In 1929, Shaw chaired the Commission on the Palestine Disturbances of August 1929, commonly known as the Shaw Commission, which looked into the causes of the 1929 Palestine riots. The Shaw Commission found that the fundamental cause of the violence "without which in our opinion disturbances either would not occurred or would not have been little more than a local riot, is the Arab feeling of animosity and hostility towards the Jews consequent upon the disappointment of their political and national aspirations and fear for their economic future".