Demobilised Soldiersand Colonial Control: The British Policein Mandate Palestine and After 1

Abstract

Demobilised Soldiers and Colonial Control: The British Police in Mandate Palestine and After

Former soldiers filled the ranks of the British section of the Palestine police, veterans not just of the Great War but also of the war against rebels in Ireland (1919–1921). This is an empirical study of the harsh reality of service in the Palestine police for these tough, demobilised war veterans. This article details the violence of everyday policing, including torture and a «dirty war», mining archival sources and contextualising this material within the British use of collective punishment across the empire. The Palestine police failed in its job of policing, necessitating the deployment of the Army to Palestine; with this collapse in police control the force became more violent. The article argues that policing methods from the Mandate period –informed by war veterans – continued after the disbandment of the Palestine force in 1948, both within Israel and in other parts of the British Empire where former Palestine police officers went to serve in the 1950s. In telling the full story of policing in Palestine, this article extends our understanding of inter-war colonial policing, including its impact on local people, and it makes useful connections to other colonial powers operating in similar circumstances to the British in Palestine, which extend our knowledge of imperial and neo-imperial histories.