June 16th, 1936. British Mandate authorities airdropped leaflets over the Old City of Jaffa warning residents of impending explosions and ordering evacuations as part of Operation Anchor. Residents were given short notice (and promises of compensation, though not alternative housing) before troops encircled the sector.
June 19-30, 1936. The British Mandatory authorities carried out widespread home demolitions and dynamite blasts in Jaffa during June 1936 as a collective punishment and counterinsurgency tactic during the 1936–1939 Arab Revolt in Palestine.
First Demolition Phase (June 18, 1936): British forces demolished approximately 70 houses in the Old City of Jaffa, displacing 150 families. Second Demolition Phase (June 29–30, 1936): Authorities resumed and completed further explosive-based clearing, destroying another 150 houses (housing about 300 families) and removing around 850 wooden barracks that sheltered roughly 4,000 people. An estimated 10,000 residents were left homeless inside and outside the city, marking the first major Arab refugee crisis of the Mandate period.
Dynamite explosions caused structural cracks in the Al-Khidr Church in the Ajami neighborhood, damaged part of the Sheikh Raslan Mosque, and shattered windows and roofs at the Latin Monastery (the Citadel) and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
The broader counterinsurgency campaign in and around Jaffa during this time was deeply violent. Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Jaffa during armed clashes with British troops on the outskirts of the city. There was brutal enforcement of military curfews where soldiers fired on anyone visible outside after hours.
The severity of what happened was exposed not by military communiqués, but by the British Chief Justice in Palestine at the time, Sir Michael McDonnell.
In the July 1936 case El Qasir v. Attorney General, McDonnell fiercely rebuked the British administration. He exposed that the government had used a "singularly disingenuous lack of moral courage" by falsely claiming the demolitions were just a "town planning/slum clearance scheme" (aka Urban Renewal) to avoid paying proper legal compensation to the displaced Palestinians. The British government was so furious that a high-ranking judge exposed their legal deceit that they forced McDonnell into early retirement. This legal battle focused entirely on the illegal, sudden theft of property and mass homelessness.
digital collage + painting | 2026
for return[dot]art
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