When does rioting and terrorism develop into civil war? When opposing organised armies with set objectives start fighting each other?
The Armies
British Forces |
British troops and the Palestinian police, were still responsible for the upkeep of law and order in Palestine, but Arab and Jewish Police found it it difficult to be impartial during communal clashes. Before British troops intervened in any incident, however, the commanding officer had to decide whether it had occurred as a result of the partition. If it did, they were under orders from the British Government to let UN deal with it, not them. The problem was, the UN had no peacekeeping troops to send, and until that happened, the British government declared, they could not be responsible for the safety of any UN personnel who came to Palestine before May 14th As British troops and police gradually withdrew from the rural areas to collection points in Jenin and Haifa they handed over police duties to the organised Jews in the Jewish section of the partition but found it more difficult to find competent Arab authorities in the Arab Section, so in February they handed over policing and protection of the West Bank to the recently formed Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan who sent in the Arab Legion. |
 The Arab Legion |
With a total strength of just over 6,000, Transjordan's army of 4,500 men in four single battalion-sized regiments, each with their own armored car squadrons. There were also two artillery batteries with four 25-pounders each. On 9 February 1948 when the Transjordan Frontier Force,funded by the British and patrolling the borders with Lebanon and Syria from inside the Palestine was disbanded most members were absorbed into the Arab Legion although many joined the Holy Arab Army and some joined the Arab Liberation Army. Although the Arab Legion was headed by Glubb, now a Lieutenant General, Brigadier Norman Lash was field commander. |
Holy War Army |
The Holy War Army,an irregular Arab Army was the creation of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni (See photo on left) and Hasan Salama (see photo on right) under the auspices of the Higher Arab Committee after the UN vote for partition. They chose Birzeit for their HQ.
 Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni had taken part in the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt and, when exiled, had fled to Iraq. In 1941, he had taken part in an unsuccessful revolt against the British and was exiled. After the war ,still exiled from Palestine, he obtained a senior government job in Egypt. He quit this job and returned in secret to his home town of Jerusalem in December 1947. Haganah spies noticed his car parked outside the Christian Arab Semiramis Hotel in the genteel suburb of Katamon and concluded that must be a meeting place for the leaders of the Holy War Army.
He may well have met up with Husayni in Semiramis Hotel.
In March 1948, the Higher Arab Committee headed by the Grand Mufti, now based in Damascus, ordered Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni with 128 men to base his HQ at Bir Zeit and to conduct a blockade of Jerusalem by attacking Jewish convoys to the city. |  Hasan Salama, also had taken part in the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt and when exiled, he too had fled to Iraq and taken part in the 1941 unsuccessful revolt against the British. After the revolt in Iraq, he had joined the Grand Mufti in Germany where he trained as a paratrooper. In October 1944 he and three German Templers and another Arab were parachuted into Palestine along with explosives, submachine guns, dynamite, radio equipment, 5,000 Pound sterling and some capsules of poison. The poison was intended to kill Arabs collaborating with the British. Three of the five were captured but Salama took refuge in his birthplace, the village of Qula where he remained hidden.
In 1948 Higher Arab Committee ordered Hasan Salama, with 950 men of the Jihad and 228 irregulars, to take responsibility for operations in the Lydda and Ramle sectors, and the Junction of the roads to Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. |
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Arab Liberation Army |
The Arab Liberation Army was a volunteer officially army set up by countries of the Arab League as a counter to the Arab High Committee's Holy War Army in February 1948. The Arab League chose, as overall commander of the Liberation army, the Iraqi general, Ismail Safwat Pasha and the flamboyant , Fawzi al-Qawuqji, as leader of the Syrian and Lebanese forces. Al-Qawuqji was a Syrian Arab Nationalist who had been a captain in the Ottoman army during WW1, a leading figure in the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine and had received training in Germany during WW2.
The League divided Palestine,into three, at this stage theoretical, fronts . Al-Qawuqji was to command a front including northern Palestine and the coastline, which encompassed Haifa, Jaffa and Tel Aviv. The other two fronts would be Jerusalem and southern Palestine. The Grand Mufti, Haj Amin Al-Husseini, would designate the leader of the Jerusalem front while the southern front would consist of Egyptian and volunteers plus the Bedouin of the Sinai peninsula and be placed under the command of an Egyptian.
(Meanwhile individual Arab countries prevented thousands of volunteers from joining either the Holy War Army or the Arab Liberation Army. but when, Britain, on February 9th, disbanded the 3000 strong Transjordan Frontier Force, many, instead of joining the Arab Legion, instead deserted to either the ALA or the Holy War Army.
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Haganah |
Haganah, already an experienced underground paramilitary force, created Jewish territorial units the day after the UN vote,:
- Etzioni in Jerusalem
- Givati in the south
- Alexandroni between Haifa and Tel Aviv
- Kiriati in the Tel Aviv area
- Levanoni in the North
It already had a mobile force, the HISH, with 2,000 full-time fighters (men and women) and 10,000 reservists (all aged between 18 and 25) and an elite unit, the Palmach composed of 2,100 fighters and 1,000 reservists. These mobile forces could rely on the Heil Mishmar, a garrison force composed of people aged over 25.
On 5 December 1947, conscription was instituted for all men and women aged between 17 and 25 which made available many of the several thousand experienced Palestinian Jews who had served in the British Army during World War II.
 Haganah ruined its chances of being recognised by the British as an official Jewish defence course when it publicly admitted to the bombing of the Christian Arab Semiramis Hotel in the genteel suburb of Katamon. This was Haganah's first aggressive attack on an Arab target since the Night Raids of 1938 and was carried out,without the consent of the Jewish Agency, by a team working under the command of Mishael Shaham, the Haganah officer responsible for the Jerusalem sector. Mishael Shaham decided to destroy the Semiramis Hotel after Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni's distinctive white jeep had been spotted outside, Shaham was convinced the building was a regular meeting place for leaders of the Arab Holy War Army .The explosion killed 24 civilians and at least one child. Among the dead was the Spanish vice-consul, Manuel Allende Salazar. Ben Gurion was furious and Shaham was sacked. Meanwhile David Ben Gurion and his defence team went ahead constructing Plan Dalet which most members thought would not be needed until the British left.
For a full account of Plan Dalet see www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Plan_Dalet.html
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Irgun
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The Irgun had about 4,000 part-time members when the UN voted for partition, but only 40 full-time ones. Their goal was the conquest of all land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and the kingdom of Jordan. They established military bases in Ramat Gan and Petah Tikva and began recruiting openly, significantly increasing their numbers. They fought alongside the Lehi and the Haganah against Arab attacks but also continued their war on the British and civilian Arabs. When Haganah abandoned its policy of restraint after the tragic incident of Ben Yehuda Street, it co-operated with them more fully. |
Lehi | The Lehi was the smallest of the three underground Jewish paramilitary groups. It had always been more anti-British than anti-Arab. During the first half of WW 2 they were the only Jewish underground force to continue fighting the British. After the UN vote for partition, they were the only group to continue deliberately targeting the British as well as the Arabs. |
For the situation in Palestine in the middle of March 1948 see the letter sent to the UN Palestine Commission by Pablo de Azcarate, a member of its advance party.
Next- The Battle for the Roads - Gush Etzion
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