British Mandate era in Palestine Destroying Arab terrorists Village - Posted by YJ Draiman

British Mandate era in Palestine Destroying Arab terrorists Village

British forces drove out the Ottomans in 1917, during World War I, and the British Mandate of Palestine was established in 1920. 

In the 1922 British census, Mi'ar an Arab Village had a population of 429, all Muslims.^[12] The population increased to 543, still all Muslim, in the 1931 census and the inhabitants lived in a total of 109 houses.^[13]

Mi'ar's residents participated in 1936–1939 Arab revolt against British rule, and the village became a center of rebel operations in Galilee.^[14] The rebels often opened fired on British troops passing near Mi'ar, damaged roads in the vicinity to render them impassable by the British authorities, cut electrical cables, and planted landmines to hit British vehicles.^[14] One of the authorities' controversial methods of suppressing the revolt was the blowing up of houses in a village where there was support for rebels.^[14] On 26 October 1938, two British battalions launched a raid against Mi'ar and began dynamiting the large houses of the village.^[14] They then demanded Mi'ar's mukhtar (headman) to issue a call to the village's rebels to surrender their rifles or else the dynamiting would continue.^[14] No rifles were surrendered and the British resumed their dynamiting of the village's homes.^[14] Mi'ar was entirely destroyed for its alleged support of the rebels.^[15][16] A New York Times reporter present during the destruction wrote, "When the [British] troops left, there was little else remaining of this once busy village except a pile of mangled masonry."^[14]

Arab/Palestinian village of Mi'ar being blown up by the British in 1938.