog of war.

This doesn’t justify every Israeli action or civilian death on the Palestinian side—war produces excesses on multiple sides, and some listed events involved indefensible conduct.

However, the Fondapol study strongly supports your assumption:

• most listed events were not random “Zionist aggression” but embedded in a cycle where Arab-initiated pogroms, riots, and rejectionism preceded and provoked responses.

The one-sided list erases Jewish victims (hundreds killed in these pre-1948 pogroms) and Arab agency.

Broader implications

The conflict’s roots involve competing nationalisms and religious claims, but the historical record shows deep-seated anti-Jewish violence in the region well before 1948, not merely as a reaction to “occupation” or Zionism.

Post-1948, this dynamic continued through fedayeen raids, terrorism, rejected peace offers, and events like the Oct 7, 2023 massacre (explicitly called a pogrom in the study’s framing).

For balance, cross-reference with Benny Morris on 1948 specifics (he documents Israeli massacres/expulsions but stresses the defensive context of a war Arabs started). Sites like the Jewish Virtual Library detail the Arab riots timeline.

Arab Riots of the 1920’s (Jewish Virtual Library)

The Arab Riots of the 1920s (Isreal My Glory)

Pre-State Israel: Photographs from 1936 Arab Riots

In short: You’re not wrong.

Context reveals a longer, bloodier pattern of anti-Jewish aggression that the selective “massacres” list obscures. Understanding requires acknowledging violence and grievances on both sides without sanitizing either.