British Mandate, Palestine

Archaeological Training in Mandate Palestine: The BSAJ Minute Books at the PEF

by Amara Thornton

A feature for the Palestine Exploration Fund website.

Does Terrorism Work?: The Case of Israel

by Nadeem Fayaz

Induced to Volunteer? The Predicament of Jewish Communists in Palestine and the Spanish Civil War

by Nir Arielli

Despite there being no recruitment office in Palestine, dozens of members of the local Communist Party, mainly Jews,... more Despite there being no recruitment office in Palestine, dozens of members of the local Communist Party, mainly Jews, left the country to take part in the Spanish Civil War. First, this article examines the political and social circumstances which influenced individuals’ decisions to volunteer. The Palestine Communist Party operated illegally. A combination of pressure from the British mandate authorities, hostility from the Zionist establishment and acute internal disputes, following the party’s participation in the Arab Revolt in Palestine (1936–9), created strong push factors that encouraged many Party members to leave the country. The article also examines the volunteers’ ideological motivation and the transport and support networks that were necessary to bring them to the war zone. By exploring these issues, the article seeks not only to illuminate the particular case of the volunteers from Palestine, but also to make a contribution to the comparative study of foreign volunteers in modern conflicts.

'Haifa is still Burning': Italian, German and French Air Raids on Palestine during the Second World War

by Nir Arielli

The air raids against civilian and military targets during the Second World War have been a relatively unexplored... more The air raids against civilian and military targets during the Second World War have been a relatively unexplored chapter in Palestine's tumultuous history. This article examines the circumstances that led the air forces of Italy, Germany and Vichy France to launch attacks against Palestine. It surveys the damage these raids caused and assesses their effect on the country's population. The article raises three central arguments: although the attacks caused considerable damage in Haifa and in Tel Aviv, they failed to alter the course of the war in the Middle East; despite the hostility between Arabs and Jews before and after the war, the period of the air raids saw displays of solidarity between the two communities; and the experiences of the Second World War, including the air raids, played a part in the state-building process of the Yishuv (Jewish community).

Italian Involvement in the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936-1939

by Nir Arielli

Italian involvement in the Arab Revolt in Palestine (1936–1939) was perhaps the most explicit example of Rome's... more Italian involvement in the Arab Revolt in Palestine (1936–1939) was perhaps the most explicit example of Rome's attempt to destabilize London's position in the Middle East, prior to Italy's entry to the Second World War. This article examines the mechanisms of Fascist Italy's assistance to the rebels in Palestine, focusing on the secret contacts between Italian officials and the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husayni. It describes the financial support given by Italy as well as the attempts to smuggle arms to Palestine. The article also analyses Rome's diplomatic manoeuvres in connection with Palestine and its pro-Arab propaganda. It is argued that Italian policy in Palestine was governed by, and subordinate to, wider considerations of Italian policy such as imperial competition with Great Britain and a desire to increase Italy's influence in the Middle East. In fact, Fascist involvement in the ‘first Intifada’ teaches us more about Italian foreign policy than it does on the course of events in Palestine during the Arab rebellion.

The Iraqi Mandate: An Examination of the Relationship between Britain and Iraq In the Aftermath of the First World War

by Victoria Whitecotton

HIST351 History of Iraq Class Research Paper

The Palestine Communist Party from 1919-1939: A study of the subaltern centers of power in Mandate Palestine

by Jim Steppenbacker

Archaeologists in Training: Students of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, 1920-1936

by Amara Thornton

This paper provides an introduction to a database of students at the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem between 1920 and 1936, covering the tenures of BSAJ Directors John Garstang and John Crowfoot.  It highlights possible uses for the data and discusses the need for prosopography in the history of archaeology, referencing other prosopographical projects in this burgeoning field.

Compiled in the process of doctoral research, this list of students at the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem... more Compiled in the process of doctoral research, this list of students at the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem covers the terms of the School’s first two directors, John Garstang and John Crowfoot. It has been gathered from the School’s Minute Books, now in the archive of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and from contemporary published reports in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly. By naming and enumerating the students at this institution, still in existence today, the diaspora of and networks inherent in archaeological training during the early years of professionalization become clear. The data also includes the background and education (where known) of these prospective archaeologists, an important factor in evaluating issues of gender, class and education in the history of the discipline.

A New History of Colonial Lawyering: Likhovski and Legal Identities in the British Empire

by Mitra Sharafi

Law and Social Inquiry 32:4 (2007), 1059-94

The history of the legal profession has been dominated by Richard Abel’s monopolization thesis, and by Terence C.... more The history of the legal profession has been dominated by Richard Abel’s monopolization thesis, and by Terence C. Halliday and Lucien Karpik’s political model of lawyers as maintainers of liberal polities. By contrast, Assaf Likhovski’s legal history of mandate Palestine treats lawyers and judges as cultural intermediaries who shaped the legal identity of Jewish and Arab communities. This article situates Likhovski’s book within a growing body of scholarship on non-European lawyering in the British Empire. It links Likhovski’s case studies to legal figures from colonial India, West Africa, and Malaya, all of whom acted as cultural translators and ethnographic intermediaries in the formation of colonial identities.

"The Oriental is like a very old child". Die Orientreisende Gertrude Bell

by Michael Sommer

Winckelmann-Gesellschaft (Hg.), Reisen in den Orient vom 13. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert, Stendhal 2007, 233-241.

British Intelligence and the Jewish Resistance Movement in the Palestine Mandate, 1945-46

by Steven Wagner

Volume 23, Issue 5, 2008 Intelligence and national security
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02684520802449500

At the end of the Second World War, British and Zionist interests came into conflict over the issue of Jewish... more At the end of the Second World War, British and Zionist interests came into conflict over the issue of Jewish immigration to Palestine, which raised the broader issue of what sort of National Home could exist within the British Mandate. As a result, in 1945–46, the three Jewish armed groups in the Mandate, the Haganah, Etzel and Lehi, started a loosely coordinated armed struggle against British rule. Even the moderates in the Jewish Agency rejected their former partner against Hitler, Britain, and used force against it in order to achieve their political goals. This article assesses British intelligence on these developments, and demonstrates that it failed to anticipate or even to understand the threat until the destruction of the King David Hotel. The article demonstrates that these mistakes occurred because British intelligence relied heavily on the intelligence organs of the Jewish Agency itself for intelligence about political threats within Palestine. The article assesses this intelligence failure, and its heavy costs. However, it denies that bad intelligence caused British failures in the Mandate. On the contrary, that failure stemmed from deeper problems of policy.

Britain and the Jewish Underground, 1944-46: Intelligence, Policy and Resistance

by Steven Wagner

בריטניה ומחתרת היהודית, 1944-46: מודיעין, מדיניות והתקוממות

Starting in the 1930s, but especially during the Second World War, the intelligence agencies of Britain and the Jewish... more Starting in the 1930s, but especially during the Second World War, the intelligence agencies of Britain and the Jewish Agency for Palestine had a complicated relationship. They often worked together to fight common threats, such as Arab rebels and Nazi Germany. Jewish terrorists presented another common threat during the Second World War, when the Jewish Agency cooperated with Britain, in the hopes of political rewards in the postwar settlement. British Intelligence, unable to penetrate the Jewish terrorist organizations, Irgun and Lehi, relied on the cooperation of the Jewish Agency to maintain security. This dependency and the strengthening of the underground Haganah, weakened the grip of British authority in Palestine, and made the Jewish community, the Yishuv, increasingly powerful. By 1945, when Britain did not fulfil the expectations of the Yishuv to lift immigration restrictions on Jews to Palestine, its dominant figure, David Ben-Gurion, launched a secret war against British policy. Intelligence failed to understand and react effectively to this development because it relied on its liaison with the Jewish Agency, now secretly hostile, to interpret the political and security situation in Palestine. In a classic problem of net assessment, British officials overestimated their own strength and resolve, and underestimated that of the Yishuv. British intelligence failed to accurately assess Jewish threats or intentions in Palestine from 1944 to 1946. These mistakes in intelligence contributed to failures of policy, which destroyed British policy in the Palestine Mandate, and opened the door to the creation of the state of Israel.

The Story of Irgun

by Jake Eyre

Authored by Jake Eyre for the Norwich University Masters of Diplomacy program

This paper discusses the tactics of the Irgun Zvai Leumi, a Zionist terrorist organization in the last days of the... more This paper discusses the tactics of the Irgun Zvai Leumi, a Zionist terrorist organization in the last days of the British mandate of Palestine headed up by then future Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin. It discusses their tactics, methodologies, and history, and uses the the words of Menachem Begin, himself from his memoirs, the Revolt, as well as British historians perspectives to prove that the state of Israel was founded based upon the same terrorist tendencies that they condemn the Palestinians of.

Forest Law in the Palestine Mandate: Colonial Conservation in a Unique Context

by David Schorr

forthcoming in MANAGING THE UNKNOWN (Uwe Luebken & Frank Uekötter eds.)

Reinhold Niebuhr's Approach to the State of Israel: The Ethical Promise and Theological Limits of Christian Realism

by Carys Moseley

Reinhold Niebuhr’s support for the foundation of the state of Israel is argued to be an expression of his Christian... more Reinhold Niebuhr’s support for the foundation of the state of Israel is argued to be an expression of his Christian realism, and as such is based on his ethics but not his theology. The first section assesses Niebuhr’s support for Jewish return to the Land of Israel in relation to modern protestant and Jewish support for relocation of the Promised Land back from America to British Mandate Palestine. The second section demonstrates that Niebuhr’s support for Zionism grew out of his threefold moral, political and theological realism. This meant taking into account Israel’s relation to the United States, and increasingly evidenced a national supersessionist outlook. The third section argues that this shift was undertaken via the role of the temporarily messianic nation, whereby the USA replaced Israel as a nation with a mission. In the fourth section, it is argued that the natural theology that underlies Niebuhr's ethics constitutes a 'Hebraic' turn which is ironic given that he does not ground his Zionism in the covenant with Abraham. The last section argues that Niebuhr’s support for Israel’s foundation needs to be understood within his reconstruction of natural law, along with his critique of the fusion of nationalism and religion in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As Niebuhr’s approach to Israel was based on ethics not dogmatic theology and exegesis, and as it became part of a notion of America as messianic, it failed to be passed on adequately to the mainline protestant churches.

Law and Identity In Mandate Palestine. By Assaf Likhovski

by zeina ghandour

This is a review of Law and Identity in Mandate Palestine by Assaf Likhovski This is a review of Law and Identity in Mandate Palestine by Assaf Likhovski