P
Prestwick
Guest
Palestine was a League of Nations mandate given to the UK who were to administrate and act as peace keepers until a more permanent solution could be found.
Eventually, illegal immigration from various parts of Europe from Jewish communities started to cause serious tensions between them and the native Arabs there (who had been promised a state).
British troops at this time acted as riot police and separation roles to keep the two peoples apart in potential flash points such as Jerusalem. The end of World War Two however changed the game forever as you saw the emergence of the infamous Jewish terrorist groups such as the Stern Gang (whose favorite activity on a Friday night was abducting British squaddies and putting a bullet in the back of their head before dumping them by the roadside.)
These gangs were responsible for allot of the terror attacks on the Arab population and the British administration including multiple murders of British troops off duty in Tel Aviv and in other towns.
At the time in the newly formed UN, the British were pressing for a solution to the problem but negotiations were deliberately being slowed down by the United States and it wasn't until late 1947 on which something was agreed upon by which time it was becoming increasingly difficult to control the Jewish (and now Arab) terror groups.
In the end a deal was struck and the Americans tried to persuade the British government at the time to stay in Palestine as part of a new UN peacekeeping force! This was flatly rejected and we withdrew as we usually do, by marching out of our barracks and gradually withdrawing.
Now one of the things that my Grandad never talked about was his time in Palestine after the war. He was in 6th Airborne Brigade and was proud of his roles in the various airborne antics at North Africa, Sicily Arnhem and Greece and he was always very complementary and boisterous about the opposition..but he never, ever spoke about Palestine. It transpired later that apparently some of his friends had been shot by people they had liberated from the death camps in Germany and that he and the rest of the British there had been on the receiving end on foul accusations of Nazism and anti-semitism just for upholding the law and keeping the peace.
To this day, I have nothing but contempt for radical Zionism and that one should use brutal force to take something which they feel is theirs by godly religious birthright. It was that and American interference which prolonged, not ended the suffering there.
Eventually, illegal immigration from various parts of Europe from Jewish communities started to cause serious tensions between them and the native Arabs there (who had been promised a state).
British troops at this time acted as riot police and separation roles to keep the two peoples apart in potential flash points such as Jerusalem. The end of World War Two however changed the game forever as you saw the emergence of the infamous Jewish terrorist groups such as the Stern Gang (whose favorite activity on a Friday night was abducting British squaddies and putting a bullet in the back of their head before dumping them by the roadside.)
These gangs were responsible for allot of the terror attacks on the Arab population and the British administration including multiple murders of British troops off duty in Tel Aviv and in other towns.
At the time in the newly formed UN, the British were pressing for a solution to the problem but negotiations were deliberately being slowed down by the United States and it wasn't until late 1947 on which something was agreed upon by which time it was becoming increasingly difficult to control the Jewish (and now Arab) terror groups.
In the end a deal was struck and the Americans tried to persuade the British government at the time to stay in Palestine as part of a new UN peacekeeping force! This was flatly rejected and we withdrew as we usually do, by marching out of our barracks and gradually withdrawing.
Now one of the things that my Grandad never talked about was his time in Palestine after the war. He was in 6th Airborne Brigade and was proud of his roles in the various airborne antics at North Africa, Sicily Arnhem and Greece and he was always very complementary and boisterous about the opposition..but he never, ever spoke about Palestine. It transpired later that apparently some of his friends had been shot by people they had liberated from the death camps in Germany and that he and the rest of the British there had been on the receiving end on foul accusations of Nazism and anti-semitism just for upholding the law and keeping the peace.
To this day, I have nothing but contempt for radical Zionism and that one should use brutal force to take something which they feel is theirs by godly religious birthright. It was that and American interference which prolonged, not ended the suffering there.
