[Tonic]

From The Times

May 10, 2008

'The British wanted us to kill each other'Said Jabr, 74, Arab Israeli
The old British Army base, a small sandstone fort, stands abandoned on a hill in Abu Ghosh, an Arab village just southwest of Jerusalem. Said Jabr was 14 when the British pulled out.

“It was on the 14th or 15th of May. I remember exactly that the British commander came to Ali Saleh, the village mukhtar (elder), and said they were going to leave and warned us to be ready,” he recalled from his family home in Abu Ghosh. “Thirty-five armed villagers walked into the base to take command. But the British commander went at the same time to the kibbutz and told them the same thing.

“The British left one tank in front of the army base. Then a few tanks driven by the Haganah (the fledgling Jewish army) drove up and surrounded the army base. But we had great relations with the local kibbutzim – we believe in friendship and protecting a neighbour’s property, no matter who they are – and the leaders of the kibbutzim. . . came to the village. They met the mukhtar, drank coffee and reached an agreement that the villagers would leave the base and the Haganah would take over. The British commander was waiting in the remaining tank to see what would happen. He saw the Abu Ghosh villagers leaving the base and shaking hands with the Haganah members, and he said, ‘F****** Arabs’. Our impression was that he wanted us to kill each other. Thank God the people from both sides resolved the issue peacefully.”

Mr Jabr proudly displays the Hebrew shield he was awarded by the kibbutz. It shows two hands shaking – a token of thanks and friendship.

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Have your say

It is clear that the interest of a nation is most important when there is a conflict. So I understand the standpoint of Britain. If your country is strong enough, you may not suffer from that.

Ran, York, UK

The British were also being killed on mass by the Israeli terrorist group THE STERN GANG ! My uncle was a soldier there during the troubles. They were getting it from both Arabs and Israeli's !!

Ian Payne, WALSALL,


That is hardly the actions of someone wanting the sides to fight,the Brits behaved correctly,informing both sides of the decision to leave and remaining behind while a settlement was reached.What else could they have done ?



paul chandler, London,

The inflammatory headline bears no relationship to the content of this article.

Bit of a non story really.

Steve, Argyll.,

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 904713.ece

Israel, Palestine and the British Empire
By Chris Hastings, Arts and Media Editor

Last Updated: 1:22AM BST 11/05/2008
Palestine Britian and Empire, a two day conference which is being hosted by the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in London this week.

At the conference the Bristol based museum will reveal that it has acquired new archive material which sheds light on what life was like in the final years of the British Mandate in Palestine.

The new material, which will be eventually put on public display, includes more the service records of more than 7,000 records members of the Palestine Police Force, newspapers produced by convicted terrorists, wanted posters, photographs, diaries and histories compiled by prisoners who served time in British built concentration camps.

The first hand personal accounts of British, Arab and Jewish colonial personnel and their families provides a unique insight into the turmoil which was a part of every day life.

Some British police officers were happy to accept bribes to feed their drinking habbits and some would even sell off arms to various terror factions.

One former Arab officer with the Palestine Police force recalls how as a British detective was killed by a female Irgun agent who picked him up in a bar in 1945.

A Jewish officer, who joined the Palestine Police Force in 1941, recalls how British officers would stop cars and make false accusations to drivers in order to receive their bribes.

Doctor Gareth Griffiths, director of the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum said the British Mandate had become a forgotten part of the nation’s past.

"Perhaps not surprisingly all the attention recently has been on the actual 60th anniversary of the establishment of Israel. There has been no coverage of the period that proceeded it.

"Some of the difficulties we see in the region today have their roots in the previous 50 years when the British were trying to maintain a delicate balance between Arab rights and a commitment to a Jewish homeland.

"As for the attack on the King David hotel it was an emotionally devastating event for post-war Britain. It was a huge shock to public back at home.

"The country has just fought a war one of whose objectives was to rescue the Jews from the Nazis."

One of those forced to deal with the tidal wave of violence which engulfed the area in the aftermath of the bombing was Vera Leech, who is now 92 and who also lives in Bristol.

Vera was 23 and only recently married to her husband Alfred when they arrived in Palestine at the beginning of 1939.

Like thousands of others young British men Alfred had decided that a spell in the Palestine Police Force was preferably to life in recession hit Britain.

Vera recalls: "It was very bad in England and so we decided to make a new start. At first things went very well and we loved every inch of it. We loved the country and the people both Arab and Jew.

"We lived quite an English sort of life out there and set up our own little community."

The Leech’s family home was ransacked by extremists towards the end of 1947 and they were forced to seek sanctuary in a nearby sanctuary run by an order of Catholic nuns.

In March 1948 Alfred, who was by now working for Balfour Beatty and four of his colleagues was kidnapped on their way home.

Vera recalls: "He didn’t come home on time and straight away I thought trouble at mill. The situation was already so bad.

"The house had been completely ransacked and there was open warfare in the streets. I knew something awful most have happened to him. The sisters forbade me from going out and I remember I was told what had happened by some Zionist supporters at the gates to the sanctuary.

"They said you won’t be seeing him again."

Deseperate for news Vera and her three children made a perilous journey to the British Embassy which had been barred from travelling to them.

"The Catholic Church managed to secure an ambulance which got me as far as Government house at Gethsemane and then I had to make the journey from there into Jerusalem by donkey.

"I took my two year daughter Therese on one donkey and my sons Christopher, 7 and Patrick, 5 were on another one. We had a single Arab guide to help us get through. I had the dog with me and I remember we had to make our way undetected through the backstreets and allies of Jerusalem.

"There was gun fire going on all around us. But you couldn’t worry about that. You just had to keep going for the sake of the children."

Alfred was held for five months before the couple were eventually reunited in Cyprus.

"He had spent time in solitary confinement and had been torutured. The men had gone through hell together. They had blanks shot at them and they had even been forced to dig their own graves"

Vera says she and her husband didn’t hold any bitterness towards the Jews or Israel on their return to England.

"We had no anonymisty, nasty feelings or bitterness towards anyone. We were tough cookies and you had to be. They were dangerous times."

Both women have recorded their stories for the museum’s oral history archive.

Mrs Leech said: "The children today aren’t told about this bit of our history and they should be. It is a great shame."

Joan added: "I do think people don’t talk about it enough. They think 'oh it’s the wicked British Empire’ and they just leave it at that.

"But what they don’t realise is that some of the very best people were chosen to serve in the colonies and in Palestine.

"Brian was very good with people and wanted to help. He really thought he could make a difference to people out there.

"It was all very Boys Own."

The conference which will be held on Wednesday and Thursday of this week will take place at King’s College in London.

The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum can be contacted via 0117 925 4980.

Its website address is www.empiremuseum.co.uk

http://www.telegraph.co.uk