Posted on 04/21/2002 8:52:27 AM PDT by veronica
'Demolishing the homes of Arab civilians... Shooting handcuffed prisoners... Forcing local Arabs to test areas where mines may have been planted..."
These sound like the sort of accusations made by British and other European officials concerning Israel's recent actions in Jenin. In fact, they are descriptions from official British documents concerning the methods used by the British authorities to combat Palestinian Arab terrorism in Jenin and elsewhere in 1938.
The documents were declassified by London in 1989. They provide details of the British Mandatory government's response to the assassination of a British district commissioner by a Palestinian Arab terrorist in Jenin in the summer of 1938.
Even after the suspected assassin was captured (and then shot dead while allegedly trying to escape), the British authorities decided that "a large portion of the town should be blown up" as punishment. On August 25 of that year, a British convoy brought 4,200 kilos of explosives to Jenin for that purpose.
In the Jenin operation and on other occasions, local Arabs were forced to drive "mine-sweeping taxis" ahead of British vehicles in areas where Palestinian Arab terrorists were believed to have planted mines, in order "to reduce [British] landmine casualties."
The British authorities frequently used these and similar methods to combat Palestinian Arab terrorism in the late 1930s.
BRITISH forces responded to the presence of terrorists in the Arab village of Miar, north of Haifa, by blowing up house after house in October 1938.
"When the troops left, there was little else remaining of the once-busy village except a pile of mangled masonry," The New York Times reported.
The declassified documents refer to an incident in Jaffa in which a handcuffed prisoner was shot by the British police.
Under Emergency Regulation 19b, the British Mandate government could demolish any house located in a village where terrorists resided, even if that particular house had no direct connection to terrorist activity. Mandate official Hugh Foot later recalled: "When we thought that a village was harboring rebels, we'd go there and mark one of the large houses. Then, if an incident was traced to that village, we'd blow up the house we'd marked."
The High Commissioner for Palestine, Harold MacMichael, defended the practice: "The provision is drastic, but the situation has demanded drastic powers."
MacMichael was furious over what he called the "grossly exaggerated accusations" that England's critics were circulating concerning British anti-terror tactics in Palestine. Arab allegations that British soldiers gouged out the eyes of Arab prisoners were quoted prominently in the Nazi German press and elsewhere.
The declassified documents also record discussions among officials of the Colonial Office concerning the rightness or wrongness of the anti-terror methods used in Palestine. Lord Dufferin remarked: "British lives are being lost and I don't think that we, from the security of Whitehall, can protest squeamishly about measures taken by the men in the frontline."
Sir John Shuckburgh defended the tactics on the grounds that the British were confronted "not with a chivalrous opponent playing the game according to the rules, but with gangsters and murderers."
There were many differences between British policy in the 1930s and Israeli policy today, but one stands out - the British, faced with a level of Palestinian Arab terrorism considerably less lethal than that which Israel faces today, utilized anti-terror methods considerably harsher than those used by Israeli forces.
Some things never change, eh?
What would you say if Germany condemned terrorist acts against the Jews by the Palistinians, and the Palistiniasns responded by bringing up how Germany treated Jews in 1938?
Agreed.
It didn't work for the Brits - why should it work for the Israelis?
And they did exactly that to the Jewish defenders of the Etzion Block in 1948.
I can't describe what they did the the women but you can imagine.
Must be SOP for Muslims
I salute the IDF. No sleep for terrorists...ever.
"The more things change...."
Because for the Israelis, this is their home. The Brits were just trying to save their asses and let someone else deal with the problem. Israel has nowhere else to go. So... if needed, they will simply pull their "MASADA" complex out and turn the entire place into a radioactive wasteland... only it won't be only Palestine... it will also include Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and any other piece of sh** dictatorship within 2000 miles.
And if they are smart, they will also include most of the EU contingent of sorry ass licking "states". So, you can see that after this treatment, there won't be anyone left to rewrite the history of the great Arab victory over the Jews. And there the problem will end.
You saw what the Pali's did to one of their own accused of collaborating so you can imagine what they did to the Jewish men and women they captured. Believe me, I would rather kill myself than fall into the hands of these animals.
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