Repression and Rebellion: Britain's Response to the Arab Revolt in Palestine of 1936–39

Abstract

In April 1936 growing unrest among the Arab community of Palestine led to the outbreak of a sustained revolt that would pose the most serious threat to British rule thus far experienced by the mandate government. Initially manifesting itself as an urban-led campaign of civil disobedience directed against the Zionist presence in Palestine, the second phase of the rebellion developed into a far more violent and peasant-led resistance movement that increasingly targeted British forces. Britain's response to this unrest has been the focus of much historical research, but few studies have examined the realities of the counterinsurgency at ground level or the relevance of this to the internal fracturing and collapse of the rebel movement in 1939. This article investigates the interplay between the colonial forces and the rural Arab population, highlighting Britain's resort to more heavy-handed military violence during the second phase of the Revolt, and situating these tactics in the wider issue of British abuses perpetrated during states of emergency.