Britain's Pacification of Palestine
The British Army, the Colonial State, and the Arab Revolt, 1936–1939

The British Army's devastating effectiveness against colonial rebellion is exposed in this military history of Britain's pacification of the Arab revolt in Palestine.

Matthew Hughes (Author)

9781107103207, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 January 2019

452 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.7 cm, 0.93 kg

'… a book sure to become the definitive account of British counterinsurgency in the Mandate.' Martin Thomas, The American Historical Review

In this complete military history of Britain's pacification of the Arab revolt in Palestine, Matthew Hughes shows how the British Army was so devastatingly effective against colonial rebellion. The Army had a long tradition of pacification to draw upon to support operations, underpinned by the creation of an emergency colonial state in Palestine. After conquering Palestine in 1917, the British established a civil Government that ruled by proclamation and, without any local legislature, the colonial authorities codified in law norms of collective punishment that the Army used in 1936. The Army used 'lawfare', emergency legislation enabled by the colonial state, to grind out the rebellion. Soldiers with support from the RAF launched kinetic operations to search and destroy rebel bands, alongside which the villagers on whom the rebels depended were subjected to curfews, fines, detention, punitive searches, demolitions and reprisals. Rebels were disorganised and unable to withstand the power of such pacification measures.

List of Illustrations
1. Framing the Arab Revolt
2. The emergency state in mandate Palestine
3. Rebels and revolt
4. From insurgency to banditry
5. The regiments arrive
6. Screwing down the population
7. Intelligence and collaboration
8. Dirty wars and extra-judicial violence
Afterword: policy, violence, and the Arab revolt
Appendix A: order-of-battle
Appendix B: casualties
Appendix C: women and violence
Appendix D: sartorial wars
Appendix E: dramatis personae and the Arab Higher Committee
Appendix F: currency and wages
Appendix G: the escapes of al-Qawuqji and Hajj Amin
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1], British & Irish history [HBJD1]