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British Constable Palestine/Falestine Police

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C

Carol Kennedy

proper brummie kid
Hello everyone,
I was not sure where to Post this query.

A cousin of mine was a British Constable Palestine/Falestine Police in 1945.

Is there anyone who can tell me what that occupation was?
Regards from Massachusetts
Carol
 
After WW2 the United Nations gave Britain a Mandate to rule Palestine. The country was in danger of being swallowed up by its Arab neighbours who did not want the establishment of a Jewish State which had been promised and was awaiting ratification by the UN.
And so Palestine was a dangerous place to work.Neither the Arabs or the Jews wanted the British presence which hampered the two sides efforts at murdering each other. British soldiers were kidnapped and hung,hotels used by the British bombed. The Mandate was a dirty job the British soon realised they did not want. Many of the soldiers/ police had fought in WW2 and found this new sort of war not worth the fight. I know this because the Police Force I joined had some ex Palestine hands ( and they thought the same of the civil war in Cyprus ).As soon as the Jewish State of Israel was recognised in 1947 the British ,who realised a civil war was imminent, withdrew as quickly as possible. Jews and Arabs started fighting for some buildings as the British were leaving by the front door.
There you have it in a nutshell. Some great literature has come out of the period such as "Exodus" for the Jewish point of view . I cannot recall reading any books from British or Arab side.If you can find and read any books about that period it will give you an insight into the apparent bl**dy mindedness of both sides today.
I have made this post without favour to either Jew or Arab, who are both capable of putting forward their views and arguments. I would like to recognise the sacrifice made by the British Forces and Palestine Police Force.
 
Correction - the Palestine mandate was part of the post First World War settlement in dealing with the former Turkish Empire. It had more or less been agreed by the secret Sykes-Picot Treaty of 1915 where Britain and France agreed a post-war Middle East carve up. So we took over a largely Arab Palestine and because we allowed Jewish migration increasingly during the inter-war period in 1936 there was a major Arab Revolt leading to a cap on Jewish immigration. The Revolt was against the British authorities as the 'occupying' power. The situation worsened as a consequence of the stupid Balfour Declaration of 1917 which foolishly promised the Jews a 'homeland' in Palestine (not a state) in order to help bring th USA into the war and to keep Russia in it. And the rest is history!
 
Thanks Alan for that correction. Its been a long time since my history lessons and things happen to get lost in the filing system I call a memory. I did start to think" what were we doing there before WW2 " after writing the post. At this rate I will soon need someone to tie my shoelaces.
 
You beat me to it Alan ,the Mandate was given to us by the League Of Nations, the forerunner of the UN after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, as you rightly say

it was the Balfour
statement that caused all the problems.When I joined our Third Battalion at Aldershot in 1948 they had just returned from Palestine, being about the last to leave, and
some of the tales they told us would make your hair stand on end! There will never be peace in that area, and the Jews would not there now if the Americans hadnt
poured in millions of dollars over the years, Bernard
 
I've tried 3 times to respond to this thread.
Thank you everyone for responding to my query about British Constable in Palestine.
It is a very interesting subject.
Kind Regards,
Carol - researching Rawlins
 
Are the Jews not then deserving of a state of their own then? Especially so as it is their traditional heartland; we musn't forget our Biblical history surely? Whatever the faults of Balfour/Americans/Zionism and the British Mandate, we nevertheless have to accept 'Israel' as a reality. Likewise 'Northern Ireland'...we can't just denounce 'history' as some unfortunate venture.
 
Possibly but not at the expense of the indigenous population which was Arab and mainly Muslim. The UN plan for partition (1947) would have been a suitable compromise given the population facts on the ground by that date but the Jewish 'land grab' using force led ultimately to the current situation which is 43 years of military subjugation of the rightful inhabitants of that geographical entity and their immediate ancestors by military occupation. The Balfour Declaration was dishonest and cynical and did not promise statehood. In 1917 the 'Jews' had as much claim to Palestine as the Norwegians had to Yorkshire and the English have to Calais. I also do not like theocratic states where full citizenship is only possible on the basis of a religious affiliation. It is totally unjust that a British or Russian Jew ,for example, has total right of entry to live in Israel whilst the dispossessed of 1947 and 1967 have no right of return and no promise of adequate compensation as an alternative as part of a just peace.

The original Jewish diaspora in Roman times and the Holocaust were immense tragedies but cannot be used to justify the degradation of another people.


JohnO said:
Are the Jews not then deserving of a state of their own then? Especially so as it is their traditional heartland; we musn't forget our Biblical history surely? Whatever the faults of Balfour/Americans/Zionism and the British Mandate, we nevertheless have to accept 'Israel' as a reality. Likewise 'Northern Ireland'...we can't just denounce 'history' as some unfortunate venture.
Click to expand...
 
The question has been answered. The thread is getting political and that is against the rules of the forum. THREAD CLOSED
 
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