Pages in Section 1
Early Clashes
i. Formation of Palestine Police
ii. The Peoples of Palestine in 1920
iii. The Early Port Police
iv. Early Clashes in Palestine
v. Brief Existence of the PDF
vi. Formation of the Palestinian Gendarmerie
vii. Captain James Wesley Mackenzie
viiiThe British Gendarmerie.
A serious outburst of rioting occurred less than a year after the formation of the Palestine Police.
On May 1st 1921, two opposing Jewish political parties, held May Day marches along the seashore between Tel Aviv and Jaffa. One march was organized by a moderate socialist group, Achduth Avodah,who had obtained police permission, the other was an illegal demonstration organized by a communist group, MOPSI.
Although the main political focus of the CID of the time was on communism, the organization of a communist illegal march had not come to their attention.
On meeting, MOPSI and Achduth Avodah began fighting to the amusement of Arab onlookers. However, before long Arab provocateurs arrived on the scene and incited observers to join in the fight. The commandant of the Southern District police, Mr W.F. Wainwright had too few police to break up the fight. Police were drafted in from other districts but the fight, escalating into a pogrom. spread.
When attacks were made from Arab villages upon the Jewish colonies of Petah Tikvah and Chederah Troops were employed and the attacks on the colonies were dispersed with considerable loss to the attackers.
Martial law was proclaimed over the area affected. Much excitement prevailed for several days in Jaffa and the neighbouring districts, and for some weeks there was considerable unrest.
In these disturbances,88 persons were killed and 238 injured, most of them slightly, and there was much looting and destruction of property.
Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky accused MOPSI of 'unforgivable treachery' a few days after the riots.
It became apparent during these disturbances that local police were not altogether reliable. Jewish recruits of the newly formed Palestinian Defence Force being trained at Sarafand, rushed to the defence of Tel Aviv without waiting for orders, while many of the Arab police sided with the rioters.
One Arab policeman in particular, Adib Khayal,caused irreparable harm to the good name of the Palestine Police, by at first standing aloof while a mob attacked a hotel full of newly arrived Jewish immigrants and then joining in the slaughter. Thirteen Jews were killed there, including women and children.
After Adib Khayal had slipped away, fellow Arab police, appalled at his behaviour, hunted him down and arrested him. At his trial, however, he received a sentence of only five years.
