Summary
The British-backed Zionist police forces created during the revolt: proposed in spring 1936 as a Quasi-Police Force, renamed the Defence of the Jewish Colonies and then the Colony Police in summer 1937. In Kanafani’s account the force was a cover for the armed Zionist presence and, in David Ben-Gurion’s own admission, a framework for training the Haganah.
Details
- Kanafani counts the additional Zionist police among the revolt’s second-phase build-up: Zionists in the police rose from 365 in 1935, the government announced the recruitment of 1,240 Zionists as additional policemen armed with army rifles, and a month later the figure rose to 2,863 (The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine, PDF p.25 / printed p.48-49).
- The alliance of the Zionist movement with British colonialism led to the idea of a Quasi-Police Force in the spring of 1936; the idea served as a cover for the armed Zionist presence which enjoyed the blessing and encouragement of the British, and as a transition during which the Haganah prepared its next stage (The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine, PDF p.29 / printed p.56-57).
- Ben Gurion affirms the additional Zionist police force made an ideal framework for the training of the Haganah (footnote 51: Ben Gurion, p.372) (The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine, PDF p.29 / printed p.56-57).
- In the summer of 1937 the force was given the name Defence of the Jewish Colonies, later changed to Colony Police; it was organised under the supervision of the British Mandate throughout the country, the British undertook to train its members, and in 1937 it was strengthened with 3,000 new members, all of whom played a direct role in repressive operations against the Palestinian rebels, especially in the North (The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine, PDF p.29 / printed p.56-57).
- In June 1938 the British held instruction courses for offensive operations which provided training to large numbers of Haganah cadres, who later became cadres of the Israeli army (The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine, PDF p.29 / printed p.56-57).
- At the beginning of 1939 the British army organised ten groups of Colony Police into well-armed groups with Hebrew names, totalling 14,411 men, each commanded by a British officer assisted by a second in command appointed by the Jewish Agency; by spring 1939 the Zionists also had 62 mechanised units of eight to ten men each (The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine, PDF p.29 / printed p.56-57).
- Kanafani counts a 6,000-strong quasi-Zionist force among the objective factors that exhausted the revolt, alongside two British divisions, air squadrons, the police and the Transjordan Frontier Force (The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine, PDF p.26 / printed p.50-51).
Related pages
The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine, Haganah, David Ben-Gurion, Jewish Agency, Haifa, 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine