Pages in Section 5
The Arlosorrof Case and Creation of the Dog Section
ii.Dowbiggin's Report
iii. Re-organization of the Palestine Police
iv. The Black Hand and Inspector Salim Basta
v. The 1933 Riots
vi. The Arlosorrof Case and Creation of the Dog Section
vii. King George V's Silver Jubilee
viii. The Black Hand re-emerges
Chaim Arlosoroff (seated centre) with Transjordanian Arab leaders at the King David Hotel, Jerusalem, 1933. Chaim Weizmann (to Arlosoroff's right),sheikh Mithqal al-Faiz, chief of the Beni Sakhr (seated far left) right), Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (standing,far right) next to Moshe Shertok (Sharett)
Chaim Arlosoroff was a prominent Zionist politician who was murdered many believe, for his lateral thinking on the problems facing the Yishuv and international Jewry. He not only thought it necessary to collaborate with the Arabs in creating a Jewish state but instead of boycotting Jewish goods when the Nazis came into power in Germany he arranged an agreement with them whereby German Jews could emigrate from Germany to Palestine without losing all their wealth. It is estimated that this saved the lives of at least 60 000 German Jews and boosted the |Palestinian economy so that by WW 2 Palestine was the most industrialized country in the Middle East and an asset to the Allied army. Chaim Arlosoroff, however, was not to see the outcome of his work. On 16 June 1933, two days after his return from negotiations in Germany, he was murdered while walking along the beach in Tel Aviv with his wife.
The CID brought Bedouin trackers to the scene of the crime but they became confused by the tracks left by police first called to the scene so their findings did not corroborate evidence given by Chaim Arlosoroff's wife. The murder remains officially unsolved to this day. (Read “A Lifetime in Jerusalem” by Edwin Samuel, son of the first High Commissioner, for clues to the real solution of the Arlosoroff Murder) (
One outcome of the crime however, was the creation of a dog unit for the Palestine Police to complement the use of Bedouin trackers.
Roy Spicer, Palestine's newly appointed Inspector General dispatched Sergeant Parker and Constable Pringle to Pretoria for a six-month training course. They returned to Palestine on Christmas Eve, 1934, with three Dobermans: Ria, Gift and Mayer. These were used with success on 95 occasions in their first year and before long more dogs were bought in.