Jewish Levies

The so-called **Jewish Levies** was a military force in Palestine created in the early 1910s and being directly funded and spearheaded by the British Empire. Despite their de-jure status as an "independent" military force who's purpose was "to protect Jewish interests, lives and refugees in Palestine", they were de-facto a puppet of the British colonial army and regularly protected not only Jewish but also British interests and many of their operations included suppressing Arab nationalism. They would be the precursor to the modern Israeli army.

## Precursor: Jews in British Palestine

After Palestine was formally transferred from Ottoman to British occupation, Britain found that their new territories were some of the most difficult to pacify and govern effectively. Many if not most Arabs were fuming at the fact that not only did the Arab fight against the Ottomans mean nothing, but it also meant that the Arabs were given over to a power that was even more foreign and farther away than the Ottomans. The Arabs had nothing in common with the British and rightfully began to fight for their expulsion, which wouldn’t come until 1919. Until then, the British were fighting an ongoing guerrilla war against Arab nationalists, and quickly London looked for any way they could to help counter act this agtresukn by the native Arabs. And so, in 1900 the idea of fulfilling Zionism in British Palestine was born within the parliament and government. In September 1900, British prime minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil announced the empire’s support of Zionism and the government was also in talks with Theodor Herzl.

Obviously the British only used Zionism and the plight of Jews fleeing antisemetism as a shield to protect them against Arabs. They hoped that the Jewish immigrants would take a pro-British stance, and if enough Jews migrate to Palestine it could help disrupt not only rebellious activity in Palestine but also break up Arab connections from British Arabia to Egypt, which also saw a growth of nationalism due to the growing fervor of Arab separatism in Syria, Beirut and Hejaz. At first, little Jews migrated to Palestine from across the world. From 1900-1905 about 50,000 Jews migrated to Palestine. The Jews faced an increasing amount of attacks once they arrived in Palestine, which resulted in a brutal cycle of hatred. As those 50,000 Jews settled in Palestinian cities, Arabs began attacking Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews, resulting in renewed migration, resulting in more antisemetism resulting in more migration etc. This strained relationship between Jews and Arabs wasn’t helped when in 1906 with increased amounts of antisemetic attacks in major cities, the British hugely reduced the price of migration to the land, and thousands more fled. Palestine started facing a refugee crisis as thousands of Jews didn’t have any place to live.

London gave the colonial administration and many newly formed Jewish organizations massive amounts of funds to help expand the colony to include the Jewish populations. Palestine exploded in its economic growth. Shanty towns, hastily created to help house Jewish refugees were transformed into proper cities. However, Britain also made it clear to try to avoid angering the Arabs as much as possible. Due to this cities like Jerusalem, Beersheba, Gaza etc. we’re often avoided. With an already sizeable Jewish minority in the north, most of the organizations and the Palestinian Colonial Administration chose to fund the north more so than the south. By 1910 over 120,000 Jews had migrated from across the world (80% came from West Asia) and most settled in the north. New cities were established, especially port cities which could easily take in refugees.

Easily the biggest and most prosperous Jewish community lived in and around the seaport of Jaffa, which had been expanded substantially since 1905. But by 1910, in just 1 decade of the British government endorsing Zionism Palestine was seeing monumental and permanent change. To many Arabs the Jewish population wasn’t going anywhere, which only backfired on behalf of the British, as more and more Arabs became radicalized to the extreme. Ideas of exterminating the Jewish population of Palestine was fairly small, but more and more people were beginning to have enough of the British empire and wanted them gone for good. Palestine might have seen a decrease in Arab insurgent activity, but it came at the cost of fueling the fire that would soon inevitably lead to the downfall of the British Empire.

## Arab hatred and 1910 Treaty of Jaffa

After the Gaza massacre in August by joint Jewish-British forces which occurred due to Arab nationalists in the same city assaulting 5 British officers and 20 Jewish settlers, killing 1 soldier and 5 settlers unrest swept all of Palestine which bled into the larger British-Arab colonies. People were once again demanding change, but this time the British government were unable to ignore the Arab calls for either revolution or greater autonomy. After 1 month of an increasing amount of strikes and protest by Arab workers, the British government finally decided to give into reformist measures in Palestine but still held tightly onto their other colonies. The British garrisons stationed in the occupied country were reduced, and Arabs were given were leeway to rule themselves. However, the British were still worried about giving the colony autonomy, as London worried that giving into Palestinian demands would result in further demands in Hejaz, Syria, Beirut, Basra etc. Because of this many exceptions were made, mostly with the growing Jewish community in Palestine.

## Creation of the levies

Scared of the idea of losing control over their Arab territories, London in October spearheaded the creation of the Jewish Levies, an autonomous military force (though basically a puppet of the larger British colonial army) to “enforce the rights and wills of Jewish population within the holy land”. Expectedly, this move was very unpopular in the Arab world, with them and the levies’ critics pointing out how the creation of the Levied would only give Jews an unfair advantage in Palestine, creating an uneven power dynamic, leaving Arabs as 2nd and 3rd class citizens. The Jewish Levies were pro-British and technically independent from London but de-facto they were completely dependent on Britain.