British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 45

CHAPTER II.

in Beirut and Damascus; in an endeavor to check the movement across the frontier a barbed wire barrier was constructed in June, on the advice of Sir Charles Tegart, along the northern and northeastern boundaries of Palestine. The great majority of Arabs who had hitherto been prominent in the life of the country and who had not either been deported, excluded from Palestine or detained under Emergency Regulations found it prudent to leave; any who remained and attempted loyalty to Government or refused assistance to the rebels were subjected to intimidation, abduction and murder; pressure was brought to bear in particular on village mukhtars and police personnel, many of whom paid with their lives for their connections with Government.

During the first five months of the year the Jews showed restraint and there were few acts of retaliation, but from the end of June the Jewish attitude in all sections of the community underwent a change following the conviction by a military court of a Revisionist youth, Shlomo Ben Yoseph, who had fired on an Arab bus and was caught in possession of bombs and revolvers; the sentence of death was carried out on 29th June and was the cause of angry Jewish demonstrations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv; at Tel Aviv the Union flag on the Government offices was pulled down. These demonstrations were followed by acts of reprisal. On 6th and 25th July bomb explosions in the Arab fruit market :it Haifa caused the death of 74 Arabs and injury to 129 others; there were other bomb outrages in Jerusalem and Jaffa.

By July the Arab gangs had become thoroughly organized and their activities coordinated. Rebel courts were set up by which many loyal Arabs and a number of Jews who had been abducted were tried and executed in the following months; rebel stamps were sold and the Old City of Jerusalem became a rallying point of bandits from which acts of violence, murder and intimidation were organized and perpetrated freely and with impunity. On 24th August the Assistant District Commissioner at Jenin (Mr. Moffat) was murdered in his office and in September the rebel power reached its climax; there was a large increase in abductions and a studied concentration on the destruction of Government buildings and property and on the seizure of armouries in outlying police posts. On 9th September Beersheba was raided by a large gang which broke into the prison, released the prisoners and raided the police station; later in the month all police and Government buildings in Beersheba were set on fire and destroyed.

On 12th September the police force was placed under the operational control of the General Officer Commanding and- on

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