The British Army Responds to the Arab Revolt, 1936 Palestine

The British Army Responds to the Arab Revolt, 1936

British army's "urban renewal" in Jaffa, near the shore, 1936

The widespread Arab attacks in Palestine in 1936 threatened British rule.  British and Jewish institutions were attacked, travelers on the roads were held up and killed, land mines derailed locomotives, and snipers killed Jewish civilians and British officers.   

Families searching through rubble of a
house destroyed in Lydda (Lod), 1936,
after a derailment and an attack on the
nearby airport

A tally of the hostilities and political activities in Palestine in 1936 can be found in the British Mandate's annual reportfor 1936. 

Arab houses blown up in Halhul

Within days the British Mandate authorities imposed emergency regulations that permitted detention without charges for up to a year, censorship, the right of entry into homes, widespread confiscation of property and goods, and capital punishment. 

"Cutting a new road" through Jaffa

Army reinforcements were rushed to Palestine. Travel along the roads of Palestine was conducted in convoys with armed escorts.  Roaming Arab gangs and militias were engaged by the British army, and the Royal Air Force took to the air to strafe and bomb the terrorists.

In Jaffa, the British demolition crews cut wide swaths through the Arab neighborhoods of Jaffa.  More than 200 homes were destroyed in Jaffa. 

Homes were destroyed in Halhul and Lydda (Lod) in response to terror attacks in the area. 

Royal Air Force pilot and machine gunner

 

Skies over Jaffa after dynamiting
"slum sections"

In the six months of Arab attacks and British "police action"  in 1936, some 80 Jews, 37 British soldiers and policemen, and as many as 1,000 Arabs were killed. 

British buglers warn of another blast in
Jaffa, 1936