Palestine Underground by J. Borisov

Palestine Underground by J. Borisov

Author:J. Borisov [Borisov, J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, Special Forces, Middle East, Israel & Palestine, Iraq, United States
ISBN: 9781789124781
Google: AoqbDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2018-12-01T22:31:24+00:00


IV

Since autumn 1945, Resistance became a collective national undertaking of Palestine Jewry. In an attempt to crush the Resistance, the British Administration has to an ever-increasing extent resorted to indiscriminate arrests, detaining hundreds and thousands of Jews under simple suspicion of belonging to or simply sympathising with the “terrorists.” As one high official in the Palestine Criminal Investigation Department (CID) put it: “The imprisonment of one hundred men is warranted, if thereby we succeed in capturing even five of the guilty ones.”

The “legal basis” for these indiscriminatory mass arrests is provided by Regulation iii of the Defense (Emergency) Regulations, 1945, “Palestine Gazette,” No. 1442, Supplement No. 2), which reads as follows:

iii—(1) “A military Commander may by order direct that any person shall be detained for any period not exceeding one year in such place of detention as may be specified by the Military Commander in the order.”

iii—(3) “Any person in respect of whom an order has been made by the Military Commander under subregulation (i) may be arrested by any member of His Majesty’s forces or of the Police Force and conveyed to the place of detention specified in such order.”

In Palestine Gazette Extraordinary No. 1470 of 28th January, 1946, under the Defense (Emergency Amendment) Regulation, 1946, the above Regulation iii was extended to authorize:

“Any member of His Majesty’s forces and any police officer to arrest without a warrant any person in respect of whom he has reason to believe that there are grounds which would justify his detention under Regulation iii or his deportation under Regulation 112...”

There is no appeal against such wilful arrests. The maximum sentence permitted under Emergency Regulations is 12 months, but nowhere is it stated that the sentence cannot be renewed for another twelve-month period. There are numerous examples of such renewals as a result of which men have received an original sentence of six months and have been held for more than five years.

According to a letter from Palestine published in the April issue of the New York monthly “Furrows,” living conditions in British internment camps where the arrested “suspects” are being detained are subject to considerable variations. When there is less political tension in the country there tends to be a relaxation of restrictions and conversely, an increase in tension results in. stringent enforcement of rules. “The installation of solitary confinement—states the letter—is used frequently for the purpose of breaking the morale and resistance of prisoners, particularly those suspected of being in the leadership of activist groups. Most of them were desperately ill upon release.

“The most widespread of all restrictions and the most damaging to morale is the ban on visitors. At times visitors are permitted, and at times they are not, but for two and one-half years consecutively, internees were cut off from personal contact with the outside. Families endured long term separations which resulted in personal and economic hardships.”

“The Criminal Investigation Department—continues the letter—engages in a never ending search for information and there are almost no limits to the means they will employ to obtain desired intelligence.



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