by Tim Newark
World war had significantly changed the balance of power around the globe and this profoundly affected the future of the British Empire. Not only had the battlefield successes of the Japanese encouraged communists and nationalist rebels to rise up against the British in South-East Asia, but they had also revealed the weakness of empire in other parts of the world. In the Near East, the British had struggled to contain the Arab–Jewish conflict in Palestine in the 1930s, and during the war extremist elements sought to undermine British control. In Africa, similar pressures built up in their colonies.
At first, as in Malaya, these outbursts of rebellion were viewed purely as matters of law and order and were the responsibility of the colonial police forces. The rebels were regarded as organised criminals, even though they were freedom fighters to their supporters. Thus, the 1940s and 1950s saw periods of intense colonial police activity in both the Near East and Africa in which thousands of policemen took on armed groups of insurgents. Unlike in South-East Asia, illicit narcotics were not a major part of this, but some of the rebels did engage in criminal activities to support their campaigns. On other occasions, gangs of criminals created such a climate of terror that they shook the resolve of their imperial rulers.
13
THE IMPLACABLE MR STERN
AT TEN MINUTES PAST MIDDAY on 22 July 1946, a truck drove up to the basement entrance of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Five men dressed as Arabs jumped out of the truck and forced their way through the service entrance. Arab kitchen staff were warned away with guns, as the men unloaded several milk churns, pushing them along the corridor past the British military telephone exchange until they reached a nightclub that lay directly beneath the offices of the Palestine Government Secretariat. They then piled the milk churns against columns in the empty space. Alerted by the noise, a Royal Signals officer confronted the deliverymen but was shot twice in the stomach.
Ten minutes later, the violent deliverymen escaped, clambering back into their truck as British soldiers ran after them, firing shots. At that moment, 100 yards way from the hotel, a small bomb in a box beneath a tree exploded on the road, making everyone duck. A police cordon was immediately raised around the seven-storey hotel – the biggest building in Jerusalem – and a group of officers entered the basement to inspect the strange delivery. Everyone working inside the hotel was advised to open the windows.
At 12.37 p.m., an enormous explosion erupted from the milk churns, ripping off the entire corner of the King David building and completely destroying 25 rooms occupied by the secretariat of the British Palestine Government and the Defence Security Office of British Military Headquarters. Seven floors collapsed on top of one another as though they had been hit from above by a 1,000-lb bomb. People passing by on the streets outside were flung against stone walls like rag dolls. In a small government building opposite the hotel, one British official saw the face of a clerk sitting next to him cut in half by a flying shard of glass.
‘A sheet of flame passed my window, followed by clouds of smoke, and we were thrown over,’ recalled one British intelligence officer. Another was knocked off his seat, as the wall of his office disintegrated. Amazingly, inside the hotel, a Palestine police officer tasked with investigating the milk churns was blown along the corridor away from the bomb and emerged from the wreckage covered in dust but unhurt. A restaurant-bar directly above the explosion, usually packed at midday, was empty because most of the customers had left as soon as they heard soldiers firing at the truck. Many, many others, however, were not so fortunate.
As the dust settled on the mountain of rubble, bulldozers, drills and cranes were brought in to remove the massive chunks of concrete and masonry. Bodies and parts of bodies were dragged out; the death toll reached 91 men and women killed, with 46 injured. The majority of the dead were Arabs and British working in the hotel. Some people had been torn apart with little left to identify them and it took three weeks to put names to all the remains. Police Sergeant S.W. Mills was given this grim task and recalled the process of identifying the very last corpse:
After about three weeks, I heard a metallic clink noise from somewhere near the cadaver of a male person, who was the last of the victims left in the mortuary. I discovered a set of keys had dropped from the body which must have been blown into it at the time of the explosion and decomposition now released them from imprisonment. It had a name tag attached and we were able to call at a house in Givat Shaul quarter, where a very pregnant Jewish woman was able to identify the keys as belonging to her husband. They also fitted the locks in several parts of the house. This is how we cleared up the last KD casualty.
The day after the bombing, the British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, stood up in the House of Commons in London and made a statement. ‘Honourable members will have learned with horror of the brutal and murderous crime committed yesterday in Jerusalem,’ he said. ‘Of all the outrages which have occurred in Palestine, and they have been many and horrible in the last few months, this is the worst.’
But who was it exactly who committed the atrocity?
‘The basic cause of the disturbances in Palestine since the Great War,’ declared the British General Staff in 1939, ‘has been the resentment in the Arabs at the intrusion of the Jews into what they regard as their country. Jewish immigration has been permitted as a result of the Balfour Declaration made in November 1917.’ This gave the full backing of His Majesty’s Government to the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people.
‘The Arabs have never accepted the Balfour Declaration,’ continued the British Staff report, ‘and in fact claim that Palestine is included in the Arab countries which were promised independent status by the British government in their negotiations with King Hussein of the Hedjaz prior to the Balfour Declaration.’ In other words, the Arabs felt double-crossed for their support of the British against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.
Arab rioting first broke out in 1921 in Jaffa and continued into the 1930s. The rise of the Nazis in Germany in 1933 increased the pace of Jewish immigration until, by 1935, 60,000 Jews had arrived in just one year in Palestine. The situation was exacerbated when it was discovered that some of these Jews had attempted to smuggle in a large consignment of guns to protect themselves from Arab assaults. In 1936, militant Arabs responded by proclaiming a general strike and sparking a series of armed attacks against the British authorities.
Attempting to keep the peace against this lawlessness was the Palestine Police Force. Established in 1922 in direct response to the Arab disturbances of the previous year, it called itself a gendarmerie. Two-thirds of its ranks were filled with British Auxiliary military police, who had been disbanded in Ireland – known as the notorious Black and Tans – as well as former soldiers. ‘This original composition,’ noted a British general, ‘gave the force a military efficiency, combined with a certain ruthlessness of method, which it appears to have maintained throughout its history.’
In 1926, following complaints about the methods deployed by the gendarmerie, it was reorganised into a more regular police force, with Arabs and Jews serving alongside the hardcore of British. Come 1936 and the outbreak of Arab hostilities, the loyalty of some of the Arabs was doubted and there were incidents in which they betrayed their colleagues to the rebels. At one point, the recruitment of Sudanese was considered, but a British major made it clear why it would not work:
It is possible that the [Sudanese] Begas would be regarded by both Arabs and Jews as inferior or even as Niggers. Their employment might eventually lead to dissatisfaction or unsettled feelings on their return to the Sudan and it would be a grave mistake to run any risk of this.
Instead, it was recommended that Indian ex-soldiers be recruited to fill any gaps, with the first choice being Sikhs.
From 1936 onwards, Arab criminal gangs launched ever more deadly assaults on the Palestine Police Force. ‘Their objectives were small police and military parties,’ said one report:
They ro
bbed villages of money and food, recruiting the more hot-headed villagers. They were reasonably well armed with rifles and even one or two light automatics. Their preference was for a long-range ineffective firefight and if attacked with any determination, they quickly retreated, often leaving fairly well-handled rear guards. Once clear, they dispersed rapidly in anticipation of air attack. In many of the gangs, a proportion of the rebels were uniformed, usually khaki shirts and breeches, with perhaps headcloths of a distinctive colour.
On 18 July 1936, four British police officers were patrolling a section of the Jerusalem–Nablus road when they ran into an Arab ambush in the Wadi Harameh, or ‘Valley of Thieves’. Halted by a roadblock, they came under intense rifle fire from the hills around them. Their sergeant was hit immediately and died shortly afterwards. The three constables held on to their position despite being heavily outnumbered, but were acutely aware of their ammunition running low.
Eventually, one of them managed to turn round their patrol vehicle and, despite being badly wounded in the process, drove back to their base. For over an hour, the two remaining policemen clung on, as Arab bullets ricocheted around them. When a relief column finally arrived, the two police constables had just ten rounds between them. All three survivors were rewarded with the King’s Police Medal (KPM) for Gallantry.
Just six days later, Detective Constable Said Mahmoud was shot three times in a busy marketplace – the third bullet passing through his cheek. In great pain, the policeman returned fire and managed to catch hold of his assailant. In the fight, the Arab escaped, but another policeman shot him dead. With blood pouring from his mouth, Mahmoud refused to go to hospital until he had identified as his attacker the dead man in the mortuary. He, too, received the KPM.
On 9 September 1936, four British police constables rushed to Rosh Pina on the road to Galilee when they heard that a Jewish vehicle had been ambushed. Arriving there in an open pick-up truck, there was no sign of the Jewish-owned car but every indication they had been set up. From the hills around them came fire from a large Arab gang of up to 70 men. With no cover to hide behind, the young policemen had little choice but to kneel in a circle and shoot up at the hills. When their tight circle of bodies was later found, they were surrounded by piles of expended cartridges. They had fought to the very last round. Their funeral in Haifa was said to have been one of the largest seen in Palestine.
The British dealt with the Arab gangs by devising a cordon system in which any contact with rebels triggered a process by which reinforcements were rushed to the area and surrounded the insurgents. They then advanced to the sound of firing, as aircraft flew low over the Arabs, shooting them up with machine guns and dropping bombs. ‘Most of the casualties were inflicted by low-flying air attack,’ concluded one field analysis.
For three years, Jewish settlers generally held back from large-scale retaliation against the militant Arab gangs. But as rumours began to spread of a settlement being discussed in London, in which the British would agree to the creation of an Arab state of Palestine incorporating a permanent Jewish minority, extremist Jewish organisations hit back with a series of bombings that killed many Arabs.
By early 1939, the British government had settled on the creation of an independent Palestinian state, in which both Arabs and Jews would be represented according to the size of their populations, to be set up ten years’ hence. Moderate Arabs gave this proposal their support, but many Jews rejected it, saying it was a betrayal of the idea of settling the land as their National Home – a permanent Jewish state. They also objected to a limit being put on Jewish immigration into the country. Moderate Jews decided on a campaign of non-cooperation and illegal immigration, but the more radical groups opted for direct action against the British.
Jewish rioting, bombings and sabotage grew in intensity. Arab villages were invaded and their houses demolished. Two British detective inspectors investigating a Jewish crime scene were blown up by a landmine placed outside the door of a house.
The majority of these violent incidents were orchestrated by the Irgun Zvai Leumi, or National Military Organisation, dedicated to establishing a Jewish state by force of arms. Rejoicing in its attacks on the British, it issued pamphlets claiming responsibility for ever more outrageous acts. The British authorities responded with the cordon system they had used against the Arab gangs and rounded up hundreds of Jewish extremists or shot them in numerous engagements.
With the outbreak of war against Nazi Germany in September 1939, the majority of the radical Jewish leadership, including the commanders of Irgun, agreed to cease actions against the British authorities in Palestine and give them their support for the duration of the conflict. As a result of this ceasefire, many interned Jewish radicals were released in the summer of 1940. Among them was a die-hard group of extremists who rejected the compromise of their leaders and funded their cause with a string of criminal acts.
‘It soon became evident that their policy was to overthrow the Irgun and take its place,’ said British secret intelligence in 1941. ‘They began by raiding caches of arms belonging to official Zionists and by robbing Jewish banks and burgling the houses of rich Jews. Consistent reports declared that they had made approaches to the Italians, posing as a Jewish Fascist group, with the idea that in the event of an Axis Victory they would emerge as a dominant Jewish party. It was suggested that in return for Axis funds they should supply the enemy with military information.’
With the eclipse of the Italians as a military power in North Africa, the progress of these Jewish extremists took an even more bizarre turn. It had the effect of causing ‘the Group to look to Germany for possible support and on 1.8.41, it published a bulletin contrasting the weakness and alleged disunion of the British Forces with the united might and strength of Germany’.
An agent close to the radical group summed up their twisted logic:
Their attitude has remained consistently anti-British and against the war effort. Their policy of re-insurance with the enemy has been maintained and they carried it to the Germans as to the Italians. Their line is that, after all, a British defeat will not mean the end of Jewry, and sensible Jews who have not associated themselves with the British war effort may well look to remain in a relatively good position in Palestine after a German victory.
The leader of this extremist gang was the 34-year-old Avraham Stern.
Born in Poland, Stern spent his early life as a refugee, fleeing from the Germans during the First World War. He was later separated from his mother while living in Siberia. At the age of 18, he emigrated to Palestine. Studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, he was inspired by the idea of creating a Jewish homeland and served with Haganah, a Jewish paramilitary force, when their community was attacked by Arabs. When his local commander established the Irgun Zvai Leumi, he joined them as an officer. For Stern, his relationship with the newly emerging nation was like a love affair, about which he wrote numerous passionate poems. His revolutionary fervour ensured he rose high in the ranks of Irgun.
Throughout the 1930s, as deputy leader of the underground army, Stern organised terrorist assaults on Arabs, including planting bombs aimed at killing civilians.
One policeman remembered meeting him when he was arrested by the British in 1939. ‘One night sticks in my mind,’ he recalled, ‘while I was joint Duty Officer, when four suspected terrorists were left in my keeping while arrangements were made for their detention. One stared back at me in a very hostile manner. His name was Abraham [sic] Stern.’
Stern also travelled back and forth to Poland, where he organised routes for illegal immigration into Palestine. With the help of the Polish government, he planned to train 40,000 young Jews to seize Palestine from the British. When Germany invaded Poland, this plot came to a swift end and Stern was interned, along with the rest of the Irgun leadership in Palestine.
When Irgun came to terms with the British, Stern was furious and split from his comrades, setting up his own small group of extremists, late
r known as Lehi – Fighters for the Freedom of Israel. Among his 40-strong splinter group of militants was Yitzhak Shamir, the future prime minister of Israel. Stern’s uncompromising position against the British put him at odds with both Haganah and the Jewish Agency – the governing authority of Palestinian Jews – who publicly condemned his activities. Without any official support, Stern was forced to fund his group by robbery and the heavily armed gang embarked on a crime spree.
In January 1942, Stern Gang members attacked a Jewish bank official carrying £1,000 through the streets of Tel Aviv. In the shoot-out that followed with the police, two Jewish passers-by were shot dead. One of the three captured gangsters was sentenced to death. In retaliation, Stern and his comrades set a deadly trap.
On 20 January, a small bomb exploded inside the room of a building in Yael Street in Tel Aviv. The incident brought Deputy Superintendent Solomon Schiff and a small party of police officers to the scene. When they entered the building, the Stern Gang detonated a far larger bomb containing gelignite and rivets. Schiff was blown out through a window and killed immediately. Two other police officers later died of their injuries.
The Palestine Police Force was hungry for revenge and within a week four members of the Stern Gang were tracked down and shot dead in a firefight. On 12 February, a house was raided on Mizrachi Street. Tovah Savorai recalled the moment the policemen entered her house.
‘At about 9.30 there was a knock at the door, too gentle a tapping to signal the presence of the police,’ she said. Tovah and her husband were both members of Lehi and Stern was sheltering with them. When he heard the knock on the door, Stern hid himself in a wardrobe.
‘At the door stood the “good” detective, Wilkins, with two men behind him,’ remembered Tovah. ‘Wilkins was always very polite; too polite, perhaps. He asked me why I hadn’t gone to visit my husband, Moshe, and if I weren’t worried about him. I told him that if I had gone to the hospital, I would have been arrested immediately. They searched my room.’