i. Mandate becomes Official

ii. Reformation of the Port Police

iii. 1926 Disbandment of the British Gendarmerie

iv. The Transjordon Frontier Force

v. The Bedouin Police Units

vi. At Ground Level in 1920s Gaza

vii.1926-27 Drought, Floods and Earthquakes

viii. Police and the Western Wall

The Western Wall (or Kotel) in the Old City of Jerusalem, is a constant source of potential trouble between Jews and Arabs. It is all that is left of the third temple built by King Herod the Great and destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. It stands on the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif) and is the site of the western boundary of the temple built by King Solomon. Because of past history and powerful legends it is holy to Jews and Arabs alike. Currently the Wall forms part of the boundary that encloses the Mosque of Aksar and the Mosque of the Dome of the Rock. The rock is particularly holy to Moslems because, from it, Mohammed ascended to Heaven upon El Buraq, his white horse.

During the Mandate period, the Wall as accepted by Jews and Moslems alike as being Moslem property, but it was the custom for Jews to pray there freely. Certain rules were understood by both Jews and Arabs. Trouble arose when these rules seem to be infringed for example when Moslems remove weeds from 'their' Wall, Jews protested and when Jews placed seats or screens near the Wall, Moslems protested.

On 24th. September, 1928, the Day of Atonement, Arabs were waiting in alley ways ready to attack the Jews who had erected a screen to separate female and male worshipers. Douglas Valder Duff, formerly of the Port Police in Haifa but now an Inspector in charge of Jerusalem's Old City, at the instigation of the district governor, Edward Keith-Roach, ordered his police to remove the screen by force. The Jewish press railed against this irreverent action. Duff defended his action by claiming he had prevented a serious riot in which many Jews would have been killed.