1936 in Canada, Historical Documents
Youth organizations ranging from church groups to Young Communist League unite for reform at 1936 Youth Congress


1936 in Canada, Historical Documents
Stephen Leacock's views of travel writing and Port Arthur (Thunder Bay), Ont.


1936 in Canada, Historical Documents
Ralph J. Gleason praises Canadian hockey while covering college tournament for Columbia University student newspaper


1936 in Canada, Historical Documents
Setting new record for one-mile event, Canadian race walker wins in New York City


1936 in Canadian football, Canadian Football News in 1936
Teams were restricted to a maximum of five imports and only players who had lived in Canada for a full year could compete in the Grey Cup game. When Regina won the West, five of their imports were declared illegal by the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU). Regina offered to drop the players for the Grey Cup, but the CRU would not allow them to play for the cup. Instead, the Grey Cup was a contest between the Sarnia Imperials of the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) and the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU). Sarnia won their second and last Grey Cup with a powerful line-up that included future Hall of Famers Hugh (Bummer) Stirling and Ormond Beach.


1936 in Canadian football, Canadian Football News in 1936
The Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) was formed in August with the Winnipegs, Calgary Bronks, and the Regina Roughriders.


1936 in Canadian football, Canadian Football News in 1936
The IRFU and WIFU adopted a two-game point series format for the playoffs. The series was played between first and second place teams.


1936 in Canadian football, Canadian Football News in 1936
A white ball was used in games that was being played underneath floodlights in Western Canada.


1936 in Canadian football, Canadian Football News in 1936
The Regina Roughriders fielded two teams; the main, or "big" team in the WIFU, and the "little" Roughriders who played in the last SRFU season.


1936 in Canadian football, Canadian Football News in 1936
The Calgary Bronks played a full schedule in the Alberta Rugby Football Union including some games which conflicted with the WIFU schedule. For the open dates, the Bronks fielded the same team that was competing in the WIFU (5 games). For the remaining three games, the Bronks fielded a second team which was referred to as the Calgary Bronks 'B'. The final game of the regular season saw the Calgary Bronks square off against the University of Alberta Golden Bears. These teams were the two top teams in the ARFU so it was decided that in addition to being the final regular season game, the game would also determine the ARFU championship.


1936 in Canadian football, Regular season, Final regular season standings
Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pts = Points


1936 in Canadian football, Grey Cup Championship
24th Annual Grey Cup Game: Varsity Stadium – Toronto, Ontario


1936 in Canadian football, 1936 Eastern (Combined IRFU & ORFU) All-Stars  selected by Canadian Press
NOTE: During this time most players played both ways, so the All-Star selections do not distinguish between some offensive and defensive positions.


1936 in Cape Verde
The following lists events that happened during 1936 in Cape Verde.


1936 in Chile
The following lists events that happened during 1936 in Chile.


1936 in El Salvador
The following lists events that happened in 1936 in El Salvador.


1936 in Estonia
This article lists events that occurred during 1936 in Estonia.


1936 in Germany, Events
6 February: The IV Olympic Winter Games open in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.


1936 in Iceland
The following lists events that happened in 1936 in Iceland.


1936 in Japan
Events in the year 1936 in Japan. It corresponds to Shōwa 11 (昭和11年) in the Japanese calendar.


1936 in Malaya
This article lists important figures and events in the public affairs of British Malaya during the year 1936, together with births and deaths of prominent Malayans.


1936 in Mandatory Palestine
Events in the year 1936 in the British Mandate of Palestine.


1936 in Michigan, Population
In the 1930 United States Census, Michigan was recorded as having a population of 4,842,325, ranking as the seventh most populous state in the country. By 1940, Michigan's population had increased by 8.5% to 5,256,106.


1936 in Michigan, Population, Cities
The following is a list of cities in Michigan with a population of at least 20,000 based on 1930 U.S. Census data. Historic census data from 1920 and 1940 is included to reflect trends in population increases or decreases. Cities that are part of the Detroit metropolitan area are shaded in tan.


1936 in Michigan, Population, Counties
The following is a list of counties in Michigan with populations of at least 50,000 based on 1930 U.S. Census data. Historic census data from 1920 and 1940 are included to reflect trends in population increases or decreases.


1936 in New Zealand
The following lists events that happened during 1936 in New Zealand.


1936 in New Zealand
The shape of New Zealand politics for the next five decades was defined when, in the aftermath of their heavy defeat by Labour, the United and Reform parties merged to form the New Zealand National Party. In the meantime, the Labour government began implementing significant social changes.


1936 in New Zealand, Incumbents, Government
The 25th New Zealand Parliament continued with the Labour Party in government.


1936 in New Zealand, Arts and literature, Film
See : Category:1936 film awards, 1936 in film, List of New Zealand feature films, Cinema of New Zealand, Category:1936 films


1936 in New Zealand, Sport, Lawn bowls
The national outdoor lawn bowls championships are held in Christchurch.


1936 in Norwegian football, Class A of local association leagues
Class A of local association leagues (kretsserier) is the predecessor of a national league competition.


1936 in Norwegian music
The following is a list of notable events and releases of the year 1936 in Norwegian music.


1936 in Poland, Incumbents
On May 15, 1936, president of Poland Ignacy Mościcki designed the government under prime minister Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski, who replaced Marian Zyndram-Kościałkowski. The government was dissolved on September 30, 1939. This was the last government of the Second Polish Republic which resided in Warsaw.


1936 in South Africa
The following lists events that happened during 1936 in South Africa.


1936 in Switzerland
The following is a list of events, births, and deaths in 1936 in Switzerland.


1936 in Taiwan
Events from the year 1936 in Taiwan, Empire of Japan.


1936 in Wales
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1936 to Wales and its people.


1936 in animation
This is a list of events in 1936 in animation.


1936 in association football
The following are the football events of the year 1936 throughout the world.


1936 in baseball
The following are the baseball events of the year 1936  throughout the world.


1936 in basketball
The following are the basketball events of the year 1936  throughout the world.


1936 in basketball, Births
This basketball-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .


1936 in comics
Notable events of 1936 in comics. See also List of years in comics.


1936 in country music
This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1936.


1936 in country music, Events
In Knoxville, Tennessee the emerging media chain Scripps-Howard purchased the WNOX station in 1935, and then in 1936 the station launched its most popular program, the influential Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round, a live noontime performance show which highlighted hillbilly music artists.


1936 in country music, Events
Lee Roy "Lasses" White of Wills Point, TX, who was featured on the Nashville radio station WSM, with "Honey" Wilds, and they were featured in their own Friday night "minstrel show and on The Grand Ole Opry, left for Hollywood in May of 1936. He found a career as a character actor in the B-Grade Western "horse operas".


1936 in film
The following is an overview of 1936 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.


1936 in film, Top-grossing films (U.S.)
The top ten 1936 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:


1936 in film, Top Ten Money Making Stars
Exhibitors selected the following as the Top Ten Money Making Stars of the Year in Quigley Publishing Company's annual poll.


1936 in film, Top Ten Money Making Stars, Top Western stars
A poll of the top Western stars was also published for the first time.


1936 in fine arts of the Soviet Union
The year 1936 was marked by many events that left an imprint on the history of Soviet and Russian Fine Arts.


1936 in jazz
This is a timeline documenting events of Jazz in the year 1936


1936 in jazz
A book called Bud not Buddy is a great recourse for this topic.


1936 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1936.


1936 in motorsport
The following is an overview of the events of 1936 in motorsport including the major racing events, motorsport venues that were opened and closed during a year, championships and non-championship events that were established and disestablished in a year, and births and deaths of racing drivers and other motorsport people.


1936 in motorsport, Annual events
The calendar includes only annual major non-championship events or annual events that had own significance separate from the championship. For the dates of the championship events see related season articles.


1936 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1936.


1936 in music, Biggest hit songs
The following songs achieved the highest in the limited set of charts available for 1936.


1936 in paleontology
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 1936.


1936 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).


1936 in poetry, Works published in other languages, Indian subcontinent
Including all of the British colonies that later became India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Listed alphabetically by first name, regardless of surname:


1936 in poetry, Works published in other languages, Indian subcontinent, Urdu
Translation, commentary and critical appreciation of Pas Cheh Bayad Kard and Masnavi Musafir in Urdu by Dr Elahi Bakhsh Akhtar Awan, publishers University Book Agency Peshawar Pakistan, 1960.


1936 in poetry, Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:


1936 in poetry, Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:


1936 in professional wrestling
1936 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.


1936 in radio
The year 1936 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting.


1936 in rail transport
This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1936.


1936 in science
The year 1936 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.


1936 in science fiction
The year 1936 was marked, in science fiction, by the following events.


1936 in science fiction, Awards
The main science-fiction Awards known at the present time did not exist at this time.


1936 in sports
1936 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.


1936 in sports, Alpine skiing
FIS Alpine World Ski Championships6th FIS Alpine World Ski Championships are held at Innsbruck, Austria. The events are a downhill, a slalom and a combined race in both the men's and women's categories. The winners are:


1936 in television
The year 1936 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events during 1936.


1936 in the Belgian Congo
The following lists events that happened during 1936 in the Belgian Congo.


1936 in the Philippines
1936 in the Philippines details events of note that happened in the Philippines in the year 1936.


1936 in the Soviet Union
The following lists events that happened during 1936 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.


1936 in the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) broke out with a military uprising in Morocco on July 17, triggered by events in Madrid. Within days, Spain was divided in two: a "Republican" or "Loyalist" Spain consisting of the Second Spanish Republic (within which were pockets of revolutionary anarchism and Trotskyism), and a "Nationalist" Spain under the insurgent generals, and, eventually, under the leadership of General Francisco Franco.


1936 in the Spanish Civil War
By the summer, important tendencies of the war become clear, both in terms of atrocities on both sides and in the contrast between the Soviet Union's intermittent help to the Republican government and the committed support of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany for the Nationalists.


1936 in the Spanish Civil War
In the early days of the war, over 50,000 people who were caught on the "wrong" side of the lines were assassinated or summarily executed. In these paseos ("promenades"), as the executions were called, the victims were taken from their refuges or jails by armed people to be shot outside of town. Probably the most famous such victim was the poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca. The outbreak of the war provided an excuse for settling accounts and resolving long-standing feuds. Thus, this practice became widespread during the war in areas conquered. In most areas, even within a single given village, both sides committed assassinations.


1936 in the Spanish Civil War
Any hope of a quick ending to the war was dashed on July 21, the fifth day of the rebellion, when the Nationalists captured the main Spanish naval base at Ferrol in northwestern Spain. This encouraged the fascist and other sympathetic regimes of Europe to help Franco, who had already contacted the governments of Germany and Italy the day before. On July 26, the future Axis Powers cast their lot with the Nationalists. German assistance, channeled through Franco rather than to the Nationalists in general, consolidated his leadership position of the insurgency.


1936 in the Spanish Civil War
In the north, a rebel force under Colonel Beorlegui, sent by General Emilio Mola, advanced on Gipuzkoa. On September 5, after heavy fighting, it took Irún, closing the French border to the Republicans. On September 13 the Basques surrendered San Sebastián to the Nationalists, who then advanced toward their capital, Bilbao, but were stopped at the border of the province. The capture of Gipuzkoa had isolated the Republican provinces in the north.


1936 in the Spanish Civil War
Nationalist forces under Franco won a great symbolic victory on September 27 when they relieved the besieged Alcázar at Toledo. Two days after relieving the siege, Franco proclaimed himself Generalísimo and Caudillo ("chieftain"); he would forcibly unify the various Falangist and Royalist elements of the Nationalist cause.


1936 in the Spanish Civil War
In October, the Nationalists launched a major offensive toward Madrid, reaching it in early November and launching a major assault on the city on November 8. The Republican government was forced to shift from Madrid to Valencia, out of the combat zone, on November 6. However, the Nationalists' attack on the capital was repulsed in fierce fighting between November 8 and 23. A contributory factor in the successful Republican defence was the arrival of the International Brigades, though only around 3,000 of them participated in the battle. Having failed to take the capital, Franco bombarded it from the air and, in the following two years, mounted several offensives to try to encircle Madrid.


1936 in the Spanish Civil War
On November 18, Germany and Italy officially recognized the Franco regime, and on December 23, Italy sent "volunteers" of its own to fight for the Nationalists.


1936 in the United Kingdom
This year is notable for the death of George V early in the year, the accession of his son Edward VIII to the throne and his subsequent abdication, resulting in the accession to the throne of his younger brother George VI (previously Albert, Duke of York).


1936 uprising in Spanish Guinea
The 1936 uprising in Spanish Guinea was an armed conflict over the control of Spanish Guinea during the course of the Spanish Civil War. Fought between the republican and nationalist forces between September and October 1936. The nationalists initially took control of Fernando Poo on 19 September, later seizing control of the rest of the colony after receiving reinforcements in October.


1936 uprising in Spanish Guinea, Background
The Spanish Empire established the colony of Spanish Guinea in 1778, in the aftermath of the Treaty of El Pardo, between the former and the Kingdom of Portugal. Portuguese slave traders retained the de facto control of the region until Carlos Chacón was declared its first governor general in 1858. During the course of the Scramble for Africa, Spain lost significant portions of its territories in the Gulf of Guinea to France and Germany. Its disastrous defeat in the Spanish–American War of 1898, further reduced its colonial possessions, while simultaneously increasing Spanish Guinea's importance as an overseas territory. Exploitation of the colony's natural resources began in earnest, missionaries set up permanent outposts across its territory and the Colonial Guard of Spanish Guinea was formed in 1908 to protect its new settlers.


1936 uprising in Spanish Guinea, Background
Following the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic, colonial policies shifted towards increasing Guinea's economic output. To that end, the government limited the influence of Claretian Catholic missionaries and legal rights of the native population. On 13 July 1936, Spanish nationalist legislator José Calvo Sotelo was assassinated in Madrid by Guardia de Asalto members, setting a nationalist coup in motion four days later. The outbreak of the civil war in the Spanish mainland, led to confrontations between the supporters of the left wing Popular Front and clericales (supporters of the nationalist rebels and the Catholic church) across the colony. Tensions continued to escalate during the course of the summer as bank accounts were frozen and shipments failed to reach the colony.


1936 uprising in Spanish Guinea, Conflict
On 19 September 1936, the chief of the Colonial Guard lieutenant colonel Luis Serrano Maranges launched an uprising on Fernando Poo overthrowing the Republican Governor-General Sanchez Guerra in a bloodless coup. Following Francisco Franco's orders, Serrano took over the governorship and imposed martial law, declaring the colony to be at war. Vice-Governor Miguel Hernandez Porcel who was based in Bata, refused to recognize Serrano. On 23 September, clericales on the colony's mainland organized a militia and marched on Bata in support of Serrano, and Porcel dispatched a force to stop them.


1936 uprising in Spanish Guinea, Conflict
The two columns met at Comandachina close to the Ekuku river, they clashed after shouting their respective mottos. Two native soldiers were killed in the action as the Republicans emerged victorious. The leaders of the clericales in the mainland were expelled to French Congo, many later traveled Fernando Poo. The colony thus became split between the pro-nationalist Fernando Poo and the Republican Río Muni.


1936 uprising in Spanish Guinea, Conflict
The republicans became practically isolated from their allies, having turned their only available ship, the Fernando Poo, into a prison for Catholic missionaries and nuns. In October, the nationalist auxiliary cruiser Ciudad de Mahon, armed with a 76 mm gun, a 101 mm gun and ferrying Moroccan nationalist troops from the Canary islands, arrived at Fernando Poo. Serrano requisitioned the ship, using it to shell Bata and hit Fernando Poo, killing three clergymen and a civilian held on board as prisoners in the process.


1936 uprising in Spanish Guinea, Conflict
The republican militiamen manning the Fernando Poo abandoned hastily the sinking ship, whose hull was assaulted by troops from Ciudad de Mahon before capsizing the following day. The nationalist reinforcements then landed in Bata, quickly seizing control of Río Muni. Most republicans fled to French Congo, some of those who remained were executed while others were deported to the Canary Islands in November.


1936 uprising in Spanish Guinea, Aftermath
The conflict in combination with the disruption of global trade during World War II caused the colony to experience shortages in food and medication as well as high inflation. After taking control of the colony the nationalists Hispanicized the names of the local districts, legally unified Fernando Poo and Río Muni with the rest of Spain and gradually emancipated the native population. The ideals of nationalism spread among the first generation of emancipated natives, who later led the colony to independence.


1936 Úrvalsdeild, Overview
It was contested by four teams, and Valur won the championship. Valur's Óskar Jónsson was the top scorer with five goals.


1936, The Spanish Revolution
1936, The Spanish Revolution is an album of songs and archival photographs related to the Spanish Civil War, recorded and assembled by Dutch anarchist punk band The Ex. The band released it in 1986, the 50th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution, on their own label as a square 7" (17.5 cm) soft-cover book with two 45 rpm records. A 5" (12.5 cm) hardcover edition was republished by AK press in 1997, replacing the records with a pair of 3" CDs.


1936, The Spanish Revolution, Background and book
In 1936 two Spanish anarchist trade unions, the CNT and the FAI, waged war against Francisco Franco's nationalist troops siding with Spain's legitimate republican government, until Franco defeated the republican army in 1939 with the help of fascism German and Italian troops. With further involvement from the Soviet Union, France, Mexico and Portugal, the conflict is widely regarded as the first battle of World War II.


1936, The Spanish Revolution, Background and book
In wanting to highlight the original values and spirit of the revolution rather than the conflict and eventual defeat of anarchist forces, The Ex compiled 144 pages of previously unpublished photographs taken by journalists aligned with the revolutionary forces, along with several short essays about the revolution. Text appears in both English and Spanish.


1936, The Spanish Revolution, Background and book
At the time Dutch publishing house Raket & Lont were compiling a book of comics and essays about the Spanish Civil War and has unearthed the CNT's archives at Amsterdam's International Institute for Social History. The archives had been smuggled out of Spain in 1937 and arrived in Amsterdam by way of England, but had languished in obscurity for five decades due to a post-revolutionary factionism among the CNT's former members. Dutch cartoonist Johannes van der Weert, formerly of the communist punk band The Rondos, arranged for members of The Ex to visit the archive and then to publish the photos, highlighting the revolution from the perspective of anarchist achievement rather than the war and defeat under fire by Axis forces.


1936, The Spanish Revolution, Music
For the audio component of the album, The Ex recorded four tracks at Koeienverhuur Studios and invited van der Weert to contribute vocals. Two are Spanish language songs with music and lyrics originally sung by 1930s Spanish revolutionary forces and supporters. On the flip side of each single was an English language song about the revolution, one assembled from lines borrowed from other Spanish revolutionary songs, the other quoted an interview with a campesino recorded in Ronald Fraser's book, Blood Of Spain.


1936, The Spanish Revolution, Release
The Ex contacted British label Ron Johnson Records about releasing the album. The band hand-assembled the covers in the Netherlands before shipping it to England for finishing. In order to keep the album affordable, the label offered it to distributors below its actual cost, voluntarily losing money on it in order for it to reach more people. For its 1986 release, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution, the music appeared on two 7" singles that sandwiched the album of 144 photos. Following its release The Ex toured with van der Weert on second vocals, playing all over Europe with British band The Membranes and developing a collaboration with the anarchist band Chumbawamba, leading to the material that would comprise The Ex's next album, Too Many Cowboys.


1936, The Spanish Revolution, Release
In 1997 The Ex rereleased 1936: The Spanish Revolution as a five-inch square hardback book in tandem with Scottish/American publisher AK Press, this time issuing the double singe as a pair of mini-CDs. Later the band issued the music tracks digitally for streaming and download, along with the bulk of their back catalog, via Bandcamp.


1936, The Spanish Revolution, Reception
1936 was the first of The Ex's releases to gain some notoriety outside of the Netherlands, selling enough copies to reach No. 6 on the UK Indie Chart. The website AllMusic later called the book a "powerful and enlightening visual document that casts a fresh light on a major historical event little understood in the United States," and said that The Ex's music "find them inviting the spirit of the revolution as if it occurred five minutes ago, not 50 years past."


1936-37 NHL transactions
The following is a list of all team-to-team transactions that have occurred in the National Hockey League (NHL) during the 1936–37 NHL season. It lists which team each player has been traded to and for which player(s) or other consideration(s), if applicable.


19367 Pink Floyd
19367 Pink Floyd, provisional designation 1997 XW3, is a dark background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 3 December 1997, by European astronomers of the ODAS survey at the CERGA Observatory near Caussols, France. The asteroid was named after the English rock band Pink Floyd.


19367 Pink Floyd, Orbit and classification
Pink Floyd is a non-family asteroid from the background population. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.0–2.8 AU once every 3 years and 10 months (1,397 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.16 and an inclination of 4° with respect to the ecliptic.


19367 Pink Floyd, Orbit and classification
The asteroid was first identified as 1985 UZ2 at the discovering Caussols Observatory in October 1985. Its observation arc begins 43 years prior to its official discovery observation, with a precovery taken by the Digitized Sky Survey at Palomar Observatory in July 1954.


19367 Pink Floyd, Physical characteristics, Diameter and albedo
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Pink Floyd measures 6.652 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a low albedo of 0.048. An albedo near 0.05 is typical for carbonaceous C-type asteroids, which are the dominant type in the outer region of the main belt, but rather unusual in the inner parts. Pink Floyd has an absolute magnitude of 14.6.


19367 Pink Floyd, Physical characteristics, Rotation period
As of 2017, no rotational lightcurve of Pink Floyd has been obtained from photometric observations. The asteroid's rotation period, spin axis and shape remain unknown.


19367 Pink Floyd, Naming
This minor planet was named after the English rock band Pink Floyd, which released several astronomically themed songs such as "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Astronomy Domine". The band's album The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) became one of the best-selling records of all time.


19367 Pink Floyd, Naming
The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 6 August 2003 (M.P.C. 49281).


1936–1937 Iraqi parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq between 10 December 1936 and 20 February 1937 to elect the members of Chamber of Deputies of Iraq.


1936–1937 Iraqi parliamentary election, Background
After the 1936 military coup led by Bakr Sidqi, disagreement between the parliament led by deposed Prime Minister Yasin al-Hashimi and the left-leaning military government presided over by Hikmat Sulayman, led to the dissolution of parliament on 31 October 1936. The new elections started in December 1936 and were complete by 20 February 1937.


1936–1937 Iraqi parliamentary election, Results
A bloc supportive of coup leader Bakr Sidqi and members of the leftist Popular Reform Party won the elections and were the most prominent political groups in the new parliament. Both groups supported Hikmat Sulayman's government. The new parliaments also included military officers, tribal leaders, nationalists and independent members. Later, the Popular Reform Party was accused of having communist ideology, and was dissolved.


1936–1937 Iraqi parliamentary election, Aftermath
Bakr Sidqi and another coup leader were assassinated on 12 August 1937 in Mosul. After losing the support of the military,  Sulayman resigned on 17 August 1937. Parliament was dissolved on 26 August 1937 and fresh elections were held on 18 December 1937.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, later came to be known as The Great Revolt (al-Thawra al- Kubra) or The Great Palestinian Revolt (Thawrat Filastin al-Kubra), was a nationalist uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against the British administration of the Palestine Mandate, demanding Arab independence and the end of the policy of open-ended Jewish immigration  and land purchases with the stated goal of establishing a "Jewish National Home".


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
The uprising coincided with a peak in the influx of immigrant Jews, some 60,000, that year,-the Jewish population having grown under British auspices from 57,000 to 320,000 in 1935  – and with the growing plight of the rural fellahin rendered landless, who as they moved to metropolitan centres to escape their abject poverty found themselves socially marginalized.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
Since 1920 Jews and Palestinians had been involved in a cycle of attacks and counter-attacks, and the immediate spark for the uprising was  the murder of two Jews by a Qassamite band, and the retaliatory killing by Jewish gunmen of two Arab labourers, incidents which triggered a flare-up of violence across Palestine. A month into the disturbances Hajj Amin al-Husseini declared 16 May 1936 as 'Palestine Day' and called for a General Strike. The revolt was branded by many in the Jewish Yishuv as "immoral and terroristic", often compared to fascism and Nazism. Ben Gurion, however, described Arab causes as fear of growing Jewish economic power, opposition to mass Jewish immigration and fear of the English identification with Zionism.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
The general strike lasted from April to October 1936. The revolt is often analysed in terms of two distinct phases. The first phase was one of spontaneous popular resistance which was only, in a second moment, seized on by the urban and elitist Higher Arab Committee (HAC), which gave the movement an organized shape and was focused mainly on strikes and other forms of political protest, in order to secure a political result.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
By October 1936, this phase had been defeated by the British civil administration using a combination of political concessions, international diplomacy (involving the rulers of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Transjordan and Yemen and the threat of martial law. The second phase, which began late in 1937, was a peasant-led resistance movement provoked by British repression in 1936 in which increasingly British forces were targeted as the army itself increasingly targeted the villages it thought supportive of the revolt.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
During this phase, the rebellion was brutally suppressed by the British Army and the Palestine Police Force using repressive measures that were intended to intimidate the whole population and undermine popular support for the revolt. A more dominant role on the Arab side was taken by the Nashashibi clan, whose NDP party quickly withdrew from the rebel Arab Higher Committee, led by the radical faction of Amin al-Husseini, and instead sided with the British – dispatching "Fasail al-Salam" (the "Peace Bands") in coordination with the British Army against nationalist and Jihadist Arab "Fasail" units (literally "bands").


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
According to official British figures covering the whole revolt, the army and police killed more than 2,000 Arabs in combat, 108 were hanged,   and 961 died because of what they described as "gang and terrorist activities". In an analysis of the British statistics, Walid Khalidi  estimates 19,792 casualties for the Arabs, with 5,032 dead: 3,832 killed by the British and 1,200 dead due to intracommunal terrorism, and 14,760 wounded. By one estimate, ten percent of the adult male Palestinian Arab population between 20 and 60 was killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled. Estimates of the number of Palestinian Jews killed are up to several hundred.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
The Arab revolt in Mandatory Palestine was unsuccessful, and its consequences affected the outcome of the 1948 Palestine war. It caused the British Mandate to give crucial support to pre-state Zionist militias like the Haganah, whereas on the Palestinian Arab side, the revolt forced the flight into exile of the main Palestinian Arab leader of the period, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem – Haj Amin al-Husseini.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Economic background
Economic factors played a major role in the outbreak of the Arab revolt. Palestine's fellahin, the country's peasant farmers, comprised over two-thirds of the indigenous Arab population and from the 1920s onwards they were pushed off the land in increasingly large numbers into urban environments where they often encountered only poverty and social marginalisation. Many were crowded into shanty towns in Jaffa and Haifa where they found succor and encouragement in the teachings of the charismatic preacher Izz ad-Din al-Qassam who worked among the poor in Haifa. The revolt was thus a popular uprising that produced its own leaders and developed into a national revolt.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Economic background
World War I left Palestine, especially the countryside, deeply impoverished. The Ottoman and then the Mandate authorities levied high taxes on farming and agricultural produce and during the 1920s and 1930s this together with a fall in prices, cheap imports, natural disasters and paltry harvests all contributed to the increasing indebtedness of the fellahin.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Economic background
The rents paid by tenant fellah increased sharply, owing to increased population density, and transfer of land from Arabs to the Jewish settlement agencies, such as the Jewish National Fund, increased the number of fellahin evicted while also removing the land as a future source of livelihood. By 1931 the 106,400 dunums of low-lying Category A farming land in Arab possession supported a farming population of 590,000 whereas the 102,000 dunums of such land in Jewish possession supported a farming population of only 50,000.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Economic background
The late 1920s witnessed poor harvests, and the consequent immiseration grew even harsher with the onset of the Great Depression and the collapse of commodity prices. The Shaw Commission had warned in 1930 identified the existence of a class of 'embittered landless people' as a contributory factor to the 1929 disturbances, and the problem of these 'landless' Arabs grew particularly grave after 1931, causing High Commissioner Wauchope to warn that this 'social peril ... would serve as a focus of discontent and might even result in serious disorders.'


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Economic background
Although the Mandatory government introduced measures to limit the transfer of land from Arabs to Jews these were easily circumvented by willing buyers and sellers. The failure of the authorities to invest in economic growth and healthcare for the general Palestinian public and the Zionist policy of ensuring that their investments were directed only to facilitate expansion exclusively of the Yishuv further compounded matters.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Economic background
The government did, however, set the minimum wage for Arab workers below that for Jewish workers, which meant that those making capital investments in the Yishuv's economic infrastructure, such as Haifa's electricity plant, the Shemen oil and soap factory, the Grands Moulins flour mills and the Nesher cement factory, could take advantage of cheap Arab labour pouring in from the countryside. After 1935 the slump in the construction boom and further concentration by the Yishuv on an exclusivist Hebrew labour programme removed most of the sources of employment for rural migrants. By 1935 only 12,000 Arabs (5% of the workforce) worked in the Jewish sector, half of these in agriculture, whereas 32,000 worked for the Mandate authorities and 211,000 were either self-employed or worked for Arab employers.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Economic background
The ongoing disruption of agrarian life in Palestine, which had been continuing since Ottoman times, thus created a large population of landless peasant farmers who subsequently became mobile wage workers who were increasingly marginalised and impoverished; these became willing participants in nationalist rebellion. At the same time, Jewish immigration peaked in 1935, just months before Palestinian Arabs began a full-scale, nationwide revolt.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Economic background
Over the four years between 1933 and 1936 more than 164,000 Jewish immigrants arrived in Palestine, and between 1931 and 1936 the Jewish population more than doubled from 175,000 to 370,000 people, increasing the Jewish population share from 17% to 27%, and bringing about a significant deterioration in relations between Palestinian Arabs and Jews.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Political and socio-cultural background
The advent of Zionism and British colonial administration crystallised Palestinian nationalism and the desire to defend indigenous traditions and institutions. Palestinian society was largely clan-based (hamula), with an urban land-holding elite lacking a centralized leadership. Traditional feasts such as Nebi Musa began to acquire a political and nationalist dimension and new national memorial days were introduced or gained new significance; among them Balfour Day (2 November, marking the Balfour Declaration of 1917), the anniversary of the Battle of Hattin (4 July), and beginning in 1930 May 16 was celebrated as Palestine Day.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Political and socio-cultural background
The expansion of education, the development of civil society and of transportation, communications, and especially of broadcasting and other media, all facilitated notable changes. The Yishuv itself, at the same time, was steadily building the structures for its own state-building with  public organizations like the Jewish Agency and the covert creation and consolidation of a paramilitary arm with the Haganah and Irgun.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Political and socio-cultural background
In 1930 Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam organized and established the Black Hand, a small anti-Zionist and anti-British militant band. He recruited and arranged military training for impoverished but pious peasants but also for ex-criminals he had persuaded to take Islam seriously and they  engaged in a campaign of vandalizing trees planted by farmers and British-constructed rail lines, destroying phone lines and disrupting transportation.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Political and socio-cultural background
Three minor mujāhīdūn and jihadist groups had also been formed that advocated armed struggle; these were the Green Hand (al-Kaff al-Khaḍrā) -active in the area of Acre-Safed-Nazareth from 1929 until 1930 when they  were dispersed;  the Organization for Holy Struggle (al-Jihād al-Muqaddas), led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and operative in the areas of Jerusalem (1931–1934); and the Rebel Youth (al-Shabāb al-Thā'ir), active in the Tulkarm and Qalqilyah area from 1935, and comprised  mainly of local boy scouts.)


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Political and socio-cultural background
The pressures of the 30s wrought several changes, giving rise to new political organizations and a broader activism that spurred a far wider cross-section of the population in  rural areas, strongly nationalist,  to join actively in the Palestinian cause. Among new political parties  formed in this period were the Independence Party which called for an Indian Congress Party-style boycott of the British, the pro-Nashashibi National Defence Party, the pro-Husayni Palestinian Arab Party the pro-Khalidi Arab-Palestinian Reform Party, and the National Bloc, based mainly around Nablus.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Political and socio-cultural background
Youth organisations emerged  like Young Men's Muslim Association and the Youth Congress Party, the former anti-Zionist, the latter pan-Arab. The Palestinian Boy Scout Movement, founded early in 1936, became active in the general strike. Women's organisations, which had been active in social matters, became politically involved from the end of the 1920s, with an Arab Women's Congress held in Jerusalem in 1929 attracting 200 participants, and an Arab Women's Association (later Arab Women's Union) being established at the same time, both organised by feminist Tarab Abdul Hadi. Myriads of rural women would play an important role in response to faz'a alarm calls for intervillage help by rallying in defence of the rebellion.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Prelude
On 16 October 1935 a large arms shipment camouflaged in cement bins, comprising 25 Lewis guns and their bipods, 800 rifles and 400,000 rounds of ammunition  destined for the Haganah, was discovered during unloading at the port of Jaffa. The news sparked Arab fears of a Jewish military takeover of Palestine,  A little over two weeks later, on November 2 1935,  al-Qassam gave a speech in the port of Haifa denouncing the Balfour declaration on its 18th anniversary. In a proclamation to that effect,  together with Jamal al-Husayni, he alluded to the Haganah weapons smuggling operation.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Prelude
Questioned at the time by a confidant about his preparations, he stated that he had 15 men, each furnished with a rifle and one cartridge. Soon after, perhaps fearing a pending preemptive arrest, he disappeared with his group into the hills, not to start a revolution, premature at that point, but to impress upon people that he was man ready to do what he said should be done. Some weeks later, a Jewish policeman was shot dead in a citrus grove while investigating the theft of grapefruit, after he happened to come close to the Qassamites' encampment. Following the incident, the Palestine police launched a massive manhunt and surrounded al-Qassam in a cave just north of Ya'bad. In the ensuing battle, on 20 November, al-Qassam was killed.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Prelude
The death of al-Qassam generated widespread outrage among Palestinian Arabs, galvanizing public sentiments with an impact similar to the effect on the Yishuv of news of the death of Joseph Trumpeldor in 1920 at the Tel Hai settlement. Huge crowds gathered for the occasion of his obsequies in Haifa and later burial in Balad al-Shaykh.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Prelude
The actual uprising was triggered some five months later, on 15 April 1936, by the Anabta shooting whete remnants of a Qassamite band stopped a convoy on the road from Nablus to Tulkarm, robbed its passengers and, stating that they were acting to revenge al-Qassam's death, shot 3 Jewish passengers, two fatally, after ascertaining their identity. One of the three, Israel Chazan, was from Thessaloniki. The Salonican community’s request that permission be granted to allow them to conduct a solemn funeral for Chasan was turned down by the district commissioner, who had allowed al-Qassam a ceremonial burial some months earlier.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Prelude
The refusal sparked an demonstration by 30,000 Jews in Tel Aviv who overcame the police and maltreated Arab labourers and damaged property in Jaffa. The following day, two Arab workers sleeping in a hut in a banana plantation beside the highway between Petah Tikva and Yarkona were assassinated in retaliation by members of the Haganah-Bet.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Prelude
Jews and Palestinians attacked each other in and around Tel Aviv. Palestinians in Jaffa rampaged through a Jewish residential area, resulting in Jewish deaths. After four days, by  19 April,  the deteriorating situation erupted into a set of countrywide disturbances. An Arab general strike and revolt ensued that lasted until October 1936.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Prelude
During the summer of that year, thousands of Jewish-farmed acres and orchards were destroyed, Jewish civilians were attacked and murdered, and some Jewish communities, such as those in Beisan and Acre, fled to safer areas.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
General strikes had been used in neighbouring Arab countries to place political pressures on Western colonial powers. In Iraq a general strike in July 1931, accompanied by organised demonstrations in the streets, led to independence for the former British mandate territory under Prime Minister Nuri as-Said, and full membership of the League of Nations in October 1932.The Syrian national movement had used a general strike from 20 January to 6 March in 1936 which, despite harsh reprisals, brought about negotiations in Paris that led to a Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence. This showed that determined economic and political pressure could challenge a fragile imperial administration.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
The strike began on 19 April in Nablus, where an Arab National Committee was formed, and by the end of the month National Committees had been formed in all of the towns and some of the larger villages. On 21 April the leaders of the five main parties accepted the decision at Nablus and called for a general strike of all Arabs engaged in labour, transport and shopkeeping for the following day.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
While the strike was initially organised by workers and local committees, under pressure from below, political leaders became involved to help with co-ordination. This led to the formation on 25 April 1936 of the Arab Higher Committee (AHC). The Committee resolved "to continue the general strike until the British Government changes its present policy in a fundamental manner"; the demands were threefold: (1) the prohibition of Jewish immigration; (2) the prohibition of the transfer of Arab land to Jews; (3) the establishment of a National Government responsible to a representative council.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
About one month after the general strike started, the leadership group declared a general non-payment of taxes in explicit opposition to Jewish immigration.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
In the countryside, armed insurrection started sporadically, becoming more organised with time. One particular target of the rebels was the Mosul–Haifa oil pipeline of the Iraq Petroleum Company constructed only a few years earlier to Haifa from a point on the Jordan River south of Lake Tiberias. This was repeatedly bombed at various points along its length. Other attacks were on railways (including trains) and on civilian targets such as Jewish settlements, secluded Jewish neighbourhoods in the mixed cities, and Jews, both individually and in groups.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
The measures taken against the strike were harsh at the beginning and grew harsher as it went along involving house searches without warrants, night raids, preventive detention, caning, flogging, deportation, confiscation of property, and torture. As early as May 1936 the British formed armed Jewish units equipped with armoured vehicles to serve as auxiliary police.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
The British government in Palestine was convinced that the strike had the full support of the Palestinian Arabs and they could see "no weakening in the will and spirit of the Arab people." Air Vice-Marshall Richard Peirse, commander of British forces in Palestine and Transjordan from 1933 to 1936, reported that because the rebel armed bands were supported by villagers,


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
It was quickly evident that the only way to regain the initiative from the rebels was by initiating measures against the villagers from which the rebels and saboteurs came ... I therefore initiated, in co-operation with the Inspector-General of Police R. G. B. Spicer, village searches. Ostensibly, these searches were undertaken to find arms and wanted persons, actually the measures adopted by the Police on the lines of similar Turkish methods, were punitive and effective.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
In reality the measures created a sense of solidarity between the villagers and the rebels. The pro-Government Mayor of Nablus complained to the High Commissioner that, "During the last searches effected in villages properties were destroyed, jewels stolen, and the Holy Qur'an torn, and this has increased the excitement of the fellahin." However, Moshe Shertok of the Jewish Agency even suggested that all villages in the area of an incident should be punished.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
On 2 June, an attempt by rebels to derail a train bringing the 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment from Egypt led to the railways being put under guard, placing a great strain on the security forces. In response to this situation on 4 June the government rounded up a large number of Palestinian leaders and sent them to a detention camp at Auja al-Hafir in the Negev desert.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
The Battle of Nur Shams on 21 June marked an escalation with the largest engagement of British troops against Arab militants so far in this Revolt.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
During July, Arab volunteers from Syria and Transjordan, led by Fawzi al-Qawukji, helped the rebels to divide their formations into four fronts, each led by a District Commander who had armed platoons of 150–200 fighters, each commanded by a platoon leader.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
A Statement of Policy issued by the Colonial Office in London on 7 September declared the situation a: "direct challenge to the authority of the British Government in Palestine" and announced the appointment of Lieutenant-General John Dill as supreme military commander. By the end of September 20,000 British troops in Palestine were deployed to "round up Arab bands".


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Arab General Strike and armed insurrection
In June 1936 the British involved their clients in Transjordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt in an attempt to pacify the Palestinian Arabs and on 9 October the rulers made an appeal for the strike to be ended. A more pressing concern may have been the approaching citrus harvest and the soaring prices that were available because of the disruption caused to the Spanish citrus harvest by the Spanish Civil War.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Peel commission
The strike was called off on 11 October 1936 and the violence abated for about a year while the Peel Commission deliberated. The Royal Commission was announced on 18 May 1936 and its members were appointed on 29 July, but the Commission did not arrive in Palestine until 11 November.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Peel commission
The commission, which concluded that 1,000 Arab rebels had been killed during the strike, later described the disturbances as "an open rebellion of the Palestinian Arabs, assisted by fellow-Arabs from other countries, against Mandatory rule" and noted two unprecedented features of the revolt: the support of all senior Arab officials in the political and technical departments in the Palestine administration (including all of the Arab judges) and the "interest and sympathy of the neighbouring Arab peoples", which had resulted in support for the rebellion in the form of volunteers from Syria and Iraq.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Peel commission
In the early 1920s the first High Commissioner of Palestine, Herbert Samuel, failed to create a unified political structure embracing both Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews in constitutional government with joint political institutions. This failure facilitated internal institutional partition in which the Jewish Agency exercised a degree of autonomous control over the Jewish settlement and the Supreme Muslim Council performed a comparable role for Muslims. Thus, well before Lord Peel arrived in Palestine on 11 November 1936, the groundwork for territorial partition as proposed by the Royal Commission in its report on 7 July 1937 had already been done.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Peel commission
Peel's main recommendation was for partition of Palestine into a small Jewish state (based on current Jewish land ownership population and incorporating the country's most productive agricultural land), a residual Mandatory area, and a larger Arab state linked to Transjordan. A second and more radical proposal was for transfer of 225,000 Palestinian Arabs from the Jewish state to the Arab state and Transjordan. It is likely that Zionist leaders played a role in persuading Peel to accept the notion of transfer, which had been a strand of Zionist ideology from its inception.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Peel commission
The Arab Higher Committee rejected the recommendations immediately, as did the Jewish Revisionists. Initially, the religious Zionists, some of the General Zionists, and sections of the Labour Zionist movement opposed the recommendations. Ben-Gurion was delighted by the Peel Commission's support for transfer, which he viewed as the foundation of "national consolidation in a free homeland." Subsequently, the 2 main Jewish leaders, Chaim Weizmann and Ben Gurion had convinced the Zionist Congress to approve equivocally the Peel recommendations as a basis for further negotiation,    and to negotiate a modified Peel proposal with the British.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Peel commission
The British government initially accepted the Peel report in principle. However, with war clouds looming over Europe, they realized that to attempt to implement it against the will of the Palestinian Arab majority would rouse up the entire Arab world against Britain. The Woodhead Commission considered three different plans, one of which was based on the Peel plan. Reporting in 1938, the Commission rejected the Peel plan primarily on the grounds that it could not be implemented without a massive forced transfer of Arabs (an option that the British government had already ruled out).


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Peel commission
With dissent from some of its members, the Commission instead recommended a plan that would leave the Galilee under British mandate, but emphasised serious problems with it that included a lack of financial self-sufficiency of the proposed Arab State. The British Government accompanied the publication of the Woodhead Report by a statement of policy rejecting partition as impracticable due to "political, administrative and financial difficulties".


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Resumed Revolt (September 1937 – August 1939)
With the failure of the Peel Commission's proposals the revolt resumed during the autumn of 1937 marked by the assassination on 26 September of Acting District Commissioner of the Galilee Lewis Andrews by Arab gunmen in Nazareth. On 30 September, regulations were issued allowing the Government to detain political deportees in any part of the British Empire, and authorizing the High Commissioner to outlaw associations whose objectives he regarded as contrary to public policy.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Resumed Revolt (September 1937 – August 1939)
Haj Amin al-Husseini was removed from the leadership of the Supreme Moslem Council and the General Waqf Committee, the local National Committees and the Arab Higher Committee were disbanded; five Arab leaders were arrested and deported to the Seychelles; and in fear of arrest Jamal el-Husseini fled to Syria and Haj Amin el-Husseini to Lebanon;< all frontiers with Palestine were closed, telephone connections to neighbouring countries were withdrawn, press censorship was introduced and a special concentration camp was opened near Acre.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Resumed Revolt (September 1937 – August 1939)
In November 1937, the Irgun formally rejected the policy of Havlagah and embarked on a series of indiscriminate attacks against Arab civilians as a form of what the group called "active defense" against Arab attacks on Jewish civilians. The British authorities set up military courts, which were established for the trial of offenses connected with the carrying and discharge of firearms, sabotage and intimidation. Despite this, however, the Arab campaign of murder and sabotage continued and Arab gangs in the hills took on the appearance of organized guerrilla fighters.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Resumed Revolt (September 1937 – August 1939)
Violence continued throughout 1938. In July 1938, when the Palestine Government seemed to have largely lost control of the situation, the garrison was strengthened from Egypt, and in September it was further reinforced from England. The police were placed under the operational control of the army commander, and military officials superseded the civil authorities in the enforcement of order. In October the Old City of Jerusalem, which had become a rebel stronghold, was reoccupied by the troops. By the end of the year a semblance of order had been restored in the towns, but terrorism continued in rural areas until the outbreak of the Second World War.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Resumed Revolt (September 1937 – August 1939)
Despite cooperation of the Yishuv with the British to quell the revolt, some incidents towards the end of the conflict indicated a coming change in relations. On 12 June 1939, A British explosives expert was killed trying to defuse an Irgun bomb near a Jerusalem post office. On 26 August, two British police officers, Inspector Ronald Barker and Inspector Ralph Cairns, commander of the Jewish Department of the C.I.D., were killed by an Irgun mine in Jerusalem.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Timeline, Resumed Revolt (September 1937 – August 1939)
In the final fifteen months of the revolt alone there were 936 murders and 351 attempted murders; 2,125 incidents of sniping; 472 bombs thrown and detonated; 364 cases of armed robbery; 1,453 cases of sabotage against government and commercial property; 323 people abducted; 72 cases of intimidation; 236 Jews killed by Arabs and 435 Arabs killed by Jews; 1,200 rebels killed by the police and military and 535 wounded.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
Military law allowed swift prison sentences to be passed. Thousands of Arabs were held in administrative detention, without trial, and without proper sanitation, in overcrowded prison camps.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
The British had already formalised the principle of collective punishment in Palestine in the 1924–1925 Collective Responsibility and Punishment Ordinances and updated these ordinances in 1936 with the Collective Fines Ordinance. These collective fines (amounting to £1,000,000 over the revolt) eventually became a heavy burden for poor Palestinian villagers, especially when the army also confiscated livestock, destroyed properties, imposed long curfews and established police posts, demolished houses and detained some or all of the Arab men in distant detention camps.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
Full martial law was not introduced but in a series of Orders in Council and Emergency Regulations, 1936–37 'statutory' martial law, a stage between semi-military rule under civil powers and full martial law under military powers, and one in which the army and not the civil High Commissioner was pre-eminent was put in place. Following the Arab capture of the Old City of Jerusalem in October 1938, the army effectively took over Jerusalem and then all of Palestine.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
The main form of collective punishment employed by the British forces was destruction of property. Sometimes entire villages were reduced to rubble, as happened to Mi'ar in October 1938; more often several prominent houses were blown up and others were trashed inside. The biggest single act of destruction occurred in Jaffa on 16 June 1936, when large gelignite charges were used to cut long pathways through the old city, destroying 220–240 buildings and rendering up to 6,000 Arabs homeless.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
Scathing criticism for this action from Palestine Chief Justice Sir Michael McDonnell was not well received by the administration and the judge was soon removed from the country. Villages were also frequently punished by fines and confiscation of livestock. The British even used sea mines from the battleship HMS Malaya to destroy houses.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
In addition to actions against property, a large amount of brutality by the British forces occurred, including beatings, torture and extrajudicial killings. A surprisingly large number of prisoners were "shot while trying to escape". Several incidents involved serious atrocities, such as massacres at al-Bassa and Halhul. Desmond Woods, an officer of the Royal Ulster Rifles, described the massacre at al-Bassa:


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
Now I will never forget this incident ... We were at al-Malikiyya, the other frontier base and word came through about 6 o'clock in the morning that one of our patrols had been blown up and Millie Law [the dead officer] had been killed. Now Gerald Whitfeld [Lieutenant-Colonel G.H.P. Whitfeld, the battalion commander] had told these mukhtars that if any of this sort of thing happened he would take punitive measures against the nearest village to the scene of the mine.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
Well the nearest village to the scene of the mine was a place called al-Bassa and our Company C were ordered to take part in punitive measures. And I will never forget arriving at al-Bassa and seeing the Rolls Royce armoured cars of the 11th Hussars peppering Bassa with machine gun fire and this went on for about 20 minutes and then we went in and I remembered we had lighted braziers and we set the houses on fire and we burnt the village to the ground ...


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
Monty had him [the battalion commander] up and he asked him all about it and Gerald Whitfeld explained to him. He said "Sir, I have warned the mukhtars in these villages that if this happened to any of my officers or men, I would take punitive measures against them and I did this and I would've lost control of the frontier if I hadn't." Monty said "All right but just go a wee bit easier in the future."


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
As well as destroying the village the RUR and men from the Royal Engineers collected around fifty men from al-Bassa and blew some of them up with explosion under a bus. Harry Arrigonie, a policeman who was present said that about twenty men were put onto a bus; those who tried to escape were shot and then the driver of the bus was forced to drive over a powerful land mine buried by the soldiers which completely destroyed the bus, scattering the mutilated bodies of the prisoners everywhere. The other villagers were then forced to bury the bodies in a pit.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
Despite these measures Lieutenant-General Haining, the General Officer Commanding, reported secretly to the Cabinet on 1 December 1938 that "practically every village in the country harbours and supports the rebels and will assist in concealing their identity from the Government Forces." Haining reported the method for searching villages:


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
A cordon round the area to be searched is first established either by troops or aircraft and the inhabitants are warned that anybody trying to break through the cordon is likely to be shot. As literally hundreds of villages have been searched, in some cases more than once, during the past six months this procedure is well-known and it can be safely assumed that cordon-breakers have good reasons for wishing to avoid the troops.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
A number of such cordon-breakers have been shot during searches and it is probable that such cases form the basis of the propaganda that Arab prisoners are shot in cold blood and reported as "killed while trying to escape". After the cordon is established the troops enter the village and all male inhabitants are collected for identification and interrogation.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
The report was issued in response to growing concern at the severity of the military measures amongst the general public in Great Britain, among members of the British Government, and among governments in countries neighbouring Palestine.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
In addition to actions against villages the British Army also conducted punitive actions in the cities. In Nablus in August 1938 almost 5,000 men were held in a cage for two days and interrogated one after another. During their detention the city was searched and then each of the detainees was marked with a rubber stamp on his release. At one point a night curfew was imposed on most of the cities.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
It was common British army practice to make local Arabs ride with military convoys to prevent mine attacks and sniping incidents: soldiers would tie the hostages to the bonnets of lorries, or put them on small flatbeds on the front of trains. The army told the hostages that any of them who tried to run away would be shot. On the lorries, some soldiers would brake hard at the end of a journey and then casually drive over the hostage, killing or maiming him, as Arthur Lane, a Manchester Regiment private recalled:


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
... when you'd finished your duty you would come away nothing had happened no bombs or anything and the driver would switch his wheel back and to make the truck waver and the poor wog on the front would roll off into the deck. Well if he was lucky he'd get away with a broken leg but if he was unlucky the truck behind coming up behind would hit him. But nobody bothered to pick up the bits they were left.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
You know we were there we were the masters we were the bosses and whatever we did was right ... Well you know you don't want him any more. He's fulfilled his job. And that's when Bill Usher [the commanding officer] said that it had to stop because before long they'd be running out of bloody rebels to sit on the bonnet.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
British troops also left Arab wounded on the battlefield to die and maltreated Arab fighters taken in battle, so much so that the rebels tried to remove their wounded or dead from the field of battle. Sometimes, soldiers would occupy villages, expel all of the inhabitants and remain for months. The Army even burned the bodies of "terrorists" to prevent their funerals becoming the focus of protests.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Mandate Government and the British Army
Nevertheless, it has been argued that British behaviour overall was good compared to most other examples where a foreign army suppressed a popular insurgency.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Tegart forts
Sir Charles Tegart was a senior police officer brought into Palestine from the colonial force of British India on 21 October 1937. Tegart and his deputy David Petrie (later head of MI5) advised a greater emphasis on foreign intelligence gathering and closure of Palestine's borders. Like many of those enrolled in the Palestinian gendarmerie, Tegart had served in Great Britain's repression of the Irish War of Independence, and the security proposals he introduced exceeded measures adopted down to this time elsewhere in the British Empire.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Tegart forts
70 fortresses were erected throughout the country at strategic choke points and near Palestinian villages which, if assessed as "bad", were subjected to collective punishment. Accordingly, from 1938 Gilbert Mackereth, the British Consul in Damascus, corresponded with Syrian and Transjordan authorities regarding border control and security to counteract arms smuggling and "terrorist" infiltration and produced a report for Tegart on the activities of the Palestine Defence Committee in Damascus.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Tegart forts
Tegart recommended the construction of a frontier road with a barbed wire fence, which became known as Tegart's wall, along the borders with Lebanon and Syria to help prevent the flow of insurgents, goods and weapons. Tegart encouraged close co-operation with the Jewish Agency. It was built by the Histadrut construction company Solel Boneh. The total cost was £2 million. The Army forced the fellahin to work on the roads without pay.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Tegart forts
Tegart introduced Arab Investigation Centres where prisoners were subjected to beatings, foot whipping, electric shocks, denailing and what is now known as "waterboarding". Tegart also imported Doberman Pinschers from South Africa and set up a special centre in Jerusalem to train interrogators in torture.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force developed close air support into its then most refined form during the Arab Revolt. Air patrols had been found effective in keeping convoys and trains free from attack, but this did not help to expose insurgents to battle conditions likely to cause their defeat. From the middle of June 1936 wireless vehicles accompanied all convoys and patrols. During rebel attacks these vehicles could issue emergency "XX calls" (XX with a coded location), which were given priority over all other radio traffic, to summon aerial reinforcements.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Air Force
Bombers, which were usually airborne within five minutes, could then either attack insurgents directly or "fix" their position for infantry troops. Forty-seven such XX calls were issued during the revolt, causing heavy losses to the rebels. In the June 1936 Battle of Nur Shams British planes attacked Arab irregulars with machine gun fire.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Air Force
This use of air power was so successful that the British were able to reduce the regular garrison.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Air Force
In 1936 an Air Staff Officer in Middle East Command based in the Kingdom of Egypt, Arthur Harris, known as an advocate of "air policing", commented on the revolt saying that "one 250 lb. or 500 lb. bomb in each village that speaks out of turn" would satisfactorily solve the problem. In 1937 Harris was promoted to Air Commodore and in 1938 he was posted to Palestine and Trans-Jordan as Air Officer Commanding the RAF contingent in the region until September 1939. "Limited" bombing attacks on Arab villages were carried out by the RAF, although at times this involved razing whole villages. Harris described the system by which recalcitrant villages were kept under control by aerial bombardment as "Air-Pin".


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Air Force
Aircraft of the RAF were also used to drop propaganda leaflets over Palestinian towns and villages telling the fellahin that they were the main sufferers of the rebellion and threatening an increase in taxes.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Air Force
Low flying RAF squadrons were able to produce detailed intelligence on the location of road blocks, sabotaged bridges, railways and pipelines. RAF aerial photographs were also used to build up a detailed map of Arab population distribution.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Air Force
Although the British Army was responsible for setting up the Arab counter-insurgent forces (known as the peace bands) and supplying them with arms and money these were operated by RAF Intelligence, commanded by Patrick Domville.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Air Force
At the beginning of the revolt RAF assets in the region comprised a bomber flight at RAF Ramleh, an RAF armoured car flight at Ramleh, fourteen bomber squadrons at RAF Amman, and a RAF armoured car company at Ma'an.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Navy
At the beginning of the Revolt crew from the Haifa Naval Force's two cruisers were used to carry out tasks ashore, manning two howitzers and naval lorries equipped with QF 2 pounder naval guns and searchlights used to disperse Arab snipers. From the end of June two destroyers were used to patrol the coast of Palestine in a bid to prevent gun running. These searched as many as 150 vessels per week and were an effective preventive measure.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Navy
At the request of the Army additional naval platoons landed in July to help protect Haifa and Jewish settlements in the surrounding countryside. The Navy also relieved the Army of duties in Haifa by using nine naval platoons to form the Haifa Town Force and in August three naval platoons were landed to support the police.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Navy
Following publication of the Peel Commission's report in July 1937 HMS Repulse sailed to Haifa where landing parties were put ashore to maintain calm. Various other naval vessels continued with this role until the end of the revolt.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Navy
Following the Irgun's detonation of a large bomb in a market in Haifa on 6 July 1938 the High Commissioner signalled the Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, requesting the assistance of naval vessels capable of providing landing parties. Pound dispatched HMS Repulse and diverted HMS Emerald to Haifa, which arrived the same day and landed five platoons, one to each police district. HMS Repulse relieved HMS Emerald the following day and after another bomb was detonated on 10 July five platoons from the ship, made up of sailors and Royal Marines, dispersed mobs and patrolled the city.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Navy
On 11 July provision of three platoons from Repulse released men of the West Kent Regiment for a punitive mission against Arabs who had attacked a Jewish colony near Haifa. By 17 July the Repulse established a Company Headquarters where seamen and Royal Marines manned a 3.7-inch howitzer. Sailors, Royal Marines, and men of the Suffolk Regiment, who had embarked on the Repulse, accompanied foot patrols of the Palestine Police Force.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Navy
The Repulse, HMS Hood and HMS Warspite provided howitzer crews which were sent ashore to combat gun running near the border with Lebanon. Detained Arabs were used to build emplacements and the howitzers were moved quickly between these positions by day and night to confuse bandits as to the likely direction of fire. Periodically, the guns were used to fire warning rounds close to the vicinity of villages believed to have rebel sympathies.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Navy, Strategic importance of Haifa
Britain had completed the modern deep-sea port in Haifa in 1933 and finished laying a pipeline from the Iraqi oilfields to Haifa in 1935, shortly before the outbreak of the revolt. A refinery for processing oil from the pipeline was completed by Consolidated Refineries Ltd, a company jointly owned by British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell, in December 1939.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Royal Navy, Strategic importance of Haifa
These facilities enhanced the strategic importance of Palestine and of Haifa in particular in Britain's control of the eastern Mediterranean. The threat to British control of the region posed by the Italian invasion of Abyssinia in October 1935 and the deteriorating situation in Europe toward the end of the 1930s probably made British policy makers more willing to make concessions to Arab governments on the Palestine issue following the furore over the recommendations of the Peel Commission.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the British intelligence services
The Arab Revolt was the last major test of Britain's security services in the Middle East before World War II. The development and deployment of intelligence-led counterinsurgency strategies was integral to the restoration of British imperial control in Palestine as the revolt had demonstrated to the British authorities how a popular rebellion could undermine intelligence gathering operations and thereby impair their ability to predict and respond to inter-communal disorder. The rebellion had brought together urban nationalism and peasant economic grievances arising from rural poverty and landlessness, which was blamed on British misrule.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the British intelligence services
Accordingly, the Palestinian revolt targeted the political and economic apparatus of the British colonial state, including the communications network, pipelines, police stations, army outposts and British personnel. It was this aspect of the revolt, rather than attacks on Jews or violence between rivals for leadership of the national movement, that most concerned the high commissioner. The mandate authorities were further disturbed by the unity of purpose displayed during the six-month general strike and by the resurgence of pan-Arab nationalism as evidenced by the rise of the Istiqlal Party.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the British intelligence services
In response to these challenges the British army command ("I" Branch) and battalion headquarters across Palestine issued a daily intelligence bulletin every afternoon detailing political developments. Special Service Officers (SSOs) assigned to intelligence gathering reported directly to their local command headquarters and their cars were equipped with wireless transmitters so that high grade intelligence could be reported directly to "I" Branch immediately. These sources of intelligence gradually became more important than those of the C.I.D. in Palestine, which had been dependent on Arab informers, and which were no longer reliable.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the British intelligence services
In September 1937, the Jewish Agency appointed Reuven Zaslany liaison officer for intelligence and security affairs between the Political Department of the Jewish Agency and the intelligence arms of the Royal Air Force and the C.I.D. Zaslany sifted through intelligence collected by Jewish-controlled field operatives and forwarded it to the British military. He was a frequent visitor at the headquarters of British intelligence and the army, the police and C.I.D. and he also travelled to Damascus to liaise with the Arab opposition's peace bands and with the British Consul in Iraq.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the British intelligence services
Colonel Frederick Kisch, a British army officer and Zionist leader, was appointed chief liaison officer between the British army and the Jewish Agency Executive with Zaslany as his deputy. Zaslany also worked as interpreter for Patrick Domville, head of RAF Intelligence in Palestine (who was described by Haganah leader Dov Hos as the "best Zionist informer on the English"), until the latter was posted to Iraq in 1938, and through him became acquainted with many of the British intelligence officers.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the British intelligence services
In 1937 the Jewish Agency's intelligence groups were responsible for bugging the Peel Commission hearings in Palestine. Eventually, the Arab Revolt convinced the Agency that a central intelligence service was required and this led to the formation of a counter-intelligence agency known as the Ran (headed by Yehuda Arazi, who also helped to smuggle rifles, machine guns and ammunition from Poland to Palestine) and thereafter in 1940 to the creation of SHAI, the forerunner of Mossad.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, British and Jewish co-operation
The Haganah (Hebrew for "defence"), a Jewish paramilitary organisation, actively supported British efforts to suppress the uprising, which reached 10,000 Arab fighters at their peak during the summer and fall of 1938. Although the British administration did not officially recognise the Haganah, the British security forces cooperated with it by forming the Jewish Settlement Police, Jewish Supernumerary Police, and Special Night Squads. The Special Night Squads engaged in activities described by colonial administrator Sir Hugh Foot, as 'extreme and cruel' involving torture, whipping, abuse and execution of Arabs.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, British and Jewish co-operation
The British authorities maintained, financed and armed the Jewish police from this point onward until the end of the Mandate, and by the end of September 1939 around 20,000 Jewish policeman, supernumeraries and settlement guards had been authorised to carry arms by the government, which also distributed weapons to outlying Jewish settlements,and allowed the Haganah to acquire arms. Independently of the British, Ta'as, the Haganah's clandestine munitions industry, developed an 81-mm mortar and manufactured mines and grenades, 17,500 of the latter being produced for use during the revolt.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, British and Jewish co-operation
In June 1937, the British imposed the death penalty for unauthorised possession of weapons, ammunition, and explosives, but since many Jews had permission to carry weapons and store ammunition for defence this order was directed primarily against Palestinian Arabs and most of the 112 executed in Acre Prison were hanged for illegal possession of arms.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, British and Jewish co-operation
In principle all of the joint units functioned as part of the British administration, but in practice they were under the command of the Jewish Agency and "intended to form the backbone of a Jewish military force set up under British sponsorship in preparation for the inevitable clash with the Arabs." The Agency and the Mandate authorities shared the costs of the new units equally. The administration also provided security services to Jewish commercial concerns at cost.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, British and Jewish co-operation
Jewish and British officials worked together to co-ordinate manhunts and collective actions against villages and also discussed the imposition of penalties and sentences. Overall, the Jewish Agency was successful in making "the point that the Zionist movement and the British Empire were standing shoulder to shoulder against a common enemy, in a war in which they had common goals."


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, British and Jewish co-operation
The rebellion also inspired the Jewish Agency to expand the intelligence-gathering of its Political Department and especially of its Arab Division, with the focus changing from political to military intelligence. The Arab Division set up a network of Jewish controllers and Arab agents around the country. Some of the intelligence gathered was shared with the British administration, the exchange of information sometimes being conducted by Moshe Shertok, then head of the Jewish Agency, directly with the high commissioner himself. Shertok also advised the administration on political affairs, on one occasion convincing the high commissioner not to arrest Professor Joseph Klausner, a Revisionist Maximalist activist who had played a key role in the riots of 1929, because of the likely negative consequences.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, British and Jewish co-operation, Forces of the Jewish settlement
† Ta'as and Rekhesh were developed and expanded during the Arab Revolt but already existed before 1936 and of course the Haganah had been in operation from the earliest days of the Mandate.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, British and Jewish co-operation, Haganah intelligence services
There was no single body within the Jewish settlement capable of co-ordinating intelligence gathering before 1939. Until then there were four separate organisations without any regular or formal liaison. These were an underground militia, forerunner of the first official information service, Sherut Yediot (Shai); the Arab Platoon of the Palmach, which was staffed by Jews who were Arab-speaking and Arab-looking; Rekhesh, the arms procurement service, which had its own intelligence gathering capabilities, and likewise the Mossad LeAliyah Bet, the illegal immigration service. In mid-1939 the effort to co-ordinate the activities of these groups was led by Shaul Avigur and Moshe Shertok.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Revisionist Zionists
In 1931, a Revisionist underground splinter group broke off from Haganah, calling itself the Irgun organisation (or Etzel). The organisation took its orders from Revisionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky who was at odds with the dominant Labour Zionist movement led by David Ben-Gurion. The rift between the two Zionist movements further deteriorated in 1933 when two Revisionists were blamed for the murder of Haim Arlosoroff, who had negotiated the Haavara Agreement between the Jewish Agency and Nazi Germany. The agreement brought 52,000 German Jews to Palestine between 1933 and 1939, and generated $30,000,000 for the then almost bankrupt Jewish Agency, but in addition to the difficulties with the Revisionists, who advocated a boycott of Germany, it caused the Yishuv to be isolated from the rest of world Jewry.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Revisionist Zionists
Ultimately, however, the events of the Arab Revolt blurred the differences between the gradualist approach of Ben-Gurion and the Maximalist Iron Wall approach of Jabotinsky and turned militarist patriotism into a bipartisan philosophy. Indeed, Ben-Gurion's own Special Operations Squads conducted a punitive operation in the Arab village of Lubya firing weapons into a room through a window killing two men and one woman and injuring three people, including two children.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Revisionist Zionists
From October 1937 the Irgun instituted a wave of bombings against Arab crowds and buses. For the first time in the conflict massive bombs were placed in crowded Arab public places, killing and maiming dozens. These attacks substantially increased Arab casualties and sowed terror among the population. The first attack was on 11 November 1937, killing two Arabs at the bus depot near Jaffa Street in Jerusalem and then on 14 November, a day later commemorated as the "Day of the Breaking of the Havlagah (restraint)," Arabs were killed in simultaneous attacks around Palestine.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Revisionist Zionists
More deadly attacks followed: on 6 July 1938 21 Arabs were killed and 52 wounded by a bomb in a Haifa market; on 25 July a second market bomb in Haifa killed at least 39 Arabs and injured 70; a bomb in Jaffa's vegetable market on 26 August killed 24 Arabs and wounded 39. The attacks were condemned by the Jewish Agency.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the Revisionist Zionists
The Arab leader Mohammad Amin al-Husayni and his associates also received funding from Fascist Italy during the revolt as the Italians were in dispute with the United Kingdom over Abyssinia and wished not only to disrupt the British rear but also to extend Italian influence in the region.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the "Peace bands"
The "peace bands" (fasa'il al-salam) or "Nashashibi units" were made up of disaffected Arab peasants recruited by the British administration and the Nashashibis in late 1938 to battle against Arab rebels during the revolt. Despite their peasant origins the bands were representative mainly of the interests of landlords and rural notables. Some peace bands also sprang up in the Nablus area, on Mount Carmel (a stronghold of the Druze who largely opposed the rebellion after 1937), and around Nazareth without connection to the Nashashibi-Husayni power struggle.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the "Peace bands"
From December 1937 the main opposition figures among the Arabs approached the Jewish Agency for funding and assistance, motivated by the assassination campaign pursued by the rebels at the behest of the Husseini leadership. In October 1937, shortly after Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the leader of the Arab Higher Committee, had fled from Palestine to escape British retribution, Raghib al-Nashashibi had written to Moshe Shertok stating his full willingness to co-operate with the Jewish Agency and to agree with whatever policy it proposed. From early in 1938 the Nashashibis received funding specifically to conduct anti-rebel operations, with Raghib al-Nashashibi himself receiving £5,000. The British also supplied funding to the peace bands and sometimes directed their operations.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the "Peace bands"
Fakhri Nashashibi was particularly successful in recruiting peace bands in the Hebron hills, on one occasion in December 1938 gathering 3,000 villagers for a rally in Yatta, also attended by the British military commander of the Jerusalem District General Richard O'Connor.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the "Peace bands"
Just two months earlier, on 15 October 1938, rebels had seized the Old City and barricaded the gates. O'Connor had planned the operation by which men of the Coldstream Guards, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers and Black Watch recaptured the Old City, killing 19 rebels. He was later to win fame as the field commander for Operation Compass in World War II, in which his forces completely destroyed a much larger Italian army—a victory which nearly drove the Axis from Africa, and in turn, led Adolf Hitler to send the German Africa Corps under Erwin Rommel to try to reverse the situation.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of the "Peace bands"
Towards the end of the revolt in May 1939 the authorities dissolved the peace bands and confiscated their arms. However, because members of the bands had become tainted in the eyes of the Palestinian Arabs, and some were under sentence of death, they had little choice but to continue the battle against the national movement's leadership, which they did with the continuing help of the Zionist movement.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of rebel leaders
At least 282 rebel leaders took part in the Arab Revolt, including four Christians. Rebel forces consisted of loosely organized bands known as fasa'il  (sing: fasil). The leader of a fasil was known as a qa'id al-fasil (pl. quwwa'id al-fasa'il), which means "band commander". The Jewish press often referred to them as "brigands", while the British authorities and media called them "bandits", "terrorists", "rebels" or "insurgents", but never "nationalists". Ursabat (meaning "gangs") was another Arabic term used for the rebels, and it spawned the British soldiers' nickname for all rebels, which was Oozlebart.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of rebel leaders
According to historian Simon Anglim, the rebel groups were divided into general categories: mujahadeen and fedayeen. The former were guerrillas who engaged in armed confrontations, while the latter committed acts of sabotage. According to later accounts of some surviving rebel leaders from the Galilee, the mujahideen maintained little coordination with the nominal hierarchy of the revolt. Most ambushes were the result of a local initiative undertaken by a qa'id or a group of quwwa'id from the same area.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of rebel leaders, Galilee
Abdul Khallik was an effective peasant leader appointed by Fawzi al-Qawuqji who caused great damage and loss of life in the Nazareth District and was thus a significant adversary of the Mandate and Jewish settlement authorities. He was trapped by British troops in a major engagement on 2 October 1938 and was killed whilst trying to lead his men to safety. Abu Ibrahim al-Kabir was the main Qassamite rebel leader in the Upper Galilee and was the only active rebel leader on the ground who was a member of the Damascus-based Central Committee of National Jihad. Abdallah al-Asbah was a prominent commander active in the Safad region of northeastern Galilee. He was killed by British forces who besieged him and his comrades near the border with Lebanon in early 1937.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of rebel leaders, Jabal Nablus area
Abd al-Rahim al-Hajj Muhammad from the Tulkarm area was a deeply religious, intellectual man and as a fervent anti-Zionist, he was deeply committed to the revolt. He was regarded second to Qawukji in terms of leadership ability and maintained his independence from the exiled rebel leadership in Damascus. He personally led his  fasa'il and carried out nighttime attacks against British targets in the revolt's early stage in 1936. When the revolt was renewed in April 1937, he established a more organised command hierarchy consisting of four main brigades who operated in the north-central highlands (Tulkarm-Nablus-Jenin area). He competed for the position of General Commander of the Revolt with Aref Abdul Razzik, and the two served the post in rotation from September 1938 to February 1939, when al-Hajj Muhammad was confirmed as the sole General Commander.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of rebel leaders, Jabal Nablus area
Al-Hajj Muhammad refused to carry out political assassinations at the behest of political factions, including al-Husayni, once stating "I don't work for Husayniya ('Husanyni-ism'), but for wataniya ('nationalism')." He is still known by Palestinians as a hero and martyr and is regarded as a metonym "for a national movement that was popular, honourable, religious, and lofty in its aims and actions." He was shot dead in a firefight with British forces outside the village of Sanur on 27 March 1939, after Farid Irsheid's peace band informed the authorities of his location.


1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Response, Role of rebel leaders, Jabal Nablus area
Yusuf Abu Durra, a Qassamite leader in the Jenin area, was born in Silat al-Harithiya and before becoming a rebel worked as a Gazoz vendor. He was said to be a narrow-minded man who thrived on extortion and cruelty and thus became greatly feared. Yusuf Hamdan was Durra's more respected lieutenant and later a leader of his own unit; he was killed by an army patrol in 1939 and buried in al-Lajjun. Durra himself was apprehended by the Arab Legion in Transjordan on 25 July 1939 and subsequently hanged.