The Arab Revolt in Palestine, Part II The Convoys. Defending against Arab Attackers 1936-1939



1948 convoy ambushed (not from the Library of
Congress collection)

Visitors to Jerusalem today pass the skeletal remains of vehicles that fought to bring food and supplies to besieged Jewish Jerusalem during the 1948 war.  The brave convoys were described by a young correspondent from Boston, named Robert F. Kennedy:

The City of Jerusalem has more Jews than Arabs but the immediate surrounding territory is predominately Arab. Through part of that hilly territory winds the narrow road that leads from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It is by this road that the Jewish population within Jerusalem must be supplied, but it is fantastically easy for the Arabs to ambush a convoy as it crawls along the difficult pass. On my trip from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem I saw grim realities of the fact.

Long line of Jewish buses
 returning from funeral under
police escort in Jerusalem. 1936.
The picture is taken east of the
Old City walls. Note Absalom's
 tomb in the center, Church of All
Nations on the left

The Arab ambushes of Jewish and British vehicles was a tactic already well-practiced in the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt in Palestine.  The British troops in Palestine provided armored escorts for the British and Jewish residents.
 

Jewish convoy on Tel Aviv-Jerusalem  road
escorted by police 1936



Group of  (Jewish) Palestine
Supernumerary Police with convoy
on Tel Aviv- Jerusalem road 1936

American Colony members' car blocked by an
Arab roadblock near Huwara (1938)

The April 1948 convoy that was left
unprotected. The remains of the convoy
 to  Hadassah Hospital on Mt. Scopus.
79 people were massacred. (not from
Library of Congress collection)