Page 282

Sir Harold MacMichael in an ambush prepared for him on the Jerusalem–Jaffa road. The high commissioner escaped, but his driver and guard were killed and his wife was wounded. They also attempted to assassinate General Parker, the British commander-in-chief in Palestine, but failed. As for their Arab victims, there were hundreds killed and thousands wounded. It was established that the Jewish Agency, the official body representing the Jews in Palestine, and the Haganah, the Jewish defense force, had begun to contribute to these crimes. They had pretended to be neutral and to have no connection with terrorist acts, until the British authorities in Palestine were forced to raid the Jewish Agency’s headquarters in Jerusalem, arrest some of its leaders, search its offices, and seize documents and papers incriminating Jewish leaders and proving their connection with bombing, destruction, and terrorist acts. The Haganah and the Palmach gang (1) subordinate to it operated under the supervision of the Jewish Agency, and the Stern gang worked in cooperation with the Haganah.

British Prime Minister Mr. Attlee acknowledged in an official statement after the Jewish Agency headquarters had been searched that the Jewish revolt was organized and planned and that the Agency had refused to condemn acts of terrorism. He added that the Jewish military body directing the terrorist acts included seventy thousand from the Haganah, five thousand from the Palmach, and five or six thousand from the Irgun. He did not mention the number in the Stern gang, but information indicated that they numbered between one and two thousand.

The British authorities had previously brought General Wingate to Palestine, a British expert in guerrilla warfare who had commanded British forces in Burma and Malaya. They brought him to train Haganah forces in guerrilla warfare and in methods of resisting the Palestinians if they tried to resume guerrilla warfare against British forces.

Jewish young men smuggled weapons in agreement with British soldiers. One example was a smuggling operation carried out by the Serkin gang (2) and some British soldiers involving a large quantity of weapons: one thousand rifles and machine guns and hundreds of thousands of rounds. The result of the sham military trial to which they were brought was the acquittal of Serkin and his gang, the transfer to Britain of the British soldiers involved in the crime, and the dismissal of the military prosecutor

Printed footnote (1): Palmach means “storm troops.” It was the striking force of the Haganah gangs, founded in 1942, and its command was under the Jewish Agency.

Printed footnote (2): The Serkin gang was named after Nahum Syrkin (1868–1924). It was a Zionist gang of socialist, or Labor Zionist, orientation that believed in liquidating Jews of the diaspora and settling Palestine.