1920-1939 | Civilians slaughtered | Collective punishments | Curfews | Massacres | Palestine | Punitive operations

Black watch troops beat twelve Arab villagers to death

ByAlisdare Hickson

6 November 1937 On Saturday 6 November 1937, an officer in the North Staffordshire Regiment recorded in his diary how soldiers of the Black Watch beat twelve Arab villagers to death with their rifle butts in the Palestinian village of Silwan.1  The incident occurred while troops were being deployed to crush an Arab rebellion against…

1920-1939 | Curfews | Palestine

Missionary doctor’s shock at Arab casualties of British violence

ByAlisdare Hickson

20 August 1938 On 20 August 1938, Dr. E. D. Forster, a physician working with the Church of Scotland, wrote in his journal of his shock at the ferocious wholesale violence inflicted on the Arab inhabitants in the Palestinian town of Hebron.  British soldiers and police officers were resorting to terror tactics to crush an…

1950-1959 | Collective punishments | Curfews | Cyprus

Empty envelopes provoke harsh British reprisals in Nicosia

ByAlisdare Hickson

24 May 1956 On Thursday 24 May 1956, Martin Clemens, the British commissioner of the Cypriot city of Nicosia, ordered the closing down of shops across several streets, and the expulsion of all inhabitants for three months. The draconian measure was described as a ‘collective punishment,’ a reprisal against the entire population for their supposed…

1950-1959 | Collective punishments | Curfews | Malaysia | Media propaganda

‘Cowardly’ Malayan town punished with ration cut and curfew

ByAlisdare Hickson

26 March 1952 On 26 March 1952, General Walter Templer, the British High Commissioner, cocooned in his staff car and escorted by motorcycle outriders, arrived at the small Malayan town of Tanjong Malim, just 43 miles north of the colonial capital of Kuala Lumpur. He immediately summoned three hundred leading members of the Malayan, Chinese…

1940-1949 | Curfews | Martial law | Palestine

Martial law imposed on Palestine’s Jewish population

ByAlisdare Hickson

2 March 1947 On 2 March 1947, General Sir Alan Cunningham, the High Commissioner in Palestine, declared martial law in Tel Aviv, its surrounding suburbs and in several Jewish neighbourhoods of Jerusalem. Thousands of British troops and police officers were deployed across the two cities in iron fisted operations, code-named Hippo (for Tel Aviv) and…

1800-1859 | Curfews | Famine | Martial law

British react to famine in Ireland with martial law bill

ByAlisdare Hickson

23 February 1846 On 23 February 1846, the Irish Coercion Bill was introduced into the House of Lords, following reports that famine struck tenants in Ireland were not paying rent to their landlords. The bill was to allow for the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to introduce martial law to any district, impose curfews from sunset…

1940-1949 | Curfews | Martial law | Palestine

Monty on Palestine – Ignore world and Jewish opinion

ByAlisdare Hickson

2 January 1947 On 2 January 1947, Field Marshal Montgomery, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, sent an urgent telegraph to General Sir Harold Pyman, Chief of Staff of Middle East Land Forces. He informed him that the Cabinet Defence Committee had backed his own preference for a hard line in Palestine, where demands were…

1950-1959 | Censorship | Collective punishments | Curfews | Cyprus | Detention without trial | Martial law

22 JULY

ByAlisdare Hickson

HUNDREDS OF GREEK CYPRIOTS DETAINED WITHOUT TRIAL [ 22 July 1958 ] At 1 am on 22 July 1958, Operation Matchbox commenced. The British Army’s orders were to detain anyone suspected of having any affiliation with the Greek Cypriot EOKA movement, an organisation which demanded the end of rule from London and for the island…