• Evilsandwichman [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    22·
    5 days ago

    I…I’m so confused by the anecdote; so if I understand it correctly (cause this is like one of those weird math questions), there were five deserters from a Palestine police force (and since it’s 1948, I’m not sure if this Palestine police force is from when Israel was still called Palestine (hence the police force would be soon-to-be Israeli) or if they’re actually supposed to be a police force serving the Palestinians), and two of them were on the Jewish side and the other three (all five being deserters) were fighting for the Arab side?

    I’m so confused by the wording of the anecdote (because again, at this time Israel may still have been called Palestine, and the Palestine police may have actually just been zionist forces)

    British man fighting for Israel because he (the BRITISH man) has nowhere else to go; if only there was like…I don’t know, at least ONE British country out there somewhere. Poor Palestinian soldiers just standing there when this guy just spawns out of the aether just to get 360 no scoped.

    • newacctidk [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      17·
      5 days ago

      Mandatory Palestine was effectively a 3 sided civil war. Groups like the Irgun committed terrorism upon the British Mandate the “Palestine Police” who are colonial cops effectively, because they felt the Mandate was going to create an eventual pluralistic state. The Palestinians and other Arabs began militarizing in response to several massacres by Jewish settlers. Over a hundred British police, many being conscripts stationed there, joined the Arabs or the Zionists

      It is difficult to be certain of their number, and reported figures have varied. For the pro-Jewish group of deserters, one article put the number at twelve, while a Jewish veterans’ association estimated that there were around 20. 2 We have identified 17 deserters by name, all of whom joined the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The pro-Arab deserters were more dispersed, with individuals joining the irregular Palestinian Arab militia al-Jihad al-Muqaddas (Holy War Army), led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husseini and Hasan Salama, as well as the Arab Liberation Army (ALA), a force established by the Arab League, with Fawzi al-Qawuqji as its main commander. 3 Deserters were also witnessed fighting with Transjordan’s professional and effective force, the Arab Legion, commanded by the seconded British officer, John Bagot Glubb.4 A low estimate of this pro-Arab group of deserters was put at 53,5 while the highest estimate set their number at around 200.6 After analysing numerous reports on and mentions of these pro-Arab deserters, a figure of between 100 and 200 spread across all three forces seems correct.

      https://www.jstor.org/stable/26987027

      Some for very overtly antisemitic reasons though, like those of the British League - Palestine Branch which was an off-shoot of Mosely’s British League of Fascists. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2739222

      You also had professional British soldiers like Glubb and his Arab Legion which officially served Transjordan and fought against the Zionists in the 48 war. Glubb is cool, he and his wife adopted a Bedouin girl and then adopted two Palestinian children orphaned in 1948. His white biological son converted as soon as he was of age, and was part of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman, and other leftist Arab-Omani organizations. It is funny how the “going native” stereotype simplifies things in such a way that it can ignore or dismiss British people who genuinely felt a shared humanity with Britain’s subjects/victims.

    • tocopherol [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      9·
      5 days ago

      I was confused too, but I believe the ‘Palestine Police’ would refer to British authorities of Mandatory Palestine. Five Brits were fighting for the Arabs and heard another deserter on the Jewish side, so it seems there were more than just five deserters, all five numbered being on the Arab side but two of those five having heard the other unnumbered Brit shout.

      • newacctidk [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
        8·
        5 days ago

        It is difficult to be certain of their number, and reported figures have varied. For the pro-Jewish group of deserters, one article put the number at twelve, while a Jewish veterans’ association estimated that there were around 20. 2 We have identified 17 deserters by name, all of whom joined the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The pro-Arab deserters were more dispersed, with individuals joining the irregular Palestinian Arab militia al-Jihad al-Muqaddas (Holy War Army), led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husseini and Hasan Salama, as well as the Arab Liberation Army (ALA), a force established by the Arab League, with Fawzi al-Qawuqji as its main commander. 3 Deserters were also witnessed fighting with Transjordan’s professional and effective force, the Arab Legion, commanded by the seconded British officer, John Bagot Glubb.4 A low estimate of this pro-Arab group of deserters was put at 53,5 while the highest estimate set their number at around 200.6 After analysing numerous reports on and mentions of these pro-Arab deserters, a figure of between 100 and 200 spread across all three forces seems correct.