REPORT
by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Council of the League of Nations on the Administration of PALESTINE AND TRANS-JORDAN for the year 1938
31 December 1938
PUBLIC SECURITY.
10. During 1938 public security in Palestine, particularly during the seven months from June onwards, continued to cause the administration grave preoccupation. An intensified campaign of murder, intimidation and sabotage persisted on lines similar to those followed by Arab law breakers in 1937; and, as in 1937, there were isolated incidents of Jewish reprisals. The main difference between the course of events in 1938 and that in 1937 lay in the gradual development during 1938 of Arab gang warfare on organized and to a certain extent co-ordinated lines. By the end of the year, as the result of the arrival in the autumn of large military reinforcements, this gang organization was first dislocated and finally reduced to comparative impotence in the field. But in the towns terrorism persisted and the roads were still largely unsafe for normal traffic. In fact, the events of 1938 succeeded in seriously affecting the economic and social life of the country to an extent far greater than was the case in 1937.
II. Summarized Narrative Account of the Events of the Year 1938.
January, 1938.
During the early part of the month the effect of the vigorous action taken in December, 1937, against armed gangs, especially in Galilee continued to be felt; but in the second half of the month the gangs resumed their activities, particularly in the Jenin-Tulkarm area where an important military action against them took place on the 31st. They suffered extensive casualties estimated at 30 killed and many more wounded. Two
British soldiers were killed, and two wounded.
During the month, particularly in the Jerusalem district where constant attacks involving four Jewish deaths were made on Jewish traffic along the Jerusalem--Jaffa road, sporadic acts of lawlessness persisted in the form of isolated murders, shooting at the police and military forces, and attacks on Jewish settlements. On the 10th, Mr. J. L. Starkey, the well-known archaeologist, was murdered by a party of armed Arabs on the track leading from Beit Jibrin to Hebron.
February, 1938.
Although there was a decrease in attacks on Jewish transport near Jerusalem, the number of incidents of shooting by small armed parties increased, especially during the last two weeks. There was also an increase in the number of armed robberies in Arab villages by parties of marauders seeking food, money and lodging.
Incidents of personal violence persisted. They were mainly directed against Arab villagers of whom two, one a blind man and the other a supernumerary constable, were murdered on the 11th by armed men at Attara village in the Ramallah sub-district. Three other incidents deserve mention. On the 16th, immediately after the execution at Acre of an Arab condemned to death by the Haifa Military Court, an unsuccessful attempt was made to shoot a British Assistant Superintendent of Police outside the gate of the prison. On the 18th, Squadron Leader Alderson, R.A.F., was shot dead, and an Englishwoman driving with him was wounded, when his car was ambushed on the Haifa--Tel Aviv road near Athlit. On the 28th, the Jewish headman of a settlement near Nazareth was shot dead by an Arab who was arrested next morning, having been tracked by the police dogs from the scene of the murder to a neighbouring Arab village.
There were no major encounters between the military and police and the armed gangs, but acts of armed banditry, particularly in Galilee and northern Samaria, increased towards the end of the month.
March, 1938.
On the 3rd, there was a heavy engagement west of Jenin in which a military force, with aircraft co-operation, engaged and dispersed an armed band of between two and three hundred Arabs. One British officer was killed and an officer and two soldiers wounded. The losses among the band were thirty known to be killed and were estimated at twice that number. Sixteen prisoners were taken and a considerable quantity of arms, ammunition and bombs.
Six days later contact was established by the army, assisted by aircraft, with another band in mountainous country in the north of Galilee. It was engaged throughout the day and was finally routed, its few remnants escaping over the frontier into the Lebanon where four men were captured by French forces. During the encounter one British soldier was killed and another slightly wounded. Sixteen of the band were killed and one captured, while it is believed that further casualties were inflicted.
These two severe reverses, and the fact that the casualties inflicted on the bands included two prominent leaders, had the effect of breaking up the bands into small parties and there were no further major engagements during the month.
There was, however, an increase in acts of terrorist violence throughout the country, including a series of murders of Arab villagers. A British soldier was fatally injured by the explosion of a bomb under a railway trolley in the Gaza sub-district, and a Palestinian army interpreter with his Arab chauffeur were captured by armed Arabs near Acre. Neither was ever heard of again. Of the Jewish casualties six, including three women and a boy, were murdered when the taxi in which they were travelling was ambushed on the Acre--Safad road.
On the 21st, a sheikh of the Haram el Sherif in Jerusalem was shot and seriously wounded in the Old City.
Other terrorist activities during the month included a further increase in cases of armed robbery by small parties of Arab villagers; attacks on Jewish settlements, including Hanuta a new settlement near the northern frontier, when one settler was killed; four cases of sabotage of the Iraq Petroleum Company's pipe line in the Plain of Esdraelon; a large number of shooting incidents at police and military posts and patrols; and an increase in attempts to interfere with railway and telephonic communications.
April, 1938.
Acts of terrorism increased in their various forms--murder, intimidation, sniping, robbery and sabotage.
The murders of Arab villagers included four headmen (mukhtars) and the sheikh of the village of Meirun near Safad. Six Arab policemen were surprised by an armed band in Samaria and murdered in their billet. Two more Arab policemen were shot when a party including the mayor of Nablus and a British assistant superintendent of police (who was wounded) was ambushed near Nablus; and two others were killed by the explosion of a bomb found on a local train near Haifa. Two British policemen were killed by the explosion of a second bomb.
On the 17th, a bomb was thrown into an Arab café in Haifa, killing one Arab and wounding ten others; and on the 21st two British soldiers were killed when a military patrol was shot at in the hills west of Jenin.
The Jewish casualties included a settler, a labourer in Haifa and a supernumerary constable, and three civilians travelling in a taxi which was ambushed near the northern frontier.
There was also an increase in shooting incidents against police and military patrols and Jewish settlements; in cases of armed robbery in Arab villages and the sabotage and attempted sabotage of communications and Government property. For the first time for many months damage was done to Jewish groves and forests. Finally, the oil pipe line was damaged on ten occasions.
Throughout the month the movements of the bands were mainly in small parties and several operations were carried out by the military and police to circumvent them. On the night of the 16th, in the hills north of Tulkarm, an engagement of considerable magnitude was fought with a band which was attacked and lost 14 men, while four others and a quantity of arms and ammunition were captured. Three less important encounters with smaller gangs took place--on the Jenin-Nablus road (the 6th April), near Arara in Samaria (the 8th April) and near Beisan (the 21st April), when further casualties were inflicted. At the end of the month military searches of two villages in Samaria resulted in the seizure of a number of firearms, ammunition, bombs and semi-military uniforms. Thirty-eight Arabs were arrested as a result of these searches.
May, 1938.
Early in the month there was in increase in the activities of armed gangs in Samaria and Galilee, and on the 14th there was a major military encounter with a band in the Galilee district in which a succession of armed parties were dispersed with losses estimated at 38 killed. A quantity of arms and ammunition was seized and several arrests made. One British soldier was killed and another wounded. On the 20th, a military and police operation was carried out in Galilee and Samaria to occupy a number of selected villages in districts where lawlessness had been particularly rife. The objective, broadly, was to deny the areas in question to the gangs and to restore the control and authority of the Civil Government. It was carried out without incident and during the rest of the month there was only one major encounter when on the 26th the police engaged an armed band north of Petah Tikvah, killing six, wounding one and capturing a quantity of arms and ammunition.
There was, however, no diminution of terrorist acts. Twenty-two Arab villagers were murdered including three mukhtars and three women; in two ambushes on the Hebron road three Arab police were shot dead and another wounded; and in Haifa an Arab, who was the last surviving Crown witness in a case in 1935 when several Arabs were brought to trial following a bomb outrage in a Jewish settlement near Nazareth, was shot dead in the Arab market. Also in Haifa, an Arab detective sergeant and an Arab police sergeant were shot dead by unknown Arab assailants.
The Jewish casualties included a supernumerary constable in a Jewish settlement near the northern frontier which was attacked by an armed band, and a civilian in Tiberias who died as a result of bomb injuries.
On the 22nd of the month a Jewish pedlar was killed by Arabs in the outskirts of Jerusalem. This murder was followed by a series of reprisals in Jerusalem and Haifa on the 24th and 25th in which four Arabs and a Russian nun were killed and 13 Arabs were wounded. As the result, certain Jews were arrested and sent to Acre detention camp.
In other directions terrorist activities persisted unabated. There was a considerable increase in the number of incidents of shooting at police and military patrols and Jewish settlements, and also of sabotaging Government property, communications and, notably, Jewish-owned crops and trees. The oil pipe line was damaged on seven occasions.
June, 1938.
The terrorist activities were almost a replica of the events of the two preceding months as regards acts of violence by Arabs against Arabs in the shape of village murders and armed robberies. There was also a marked increase in isolated murders of Jews, the majority being settlers in the Plain of Sharon and northern Galilee; in arson of Jewish crops and property; in attacks on Jewish settlements; and in shooting at police and military patrols. An Italian priest was killed by armed brigands in the Judaean foothills and a British soldier was killed and six others wounded by the explosion of a land mine on a country track in Samaria. On the 23rd and the two following days, on the Jaffa-Tel Aviv boundary, there were a series of incidents including bombing, shooting and stabbing in which two Arabs and two Jews were killed and 15 Arabs (including seven women) and seven Jews (including two women and a child) were wounded.
On the 23rd June, three Jewish youths were kidnapped by an Arab band from the old-established Jewish settlement of Givat Ada in the Plain of Sharon. Their fate has never been definitely ascertained.
On the 24th the announcement of the confirmation, by the General Officer Commanding, of the sentence of death passed by the Military Court at Haifa on a Jewish youth led to a series of demonstrations before and after the execution both in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv, where hostile Jewish crowds had to be dispersed by the police.
During the same period there were a series of short-lived strikes in Arab towns in Samaria and Galilee in order to demonstrate Palestinian Arab sympathy with their compatriots in the Sanjak of Alexandretta.
Acts of sabotage also increased in number. Considerable damage was done to railway and telegraph communications without, however, causing any general or lengthy breakdown in these public services; the northern frontier fence, "Tegart's Wall" (see paragraph 18), was badly damaged on four occasions; there was an increase of land mine incidents particularly on tracks in the newly re-occupied areas and in the Gaza district; and the oil pipe line was damaged 18 times. Steps to protect the pipe line resulted in two engagements with Arabs, of whom four were killed, three wounded and seven taken prisoners.
No large armed bands were encountered by the army or the police despite constant patrolling. A certain number of casualties were, however, inflicted on small parties in minor encounters. On the 8th, military forces with aircraft assistance operated against villages in the southern Carmel hills and in the Jordan valley. The bands were dispersed with casualties and some arms and ammunition were captured.
July, 1938.
The month of July produced a series of major outrages which caused death to 100 Arabs and 27 Jews, and injury to 206 Arabs and 64 Jews.
The two worst incidents occurred in Haifa when bombs exploded in the Arab fruit market in the centre of the town on the 6th and the 25th of the month. The casualties were 74 Arabs killed and 129 wounded. On both occasions confusion followed the explosions and there ensued short periods of rioting and violence in which 10 Jews lost their lives and 27 were injured. Between these two outrages, also in Haifa on the 10th July, a bomb thrown at a Jewish bus killed one Jew and wounded 15 others; and in a street fracas on the 11th two Jews were killed and 14 Jews and one Arab were wounded.
In Jerusalem there were three serious bombing incidents, two in the Old City when 13 Arabs were killed and 35 wounded and one outside the Jaffa Gate when five Arabs were killed and 25 wounded. In addition, isolated attacks within the municipal area resulted in several Arabs and Jews being killed and many more wounded.
In Jaffa and Tel Aviv on the 4th July one Arab was killed and four wounded on the boundary between the two towns; two days later in Tel Aviv a bomb, thrown at or from a train as it was passing a level crossing, killed a Jewess and injured four Jews; and on the 23rd a bomb, which had been placed in an unattended motor car in a crowded Jewish street in Tel Aviv, exploded, injuring twenty-three Jews, seven of them seriously.
Elsewhere in the country there was no diminution of acts of violence in the form of Arab village murders including two mukhtars; fatal attacks on Jewish settlers and Jewish supernumeries; shooting at an Arab taxi on the Haifa-Tel Aviv road when two Indian Moslems, visitors to Palestine, were killed and a third and the chauffeur were wounded; and the assassinations of an Arab police inspector in Tulkarm and a sheikh of the Haram el Sherif in Jerusalem.
Apart from these murderous activities, small parties of armed men did considerable damage throughout the month by sabotage, concentrating on telephone lines which suffered heavily; on the destruction of Jewish trees and crops; and on attempts to damage the railways as a result of one of which, on the 28th July, the Haifa-Kantara passenger train was badly derailed, the assistant engine driver being fatally injured. During the first half of the month, the frontier fence was cut and damaged three times. As the result of intense defensive patrolling, the oil pipe line was damaged only once during the month.
The succession of attacks, reprisals and counter reprisals caused widespread tension in both Arab and Jewish communities. In the Arab towns of Palestine, and also at Amman in Trans-Jordan there were a series of strikes in protest against the bombing outrages in Haifa and Jerusalem in which the casualties had been preponderantly Arab.
During the month military reinforcements arrived from Egypt. They were stationed in Samaria and Galilee and their presence produced its effect in a diminution of disorder, particularly in northern Galilee, during the last fortnight of the month. Military and police activities throughout the country concentrated on an intensification of patrolling both by day and by night; searches by large forces of extended areas in the Samaria and Ramallah districts; and the setting of ambushes in connection with the defence of the pipe line which resulted in the killing of 17 armed Arab saboteurs and the wounding of 10 to 15 more. It is believed that in addition to the above casualties, the Arab bands in their various sporadic encounters with the troops and police lost at least 50 killed and wounded.
On the 21st July 53 houses in the village of Baqa el Gharbiya were demolished following on a series of shooting incidents in the village in the last of which a company sergeant-major of a Scottish regiment was killed; and during the area search in Samaria, to which reference has already been made, a large number of Arabs were detained for identification and interrogation.
August, 1938.
During the month sabotage persisted on an enhanced scale. The damage to the telephone and telegraph system throughout the country was assessed at more than P.6,000, while six trains were derailed. There were also two cases of slight damage to the northern frontier fence and the pipe line was twice damaged in the Plain of Esdraelon. In addition, there was an intensification of sniping attacks on road transport and on the 24th and the 25th of the month Jewish transport was heavily attacked at Ramleh on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road, two Jews being killed and five injured. On the 31st an Arab bus conveying passengers and mails from Tiberias to Jerusalem was held up near Nablus, four bags being stolen by an armed band.
There was likewise no abatement of the attacks on Jewish life and property. During the month four Jews were killed and 13 injured by the explosion of land mines on agricultural tracks in the Plain of Sharon; a Jewish lorry was ambushed on Mount Carmel, eight men being killed and two women wounded; and on the 28th a Jewish settlement near Haifa was attacked and two settlers were killed and one wounded. In the Mount Carmel incident the troops were quickly on the scene and engaged the ambushers, seven of whom were killed and many more wounded.
There were also two further cases of the kidnapping of Jews both on the Haifa-Tel Aviv road. Of the victims three returned eventually to their homes, but the fate of the remaining three was never ascertained. The kidnapping of Arabs by Arab terrorists also continued and during the month at least 50 Arabs were forcibly abducted by the terrorists. The dead bodies of several were subsequently recovered.
In addition to these outrages, three British subjects serving the Crown were murdered. On the 6th Constable Willis, of the Palestine Police Force, was shot dead in an Arab bus between Nablus and Jenin; on the 13th Captain Howe, of the Royal Engineers, was murdered in a traffic hold up between Jerusalem and Bethlehem; and on the 24th Mr. Moffat, the acting Assistant District Commissioner in Jenin, was fatally wounded by an Arab assassin who penetrated to his office. In this case the murderer was almost immediately apprehended by troops and, in an ensuing attempt to escape, was shot dead.
Apart from these incidents there were four serious hold-ups. On the 10th, an armed gang succeeded in robbing the Nablus branch of Barclays bank of over £P.5,000; on the 16th, a post office employee in Nablus was robbed of a bag containing £P.2,000; on the 21st, the Qalqiliya post office was raided and £P.36 stolen; and on the 30th, again in Nablus, a bank messenger was waylaid and robbed of over £P.200.
On the 19th, a general raid on Hebron town resulted in the urban police post, Barclays bank and the post office being attacked and extensively damaged. Early in the morning of the 25th, in Jaffa, a time bomb exploded in the crowded Arab vegetable market. This killed 24 Arabs and wounded 35, and immediately large and excited crowds of Arabs collected and attacked two local banks and a British grocery store. The attacks were repulsed by the police, but rioting of a sporadic nature persisted for two days resulting in the imposition of a daylight curfew and in the death of two Arab rioters and the wounding of nine others.
During the month military and police activities were intensively pursued. On the 18th, the troops engaged and routed a large band in the neighbourhood of the Acre-Safad road and armed bands throughout the country suffered at least 131 casualties in engagements with the troops and police.
September, 1938.
During this month the casualties among the British troops and police, Jews and Arabs (excluding bandits) reached the formidable total of 188 killed and 156 wounded. In addition, rebellious activities, probably encouraged by the crisis in Europe, were more widespread than in previous months. In almost daily encounters with the troops and police the bands are known to have suffered total casualties of at least 311 killed and a large, though unknown, number wounded.
The main features of the gangs' activities were a marked increase in the number of Arabs forcibly abducted and in many cases subsequently murdered, their studied concentration on the destruction of Government buildings and property, and the carefully organized robberies of police armouries in outlying posts. In addition, attacks on Jewish life and property continued. Between the 2nd and the 7th of the month in the Jaffa, Tel Aviv and Lydda districts there were nineteen Jewish and one Arab casualties from stabbing, shooting and bomb throwing. On the 6th, in Tiberias, three Jews were killed and a Jew and an Arab wounded by four Arab assassins who were subsequently caught by the police.
On the 9th, Beersheba was raided by a large gang which, working with great precision, destroyed the wireless post, broke into the prison and released the prisoners, and after killing a British police sergeant, raided the police station and got away with a Lewis gun and a large quantity of rifles and ammunition. Later in the month all police and Government buildings in the town were set on fire and destroyed.
On the 10th, seven Jewish constables were killed in an ambush on the Gaza-Jaffa road and on the 13th, in Gaza town, armed men robbed postal employees of four mail bags, one of which contained over £P.1,000. In Beersheba, the Government offices were raided and the armed thieves decamped with over £P.150.
Meantime tension persisted in Jaffa where the troops were fired on and police headquarters were bombed. In Haifa there was a strike of shops in the Arab market. During the night of the 13th-14th a large gang raided Bethlehem and destroyed the police station and did considerable damage to the municipal and post offices.
The Arab attacks on road and rail transport also continued. A British officer and three British soldiers were killed by an explosion of a land mine on the northern frontier road; another land mine destroyed a motor car near Beisan, killing three Jewish passengers. A Jewish doctor was shot and killed when passing in his car through Ramleh where, as a result of events in Jaffa, Arab excitement ran very high. On the 16th, five trucks belonging to the Palestine Potash convoy were ambushed and destroyed on the Jerusalem-Jericho road and two Arab employees of the company were murdered; between the 18th and the 23rd well-laid land mines in different parts of the country were responsible for 12 casualties to British troops and nine to Jewish police constables. During the night of the 25th-26th, the railway track from Rafa to Lydda was destroyed over a distance of 12 kilometres with the result that rail traffic to Egypt was suspended for eight days.
Two major military engagements took place on the 14th and 15th of the month. On the 14th an armed band attempting to ambush a military ration convoy on the Jerusalem-Hebron road was heavily attacked by the troops and aircraft and lost sixteen killed and five prisoners. On the 15th, troops and aircraft engaged a strong band north-west of Ramallah and killed a large number. In neither engagement was there any Government casualties.
The following day, the 16th, a smaller engagement took place in the search of the same area in the Ramallah sub-district and five persons were killed and three wounded. One of the killed was an important gang leader.
October, 1938.
During the month, the arrival of strong military reinforcements brought about an improvement of the security position. The Old City of Jerusalem, which had become the rallying point of a large number of bandits and from which acts of violence, murder and intimidation were being organized and perpetrated freely and with impunity, was fully re-occupied by the troops on the 19th of the month. This was a successful, organized operation of considerable magnitude. On the same date, Acre was searched and over 100 Arabs detained for investigation. On the 25th and the 26th, a large military force combed a big area in the Safad-Nazareth-Acre triangle.
On the 29th a comprehensive search of Gaza was made, 300 suspects being removed for examination to Sarafand camp. Finally, on the last day of the month, a wide search operation, which lasted four days, was conducted by the troops in Jaffa, 60 "wanted" men being detained in custody out of a large number of Arabs who were arrested for investigation.
Elsewhere throughout the country there were constant military and police activities, and at least 282 armed men were killed and wounded.
Gang action, however, persisted. On the 1st of the month a British police inspector was fatally wounded at Ramallah by a band which was later engaged and suffered some 50 casualties. On the 2nd there occurred a general raid on the Jewish quarter of Tiberias. It was systematically organized and savagely executed. Of the 19 Jews killed, including women and children, all save four were stabbed to death. That night and the following day the troops engaged the raiding gangs. They inflicted at least 50 casualties, including one notorious brigand leader, in three encounters, two north of Tiberias and the third near Safad.
Three days later on the 6th, the police, troops and aircraft engaged another large band near Tarshiha in Galilee inflicting some fifty casualties; and on the 10th, a gang which had attacked a Jewish settlement near Beisan was dispersed into Trans-Jordan with a loss of 11 killed, including a well-known local leader.
On the 20th, the army engaged and dispersed a gang near Tiberias, killing five; on the 21st another gang which had ambushed a military convoy near Nablus was attacked and lost 19 killed; on the 22nd, aircraft located and engaged a band north-west of Jerusalem and inflicted some 10 casualties; and on the 29th, near Megiddo a surprise attack by the troops resulted in the capture of the president and five members of a so-called "court".
Meantime, however, terrorism continued without intermission throughout the country. The worst outrages were in Jaffa where between the 3rd and the 8th there were three Jewish and three Arab casualties including two Arab constables. Similar excesses, the victims of which were all Arabs, occurred in Acre, near Haifa, in Tulkarm, near Gaza, and in Jerusalem; and on the 9th, the residence of the Assistant District Commissioner in Ramleh was broken into and robbed. Also his car was sniped as he was returning home. Simultaneously acts of sabotage and arson and the sniping of Jewish settlements persisted and in Haifa a large number of shops in the centre of the town were wilfully set on fire and damaged. In the Yebna district, south of Jaffa, considerable sabotage was done to both Arab and Jewish orange groves. On the 13th, a cigarette factory near Jaffa was destroyed by arson. Also on the 13th, a well-known Arab lawyer and municipal councillor of Jerusalem was murdered in the hills west of Ramallah whither he had been lured by an invitation from the gang leader of that area.
Similar outrages continued throughout the second half of the month. In Jaffa there was a series of murders involving Arabs and Jews and including Arab and Jewish members of the Police force and a well-known Jewish mukhtar; and Jewish transport was also freely sniped in the outskirts of the town, involving several casualties among passengers. Twice, however, the troops were in time to intervene and two rioters were killed, four wounded and five captured. Near Jerusalem a Jewish engineer was shot dead in his office and on Lake Huleh in the north two Jewish constables were killed and six wounded by snipers shooting from across the Syrian border. In Haifa an Arab detective constable was murdered and the Arab kawass of the District Commissioner was shot and wounded and his nephew killed by unknown assassins. In Gaza, armed Arabs penetrated the Government hospital and killed a woman. In Nazareth an Arab was shot dead. In Hebron an Arab constable was killed. In a Jerusalem suburb a Jewish milk vendor was attacked with an axe and fatally wounded, but of his two aggressors one was killed by the police and the other captured. On the 27th, the Jewish mayor of Tiberias was shot and fatally wounded in the middle of the town in broad daylight, and on the 30th armed men attacked a bank at Hebron and decamped with about P.500. A Jew was stoned to death in the Manshiya quarter of Jaffa on the same day.
November, 1938.
As the result of the military search operations in Jaffa from 31st October to 3rd November, there was an improvement in the towns, although there, as elsewhere in Palestine, there was a three days' strike of all Arab shops following the issue of the military order restricting motor traffic on the roads except under permit (see Policy).
Meantime, during the first nine days of the month the troops continued intensive search activities in the districts. They detained a large number of Arabs for investigation and captured a quantity of arms and ammunition. There were also some minor clashes between gangs and the army in the course of which 25 of the former were killed, including a well-known leader in the Samaria district, and four wounded.
Isolated acts of violence persisted in Jaffa and its neighbourhood; near Acre; in Haifa; near Lydda; and in Gaza; and attacks on Jewish transport continued. In Haifa, the Levan bonded warehouse was burnt down and the post office was raided, the robbery yielding over £P1,500.
During the remainder of the month the troops maintained their pressure on the gangs by constant searches of areas and villages throughout the country. Further large quantities of arms and ammunition were captured; a considerable number of suspects were detained for identification and investigation; and, acting on information the supply of which began slowly to increase, the troops and the police organized a series of successful raids. In surprise encounters with bands over 100 casualties were inflicted by Government forces, including the killing of three "wanted" leaders. On the 13th, a combined force of soldiers and police carried out a search of Jericho. A total of 554 male inhabitants were checked, of which number 11 were deported to Trans-Jordan and 28 placed in detention under the Defence Regulations. In addition, two surprise searches were made in Jaffa on the 19th and the 20th and on the 21st a strong military post was established in Beersheba. On the 25th and the 26th a wide military sweep was made in the hill country south and south-west of Jerusalem with the object of ridding the area of gangs who had been successfully concentrating on the sabotage of the Jerusalem-Lydda railway. Finally, a search operation was conducted by the troops in and around Nazareth on the 14th, during which 40 persons were detained. This local "cleaning-up" operation had a good effect and during the month the Galilee District was, on the whole, quiet.
In spite of these activities, however, terrorism continued in the towns and sabotage throughout the country. Jaffa and the immediately surrounding country in particular was the scene of repeated outrage. The casualties included Arabs and Jews, and on the 18th two prominent members of the Defence Party were murdered in Lydda. (See Arab Affairs, paragraph 43--Fakhri Eff. Nashashibi's memorandum to the High Commissioner.) In the rest of the country acts of violence continued to occur though less frequently than in the Jaffa sub-district, and outrages were reported from Haifa where between the 12th and the end of the month six Arab and fourteen Jewish casualties occurred; from Jerusalem where one of the victims was another adherent of the Nashashibi Defence Party; from Nablus, where on one occasion the law courts were raided by armed men and where another prominent member of the Defence Party was murdered in the market; and from near Tulkarm.
December, 1938.
During the month, the activities of the bands tended to decline but terrorism in towns and villages continued and road transport was still being attacked. At the end of the month it was clear that, although Government had definitely gained the upper hand in the field, the mainly police problem of terrorism in the towns was still a grave menace.
The activities of the troops concentrated on wide searches throughout the month. In two cases so-called "courts" were captured; large hauls were made of arms and ammunition; and there was a relentless rounding up of undesirable characters in all parts of the country. It was estimated that over one-third of the villages in Palestine had been visited during 1938 and searched by the army and the police.
Apart from these search operations, there were several major encounters with armed gangs on whom the troops inflicted heavy casualties. On the 1st of the month, near Hebron, the gangsters suffered 27 casualties; the following day, near Beisan, 15 Arabs of a gang, which had murdered three Jewish settlers, were killed and five captured; on the 18th, south of Hebron, 30 bandits were killed and 15 captured and a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition was seized; finally, on the 19th, 10 more were killed in an encounter near Tiberias.
Meanwhile there was no cessation of acts of violence. Attacks on road transport persisted and produced several casualties; and, particularly in the towns, murders of and murderous attacks on individuals were frequent. In Haifa they were sporadic throughout the month and in Jerusalem during the period from the 23rd to the 31st there were six Jewish and one Arab casualties. There was also a series of attacks on the persons and property of the Nashashibi (Defence Party) family following an Arab gathering organized on the 18th by Fakhri Eff. Nashashibi south of Hebron in support of his memorandum to the High Commissioner (see Arab Affairs).
In Jerusalem two well-known sheikhs were shot and killed. One of them had previously survived three attempts on his life. Other outrages were reported from Beisan; from Bethlehem where a Jewish warder of the lunatic asylum was shot dead by armed raiders; from the Plain of Sharon and from Affule and Petah Tikvah where casualties occurred from attacks on road transport; from Nazareth where a Jewish doctor was wounded and an Arab notable who had been a member of the General Agricultural Council was shot dead; and from Jericho where a member of a well-known Arab family was murdered.
On the 26th, Mr. Le Bouvier, the British area manager of the Ottoman bank, was kidnapped by armed Arabs on his way back from the Dead Sea to Jerusalem. He returned unharmed after two days in the custody of the gang. On the last day of the year a motor convoy escorting Sir Charles Tegart and officers of the army and the police was held up by ambush in the hilly ravines north of Ramallah on the Jerusalem-Nablus road. Mr. G. B. Sanderson, staff officer to the Inspector General of Police, was instantly killed when the convoy was fired upon, but the rest of the party succeeded in escaping unharmed.
...
13. The total casualties during 1938 resulting from terrorist and gang activities were:-- Killed Wounded
(a) British.
British police................................
Military .....................................
British civilians ............................ 12
63
2 15
200
1
Total ....................... 77 216
(b) Jews.
Jewish civilians .............................
Jewish police (regular) ......................
Jewish police (supernumerary) ................ 206
8
41 318
9
63
Total ....................... 255 390
(c) Arabs.
Arab civilians ...............................
Arab police (regular) ........................
Arab police (supernumerary and ghaffirs)...... 454
31
18 554
22
22
Total........................ 503 598
(d) Armed Bands.
No accurate figure can be given of the number of casualties suffered by members of armed bands, but a conservative estimate by the military authorities is that about 1,000 were killed by Government forces during 1938, while about the same number were wounded. It is estimated that the actual casualties inflicted were considerably higher, because on practically all occasions every effort was made by Arab bands to remove and conceal casualties.
14. Reference is made in the following section of this Report (Policy) to:--
(a) The appointment of the Palestine Partition Commission; its visit to Palestine; and the issue on the 9th November of its Report and of the accompanying Statement by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom.
(b) The visit to Palestine in August of the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
(c) The promulgation on the 18th October of Regulations made by the High Commissioner under Articles 6 and 10 of the Palestine (Defence) Order-in-Council, 1937, by which powers were given to the General Officer Commanding the British Troops in Palestine and Trans-Jordan to appoint, with the consent of the High Commissioner, military commanders in various districts in the country who would assume all the powers and duties hitherto vested in the District Commissioners by the Defence Regulations.
In addition, the following further measures were taken relating to public security:--
(1) On 1st September, a curfew from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. was imposed on roads in the rural areas of the greater part of Palestine.
(2) On 23rd November, a curfew from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. was imposed on all Palestine with the exception of municipal and built-up areas.
(3) On 12th October, a system of voluntary identity cards for male persons over 16 years of age was instituted.
(4) On 1st November, an Order was issued under the Emergency Regulations prohibiting any male person from travelling by motor car or by train in the rural areas in Palestine without a pass issued by a Military Commander.
15. For the purpose of close co-operation between the Army and the Police, the police force was placed under the operational control of the General Officer Commanding on the 12th September, 1938.
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