1918 Jews of Palestine in World War I

1. Handbook of the Foreign Office, No. 60, 1920, pp. 62-63:

“The most important event which has taken place so far as the Jewish community in Palestine is concerned, since our occupation, has been the recruiting of Palestine Jews, whatever their national status, into the British army; and practically the whole available Jewish youth of the Colonies, and many of the townsmen of military age came forward for voluntary enlistment in the Jewish Battalions, took the oath to King George V, and were clad in British uniforms. The initiative in favour of the recruiting movement took place as the result of the demand of the Jewish population itself, rather than from any desire or even encouragement from the British authorities. The campaign in Palestine is regarded by the Jews as a campaign for the liberation of the country from the thralldom of Turkish misrule, and the return of even Turkish suzerainty would be regarded by them as a betrayal.”

“In 1918 we conquered Palestine and set up a military administration to govern the country, which took it over as we conquered it. The Arabs of Palestine did not help us. They were voluntarily or forcibly serving the Turk. However, in November 1918, in agreement with the French, we published a declaration to the Arabs that we were concerned to ensure, “by their support and by adequate assistance, the regular working of governments and administrations freely chosen by the populations themselves. We suffer from too many declarations. They tend to hamper rather than to help rule.”

2. Mr. James de Rothschild, House of Commons, November 17, 1930:

“During the War, in 1918, I was detailed by Lord Allenby to recruit the Jewish Battalion in Palestine. There were then, in that part of Palestine which had been conquered by the British Army, about 18,000 to 20,000 Jews. They were mostly in Jerusalem, and a few of them in the surrounding colonies, but the greater number had already been deported to the north, to Syria, Damascus, and Konia, by the Turks. In just over a fortnight, out of this population of 20,000, a great number over age, and a great number tired out by the fatigues and the hardships of a long famine during the War, a thousand men came forward, solid good soldiers, who were enrolled in the 40^th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers.”

Source: Hearings Before the Committee on Foreign Affairs House of Representatives Seventy-Eighth Congress Second Session on H. Res. 418 and H Res. 419 Resolutions Relative to the Jewish National Home in Palestine. February 8, 9, 15, and 16, 1944. With Appendix of Documents Relating to the Jewish National Home in Palestine. (p. 320-322); Source:  Simpson, H.J. British Rule and Rebellion. Edinburgh and London:  William Blackwood & sons ltd., 1937, p. 152-157