DISCOVERING LAWRENCE, UNCOVERING NEWCOMBE

Having left education early to pursue a career within the creative sector, I found myself aged 17-years-old academically short-changed and in need of further self-development. I filled these gaps through the reading of books, any books, but especially books on art and design that might disguise the obvious absence of any formal training. I decided to join a popular postal book club which had an attractive introductory offer but also the annoying habit – certainly to this otherwise preoccupied teenager - of sending the Editor's Choice if you didn't physically write in to say you didn't want it, and so on more than one occasion I was forced to accept an unwanted book that I certainly couldn’t waste limited funds on. That was how I came into possession of a book with an intriguing title, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The title was one reason I decided to keep the book, the other – and this appealed to my eye for design – was its evocative cover showing a string of camels in silhouette set in contrast against a burnt orange sky. The writer’s name was unfamiliar to me, although in hindsight I must have seen David Lean’s epic film, Lawrence of Arabia, and having made no connection between book and film it was my hunger for knowledge that made the book and not the film the catalyst for my continued education.

It was Jeremy Wilson, Lawrence’s authorised biographer, who once wrote: “In general, people who are interested in cinema, and people who are interested in history, are on roads that never meet.” When Lawrence’s brother, Arnold, saw the film he said: “I should not have recognised my own brother.” But it is the film that has presented Lawrence to the widest possible audience. As Wilson observed: “For every person who has spent three hours reading a serious book about Lawrence's life there are probably hundreds, if not thousands, who have seen the film.” If the film had been less successful then perhaps we would not be here today.

Being a heavy and unwieldy tome, Seven Pillars was difficult to hold in one hand as I made the daily commute into London in a standing-room-only train carriage. But despite the discomfort I held the vain hope that the title alone might make me look a little more intelligent to my fellow passengers. Was there ever a shallower reason to embark upon a lifelong quest for knowledge?

I hadn't travelled far on my very first journey in company with Lawrence - a typically dull, dreary and grey London day - when I came across the following passage:

We were fond together, because of the sweep of the open places, the taste of wide winds, the sunlight, and the hopes in which we worked. The morning freshness of the world-to-be intoxicated us. We were wrought ought up with ideas inexpressible and vaporous, but to be fought for. We lived many lives in those whirling campaigns, never sparing ourselves: yet when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to re-make in the likeness of the former world they knew. Youth could win, but had not learned to keep: and was pitiably weak against age. We stammered that we had worked for a new heaven and new earth, and they thanked us kindly and made their peace.

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.

As the overcrowded carriage pulled into Waterloo Station, Lawrence's description of "the sweep of the open places, the taste of wide winds" struck me as a stark and obvious contrast to my current situation. I was captivated, and have been ever since.

Still eyes look coldly upon me,

Cold voices whisper and say --

'He is crazed with the spell of far Arabia,

They have stolen his wits away.'

Victoria Ocampo, who wrote what Arnold once said was "the most profound and the best-balanced of all portraits of my brother," felt affinity with Lawrence through a shared love of the vastness of open places: in her case, the pampas of Argentina.

It is the desert that is the essence of the saga, in both film and fact. Lawrence immersed himself in its alien ways, while Stewart Newcombe, Lawrence’s senior officer, fought hard to step outside the limitations set by his military background and training and adapt to its inhumanities and frustrations. Despite being an experienced desert explorer, Newcombe was eventually overwhelmed by the environment and the materiel he was given to work with. Lawrence, the archaeologist turned nonconformist subaltern, had no such limitations.

Eager to explore the open places of Lawrence’s description myself, I travelled whenever I could throughout the Arab countries of the Mediterranean and beyond. As a photographer and designer I was able to find work in Cyprus, Egypt and eventually Dubai, the latter at a time when the desert still needed taming each day lest it overwhelm the as yet undeveloped city.

Dubai Creek, 2017. Still retaining its original charm.

My desire to visit Dubai sprang from a separate book, Arabian Sands, by British explorer and travel writer Wilfred Thesiger. This is how Thesiger portrayed Dubai in 1952, before massive oil profits accelerated the city's expansion:

I then went to Dibai and stayed with Edward Henderson. We had been together in Syria during the war. He was now working for the Iraq Petroleum Company, making preparations for the development which was expected there, but of which there was mercifully as yet no sign. He lived in a large Arab house overlooking the creek which divided the town, the largest on the Trucial Coast with about twenty-five thousand inhabitants. Many native craft were anchored in the creek or were careened on the mud along the waterfront. There were booms from Kuwait, sambuks from Sur, jaulbauts, and even a large stately baghila with a high carved stern on which I could make out the Christian monogram IHS on one of the embossed panels. This work must have been copied originally from some Portuguese galleon. To the English all these vessels were dhows, a name no longer remembered by the Arabs.

Naked children romped in the shallows, and rowing-boats patrolled the creek to pick up passengers from the mouths of alleys between high coral houses, surmounted with square wind-turrets and pleasingly decorated with plaster moulding.

Thesiger's photo of Dubai's wind towers, 1952

Behind the diversity of houses which lined the waterfront were the suqs, covered passageways, where merchants sat in the gloom, cross-legged in narrow coves among their piled merchandise. The suqs were crowded with many races – pallid Arab townsmen; armed Bedu, quick-eyed and imperious; Negro slaves; Baluchis, Persians, and Indians. Among them I noticed a group of Kashgai tribesmen in their distinctive felt caps, and some Somalis off a sambuk from Aden. Here life moved in time with the past. These people still valued leisure and courtesy and conversation. They did not live their lives at second hand, dependent on cinemas and wireless. I would willingly have consorted with them, but I now wore European clothes. As I wandered through the town I knew that they regarded me as an intruder; I myself felt that I was little better than a tourist.

But it was not just what Thesiger wrote about the town he called Dibai that attracted me. He illustrated his book with beguiling black and white photographs, and one image in particular caught my attention. It showed the “high coral houses, surmounted with square wind-turrets” that was located by a wide creek that flowed through the town. These were just two of the many barjeel wind towers of Al Bastakiya, a neighbourhood built in the 1890s by Persian merchants looking for trade opportunities and named after Bastak, a town in southern Iran. The towers were designed to expel hot air and to funnel cooler air to the living quarters below, providing passive cooling solutions that predate modern air-conditioning.

My photo of a souk trader, 1981

I reached Dubai just in time to photograph them myself before half of them were demolished in the 1980’s. The remaining towers were only saved through the intervention of British architect Rayner Otter. His efforts culminated in a letter to Prince (now King) Charles, who visited Dubai in 1989. The Prince advocated for their preservation, halting plans for their demolition and igniting a revival that saw the towers restored in 2005. The area, also known as the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, is now a major tourist zone with tea houses, a coffee museum, art galleries, boutique shops and the Sheikh Mohammad Centre for Cultural Understanding.

It doesn’t seem to matter when you arrive anywhere in the world, you will hear a phrase that goes something like this: “You should have been here ten years ago”. There were still a number of European expatriates living in Dubai who had arrived before 1971 when it was then part of the British Protectorate called the Trucial States, and for whom this was a common refrain. By the end of that decade, and largely by their efforts, the town began to change from an old pearling and re-exporting hub into a modern and vibrant city-state, attracting all kinds of people from around the world - oil men and their families, the military, financial advisors, architects and civil engineers, construction workers, hospitality, and a rapidly developing media industry.

Shy sailors, Dubai 1982

Ten years to the month after Prime Minister Edward Heath ended the treaty relationships with the seven trucial sheikhdoms, I arrived to take up a position as the art director of a small advertising and publishing company founded by Ian Fairservice just two years previously with his business partner Obaid Humaid al Tayer, later the Minister of State for financial Affairs. Ian originally came to Dubai as assistant manager of a hotel and was also influenced by Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom which he had read as a schoolboy. He eventually met and published books by Wilfred Thesiger, whom Ian had long admired. When Thesiger came to the UAE for an exhibition of his photography sponsored by the British Council, Ian asked him what, if anything, remained unfulfilled for him. Thesiger said that he's always dreamt that one day the very Arabs who he had written about in Arabian Sands would be able to read the book in their own language. Within a year, Ian had secured the worldwide rights to publish the book in Arabic, and so began a 13-year relationship during which he published twelve of Thesiger's books.

Dhow captain, 1982

My time in Dubai was marked not just by the beginning of a rapid acceleration of growth from oil revenues, but by the vision of its ruler, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who planned for the eventual decline in the dependency on oil with an ambitious construction programme which allowed the emirate to not only survive but thrive in an economic market where oil production contributed less than 1 percent of the emirate's GDP by 2018.

There is a question mark over whether Sheikh Rashid said the following: "My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel".

If he didn’t, a similar train of thought might well have motivated his desire to set in motion an ambitious vision for the future of his young country, a vision now carried forward by his son and current ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The pace of change has been staggering, the impact more so. But the people of Dubai have adopted, adapted and improved the new, incorporating it all into a culture that dates back hundreds of years.

Abra boatman, 1981

I was three years too late to have met Henry St. John Armitage who had recently retired from public service as British Consul-General at the Dubai branch of the British Embassy in the UAE, a creek-side venue where I was often dispatched to report on an event or initiative for the magazine that was part of our publishing range. St. John was old-school. It was said he knew everyone in Arabia and had their telephone numbers and their family particulars in his head or his pocket-book. He had known several Arabs who had participated in the Arab Revolt and was on good terms with the descendants of many more.

After he retired he took a keen interest in the T.E. Lawrence Society and gave unstinting support to Jeremy Wilson who was writing Lawrence’s biography, with one demand: that the narrative should respect the historical context and not bend to propaganda - and above all it must tell the truth. He was always unwaveringly honest, although at times he could be undiplomatically forthright. His knowledge of Arabia and its history was exceptional, and anyone flaunting historical accuracy would frequently be taken to task. Jeremy, when writing about history would often ask himself: “Would that get past St. John?”

Through Wilson’s T.E. Lawrence Studies Discussion group, St. John solved the mystery of a letter inserted into my copy of the 1935 edition of Seven Pillars and explained what books on Lawrence in Arabic I had purchased from a much-missed Charing Cross Road bookshop. He also said, in reply to my enquires, that Newcombe’s story existed in regimental archives and libraries and then helped direct me to the relevant locations. As Wilson said: “I am sure that St. John helped many other researchers. My experience of his generosity is probably typical rather than exceptional.”

When I look back I can see how my education began with Lawrence. Being exposed to his interests ignited those interests in me - archaeology, WW1 Palestine Campaigns, history, literature, music, art, politics, and of course the Middle East. That education now continues through the life of Stewart Newcombe. As I uncover his life it reveals a story that resonates with our shared history and our current predicaments, a story that is as relevant today as it was over one hundred years ago. Wilson told us that propaganda based on distortions of history has no defence against well-researched accuracy. Newcombe championed the historical narrative in relation to his advocacy for Palestinian self-determination. As we have seen, to not do so leads to the building of barriers, drives people apart, decreases understanding, dehumanises and demeans.

“If there were broad agreement about the history of the Middle East,” Wilson wrote, “it would be far easier to reach the political settlement which its peoples and the rest of the world so badly needs.”

SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM by T.E. Lawrence. Published by Jonathan Cape, London, 1935.

For more of Jeremy Wilson's appreciation of Henry St. John Armitage - The Journal of the T.E. Lawrence Society XIV No. 2

ARABIAN SANDS by Wilfred Thesiger. Published by Motivate Publishing, Dubai, 2004. First published in 1959 by Longmans, Green & Co

All photos by Kerry Webber © taken early 1980's, one in 2017, except Thesiger's wind towers from 1952

Website update

A fitting memorial

Over the years this blog has grown considerably and now contains a wealth of information and items of interest on both Stewart Newcombe and T.E. Lawrence, as well as highlighting the involvement of a supporting cast of unsung brothers-in-arms who for too long languished in the shadow of Lawrence's legend. Lately, Newcombe's narrative has shifted to highlight his work in helping to achieve a just solution in relation to the promises that were made to the Arabs during the war in return for their active participation in support of the Allied cause.

Beyond Arabia

To safeguard the online content I decided to create a printed version for personal use. To facilitate this process the site has undergone a number of changes in both layout and content, including replacing the old title with one that more accurately captures the essence of Newcombe's life. With photos and text, the printed book came to over 240 pages in length. The copy and overall content of the blog differs significantly to the proposed book-length biography of Newcombe, on which I hope to be able to give an update shortly.

Lies, Deception and Subterfuge

On 5 November 2024 I was invited by Stuart Hadaway of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in WW1 Group to present my paper on Colonel Stewart Francis Newcombe titled Lies, Deception and Subterfuge. The paper focused on Newcombe’s distinguished war career and achievements, especially in connection to T.E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt, as well as briefly touching upon other areas of service before he arrived in Cairo as head of Military Intelligence in 1914. Newcombe’s story is one of love, war and politics, but for this talk I also explored a story of lies, deception and subterfuge, presenting a range of contradictory claims surrounding the so-called Haversack Ruse, one element in an arsenal of deceptions employed by General Allenby prior to the Third Battle of Gaza in November 1917.

But before that, I began the talk by describing my own journey in pursuit of Newcombe's remarkable story:

Several people encouraged my early research, but the author H.V.F. Winstone went further. Victor Winstone is well-known for his 1982 book The Illicit Adventure, a distillation of his research that had gone into individual biographies of many Middle Eastern personalities such as Gertrude Bell, Captain Shakespeare, Parker Pasha, and Lieutenant-Colonel Gerald Leachman. Beginning life as a history of the Arab Bureau in Cairo, it soon expanded into a wider study of the political and military intelligence apparatus in the Middle East during the years 1898 to 1926.

In retrospect, Winstone made a few factual errors and misplaced assumptions in the interpretation of his research, partly due to a bias against the legend that had been created around Lawrence of Arabia, which he described as “a story of stupefying naiveté,” and one in which he believed all previous history, all fact and sense had been swamped by the Lawrence myth. It was perhaps why he brought characters out into the light after they had languished too long in Lawrence’s shadow.

Further biographies followed, with Lady Anne Blunt and the archaeologists Leonard Woolley and Howard Carter, but it was obvious from footnotes in The Illicit Adventure that Winstone had gathered papers from people close to the Newcombe family that he hoped would form the backbone of a proposed biography. However, despite considerable experience in the genre he later admitted he fell short in his attempt, as seen in the following intriguing letter written to me in reply to my persistent intrusions into his retirement when I had by then hit a wall in my own faltering adventure into discovering Newcombe’s life story:

What an interesting exchange you keep up,” he wrote. “I often wondered if you might make a breakthrough where I signally failed, but rather doubted it, having myself come up against implacable and at times most unpleasant opposition from MI5/6 and MoD. As you have obviously discovered these people do not, in common parlance, ‘take prisoners.’ For years I had my own watcher who stopped at nothing to prevent my books from being written and published. On one occasion I had to threaten legal action against my own publisher in order to prevent the abandonment of several years’ work.

So I am not surprised to learn that you are roughly as you were with SFN. I would greatly applaud success, but I find it hard to know how I could help. Could you pose a few questions and see if anything opens up? It is all so long ago and the fight with 6 has taken its toll. But I soldier on at 84. Don’t despair. It would be great if you could pull it off.

As ever

Victor Winstone

Undeterred by the thought of MI5 knocking on my door, I pressed on in pursuit of the illusive Colonel Newcombe and after further prodding, Winstone summoned up the energy to dig deep into a pile of wicker baskets he kept under his bed and came up with some fascinating papers that galvanised the project. There wasn’t much, but among the papers were some first-hand accounts that not only confirmed but added substantially to the publicly held research material I had previously obtained. It was the encouragement I needed. The journey began again, an adventure in biographical research that has changed course over the years, as our relationship with empire-building and our own colonial past continues its path of re-evaluation. Newcombe’s fascinating life as a military man may have been set against the backdrop of crumbling empires, uneasy nation-building, and within the legends of Arabia, but the focus today is on his role in helping to shape the Middle East that emerged when the war ended and the peacemakers took centre stage. As Lawrence put it so eloquently:

“We lived many lives in those whirling campaigns, never sparing ourselves: yet when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to remake in the likeness of the former world they knew. Youth could win, but had not learned to keep, and was pitiably weak against age. We stammered that we had worked for a new heaven and a new earth, and they thanked us kindly and made their peace.”

Newcombe’s life spanned the reigns of six monarchs from Victoria to Elizabeth and through numerous wars and skirmishes, right through to the Suez Crisis in 1956, the year he died, when that debacle would prove to be the death knell not just of the British Empire but of all the empires of Western Europe.

The war that is at the core of this story – the First World War – was meant, according to H.G. Wells, to be the war that will end war. So vast was its reach that Wells said: “It is war not of nations, but of mankind. It is a war to exorcise a world-madness and end an age.” He wrote those words in 1914 even before the horrors of a new industrialised war had fully coalesced into a perfect storm of unprecedented slaughter and appalling human suffering, where there were no easy triumphs, no prancing victories. Three years later, US President Woodrow Wilson echoed Wells’s sentiment with his own version of “a war to end all wars” to support his call to bring the US into the conflict in order to “make the world safe for democracy.” They were both wrong. The First World War did not bring everlasting peace, its final act of reckoning at Versailles became merely a stepping-stone to a second and more devastating world war.

As the Spanish-American philosopher, George Santayana, poignantly observed, “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

HAVERSACK!

During my talk to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in WW1 Group I discussed an often-overlooked comment by Lawrence in his book Seven Pillars of Wisdom concerning a dropped haversack.

Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen

In the annals of war, the Haversack Ruse has gained a legendary status in the art and science of military deception, disinformation and surprise. According to the accepted legend, this intricately planned and audaciously executed ruse was attributed to the wildly eccentric Major Richard Meinertzhagen when he was attached to Allenby’s Intelligence Department and has since been described as one of the most original and inspired examples of the art of deception.

However, evidence suggests that Stewart Newcombe had in fact carried out an almost similar exploit some four months prior to Meinertzhagen. My paper went on to explore the important question as to whether Newcombe had in fact originated the Haversack Ruse, albeit a ploy that can trace its roots back through history to military deceptions (MILDEC) carried out by such practitioners as the Chinese (as described in The Art of War, an ancient military treatise originating from the 5th Century BC), and the ancient Egyptians and Greeks (one thinks of the guile of the Trojan Horse under Odysseus’ leadership). Much later, the haversack deception was updated early in WW2 when Rommel’s forces discovered a burnt-out scout car with a corpse clutching a map that appeared to show a “fair going” route that bypassed minefields in the North Africa desert. The hope was that Rommel’s tanks would take the bait and get bogged down in soft sand. Then, in the run up to the invasion of Sicily, James Bond creator Ian Fleming from Naval Intelligence came up with "A Suggestion (not a very nice one)" to plant misleading papers on a corpse that would be found by the enemy, in what became known as Operation Mincemeat, a deception that bore all the hallmarks of the original Haversack Ruse, along with supporting diversions and feints designed to confuse the enemy and reinforce the deception.

There always remained the intriguing question regarding the Haversack Ruse that centred on the fact that the ploy has been so deeply embedded in military folklore that few historians have ever questioned to whether or not it had played any significant part in the success of the battle for Gaza. What can be said is that the potential doubts surrounding deceptions such as this and others throws just as much confusion and suspicion around their authenticity that the doubt has almost as much effect on the outcome as the reality.

So, was Newcombe’s ploy an intriguing and hitherto unremarked addition to the age-old art of military deception and the forerunner of the famed Haversack Ruse? It was an intriguing question, with even Lawrence, in typical mischievous fashion, throwing doubts and confusion into the mix. The answer was no less compelling and will be discussed in a separate post.

Palm Sunday - Israeli air strike destroys part of last functioning hospital in Gaza City

Today is Palm Sunday when Christians around the world prepare to mark the beginning of Holy Week. It's also the day the Israeli government chose to bomb the only Christian-run hospital in northern Gaza, the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital, the last partially functioning hospital in Gaza city - again. If anyone chose to ask, the IDF would say that there is no significance to the day on which they chose to bomb the hospital, as this is the fifth time the hospital has been targeted. This time there is no mention of a missile misfire. No-one else to blame. This, they will tell you, is a command and control centre, and therefore a legitimate target. To date, the IDF have not provided evidence to back up this claim. In fact, the only available evidence is of Israel's systematic dismantling of the Gazan healthcare system - one hospital at a time. In targeting the Al Ahli, a hospital protected under international law, it is destroying one of the last places offering hope and care. And the world barely notices.

The Al Ahli is in fact the oldest medical facility in Gaza and can trace its roots back to 1882 when the Church Missionary Society opened a simple dispensary. Funds were raised for establishing a permanent medical mission and in March 1891 a hospital adapted from a native house was opened. Rev. Dr. Robert B. Sterling arrived in 1893 and expanded the services offered by the hospital to include in-patient care. It's reputation grew and in 1906 the Muslim community presented Dr. Sterling with £100 which they had collected in token of their gratitude for his work among them. The hospital and out-patient hall were now much too small to match its growing reputation and on 1 April 1908 the Bishop of Jerusalem dedicated a new hospital containing forty-six beds followed by the opening of a spacious out-patient block on 22 February 1911. The new hospital, providing care for Jews, Christians and Muslims, was known locally as Dr. Sterly's. 

In his report back to the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1914, Stewart Newcombe called the hospital:

 "The best place in the whole of this country"

For more information on this important and historical hospital please see my previous post Dr. Sterlys - A story of Gazan healthcare

Today, 13 April 2025, significant parts of the Anglican Church run hospital were destroyed by the IDF after issuing a warning to evacuate the patients and staff. Hospital beds, children in arms and critically-ill patients were forcibly displaced from the site in great haste in a pre-dawn strike that struck fear in patients, medical staff and those seeking shelter within its environs. 

"Footage on social media showed staff and patients leaving the building while it was still dark outside. Dozens of Palestinians, including women and children, were also seen fleeing from a courtyard inside the hospital where they had been seeking shelter." (BBC)

One child who previously suffered a brain injury died as a result of "the rushed evacuation process", according to a statement from the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which is affiliated to the hospital. The ambulance and emergency department was destroyed in the double strike as well as the central laboratory, the reception and the pharmacy. It is now effectively out of service.

Today a heavy silence of injustice persists on this Palm Sunday in Palestine. This action will not bring security. It will not bring back the Israeli hostages. It will not end this war.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION: 

ONE DAY EVERYONE WILL ALWAYS HAVE BEEN AGAINST THIS by Omar El Akkad

Published by Canongate, 2025

"One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this." Omar El Akkad

Palestinian lawyer and human rights activist, Raja Shehadeh, says: "Omar El Akkad's book is a brilliant mosaic of heartfelt reflections on the sad state of the world, one that dared to end in hope."

British historian and writer, David Olusoga, says: "To get a glimpse of how we in the twenty-first century might one day be judged for our passivity and hypocrisy, I urge you to read Omar El Akkad's astonishing book."

UPDATE

More than 50,933 people have been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023. 

Of those, 1,563 have been killed since 18 March 2025, when Israel restarted its offensive in the Gaza Strip. 

A Real Romance of Love, War and Politics

Elizabeth (Elsie) Newcombe, née Chaki (1919)

This recently discovered photograph is of the remarkable Elizabeth (Elsie) Chaki, the Jewish daughter of Spanish/French heritage, whose father worked for the Levantine Civil Service in Constantinople. Elsie was a spirited twenty-year-old who knew her own mind and had taken great personal risks to help Stewart Francis Newcombe escape from a Turkish prisoner-of-war camp during World War 1, as well as facilitating escape routes for other Allied escapees hiding under cover in the capital. The photo was taken in 1919 on the occasion of her marriage to the 40-year-old colonel, and was published by the media as part of the incredible story of Newcombe's capture, escape and romance that was syndicated around the world. 

Earlier that year, the Paris Peace Conference began on 12 January 1919 with the first of what would be well over a hundred meetings between the leaders of countries seeking a peace that was intended to end war for all time. Within days the town filled with an international contingent working towards a just and lasting settlement based on American President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points. Kings, Queens, Emirs, and Presidents answered an instinctive need to be present at the biggest diplomatic time of reckoning in history when the spoils of war would be shared by the victors and the defeated would be asked to pay the price of peace.

After T.E. Lawrence’s firm endorsement of Emir Feisal as the leader most suited to take forward the Arab Revolt on the battlefield, it came as no surprise that he believed that he was also the one who had the greatest chance of success in the negotiations over the future of the Middle East and had therefore sent a message to King Hussein suggesting that Hussein should send Feisal as the Arab representative at the Conference.

On the eve of his own departure, Lawrence appeared realistic about the possibility of the Arabs achieving their aims when he wrote to a friend, "We may find ourselves shut out, or let in, or on the same ground as the rest of the earth. And till the end of the conference I cannot tell you. At present everything is evenly balanced."

Faisal and his entourage arrived in the midst of this gathering circus and were immediately told the devastating news that as the Hejaz delegation had no official status it could not be given representation and therefore their case would not be heard. Lawrence made light of the impasse but thereafter all his time was spent in a frantic round of meetings with politicians and journalists to push the Arab agenda to the forefront.

The Arab delegation cut a colourful and intriguing impression on the other delegates. Faisal, whose voice it was even said, "seemed to breathe the perfume of frankincense", was accompanied everywhere by his large Nubian bodyguard, complete with dagger. A retinue of advisors, many in flowing robes, drifted regally through the meeting rooms of the conference, causing a stir wherever they went. Lawrence, especially, missed no opportunity to appear in his now familiar Arab head-dress over his colonel’s uniform, reinforcing his close association with Faisal and the Arab cause. When the occasion demanded, he would even don the full robes of an Arab Emir and was described as "gliding along the corridors" of the Hotel Majestic on his way to another meeting to press the case for Arab representation before the so-called 'Big Four' - Lloyd George of Britain, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy, Georges Clemenceau of France, and Woodrow Wilson of the U.S.

Churchill was especially struck by the transformation that came over Lawrence during these times, describing how "the full magnificence of his countenance revealed itself." When Churchill wrote these words in 1935, Britain was soon to face its finest hour and in need of a mythical Arthurian figure waiting in the wings to answer the call to arms once again. Churchill’s words fitted the moment, and the need:

"From amid the flowing draperies his noble features, his perfectly chiselled lips, and flashing eyes loaded with fire and comprehension shone forth. He looked what he was, one of nature’s greatest princes."

Throughout his time in Paris, Lawrence remained optimistic, at least in front of Faisal, but was a little premature when he suggested that the conference had nearly run its course and would be wrapped up by mid February. "Another fortnight, perhaps," he had written hopefully to his mother. In fact, the conference was to grind on for six full months of debating, arguing and horse-trading before treaties were made, borders moved, countries created, and reparations imposed upon an adversary not yet thoroughly defeated; six months during which hopes and dreams were realised or dashed, old wounds were reopened, expectations rose and fell, and fresh injustices were heaped upon the misery of the previous four years. Clemenceau summed up the challenge in an aside to a colleague: "It is much easier to make war than peace." His assessment ultimately proved correct with the result that a lasting solution to the so called ‘Syrian Question’ - that vaguely defined region that included Palestine - has thus far proved insurmountable.

By the end of the month, Lawrence complained to his mother: "I have had, personally, one meal in my hotel since I got to Paris!" Happily, that meal was shared with a welcome ally. Newcombe had turned up unexpectedly.

The two friends had much to discuss, not least Newcombe’s first-hand account of his amazing Boy's Own adventures. Lawrence’s amusement at discovering that his friend was betrothed to marry can only be guessed at. Newcombe was anxiously awaiting news that Elsie had been given permission to leave the Turkish capital; Paris would be perfect for their long-awaited reunion. In the meantime, within just a few short weeks since leaving the arena of hostilities, the two men were thrown into the equally hostile and unpredictable world of high politics. When Elsie eventually arrived, it was a bright spot during a testing period for both men. Before she met Lawrence for the first time, Newcombe felt compelled to warn her, "If you meet a very rude young Englishman, pay no attention. It will be Lawrence."

In later years, Elsie gave a description to a Lawrence biographer, John E. Mack, of a warm and amusing picture of the time she met Lawrence in Paris. Newcombe and his fiancée were at a well-attended dinner with no opportunity to be introduced to Lawrence. However, at the end of the meal, a butler passed a message from Lawrence suggesting the three of them should meet. A dinner was duly arranged and when he arrived, Elsie asked him to sit next to her, to which Lawrence responded solemnly that he was not worthy of such an honour. After dinner, they went outside and Lawrence was standing on the pavement, with Elsie in the road. "Now I'm taller than you," he quipped. She promptly gave him a hard shove into the road and hopped onto the pavement. "Now I'm taller than you," she retorted. Newcombe interrupted this horseplay, saying, "Come with me. Soon you'll want to marry him instead of me." But Elsie, having the last word, replied, "Oh no, you're better looking and much nicer." Lawrence could only laugh, but Newcombe seemed a little embarrassed. 

With the question of his next posting still to be settled, Newcombe returned to London and took lodgings at the United Service Club in Pall Mall. Reserved for senior officers above the rank of Major, “The Senior” as it was known, was considered the most prestigious military club in London. Since his return he had been busy with all sorts of plans, but none more important than his own wedding. 

While Elsie settled into the Hans Crescent Hotel just behind the Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, Newcombe began to make the necessary arrangements but soon found that it was not going to be as easy as he had thought. As Elsie was technically an “enemy alien subject” she was placed under certain restrictions and entering into marriage, especially with one of his Majesty’s serving officers, was going to take ingenuity to pull off. With arrangements for Newcombe to be posted overseas at an advanced stage there was no time to be lost. Elsie’s status as a citizen of Constantinople under French protection gave her some advantages but it was the recognition for her work in helping Newcombe and other Allied prisoners-of-war in their escape plans that would eventually decide the matter in her favour. Strings were pulled at senior level and with assistance from the Registrar-General, and even the Home Secretary, the matter was eventually resolved when Elsie was given permission to become a British subject.

 

With all legal difficulties overcome and arrangements having been settled, his marriage to Elsie took place on 15 April 1919, immediately upon the opening of the Registry Office at 15 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. The following day the couple, armed with the registrars’ certificate, drove across town to St. Margaret’s, the delightful church in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, known as the Church of the House of Commons. Although the church was normally closed to wedding services during the Holy Week of Easter a further favour was asked of an old school chum from Christ’s Hospital, the Revd. Herbert Francis Westlake, a Minor Canon of Westminster. 

Westlake carefully read the documents brought from the Registry Office and once he was satisfied that all was correct he welcomed the couple at the altar and began the religious service. If Newcombe wanted to impress his young bride he could not have picked a more magnificent location, situated at the spiritual and political epicentre of the Empire he served as a loyal and dedicated agent.

Within days newspapers reported the marriage in a story that was syndicated around the Empire under the title ‘Real Romance of Love and War’. They claimed, rightly, that it was a tale "which seems to belong to the pages of a novel rather than to a record of actual events." The ceremony, the report concluded, was "the culminating act of a chain of happenings which included adventures among the enemy disguised as an Arab, capture, a love episode, escape, recapture, and finally a happy reunion in England, and wedding bells." The happy couple, who had met under such remarkable circumstances and had already gone through so many adventures together, had overcome the last difficulty and were finally united in marriage. The verdict from the London newspapers was heart-warming, describing Elsie as "handsome and singularly charming."

The marriage is not recorded in the register book in the usual way, but is listed on an inserted Certificate of Marriage slip, in the April section for that year. An accompanying letter indicates that there were two ceremonies of marriage, one in the Church of England and another one elsewhere according to other religious rites. The letter goes on to explains what happens in this sort of case: “...When it is desired that two marriages of the same parties should be solemnized on the same day by different religious rites separate Notice must be given for each marriage...and each marriage is then celebrated in precisely the same manner as if it were the only marriage. No reference to the ceremony in the other church being made in the marriage register...” 

With Newcombe's future still undecided, their religious differences would cause some consternation in government and military circles later in the year.

THE LONG ROAD TO COLLECTIVE DISPOSSESSION – PART TWO

Throughout the 1930’s a small but resolute group of British activists campaigned and lobbied on behalf of the rights of the Palestinians and passionately but unsuccessfully fought against an unrelenting process that ultimately led to the eviction, forced dispossession, and exile of 750,000 Palestinians during the Nakba of 1948 – the Catastrophe - a consequence of the deceitfully worded Balfour Declaration of 1917, the “most discreditable document to which a British Government has set its hand within memory” (Jeffries).

This determined but fragmented group of activists gathered mostly in London, and with limited resources but with extensive personal knowledge they attempted to push back against a robust and well-organised Zionist narrative. Their strong views and opinions were acquired from first-hand experience and long association with the land of Palestine and its people. Wherever they could, they added their voices, their arguments, their testimonies, and their recommendations to what remains an endless cycle of Palestinian victimisation and resistance – a desperate situation that resonates more powerfully today than at any other time in Palestinian history since the Nakba.

British activism in support of Palestine did not start in the 1930’s – it will be seen that Stewart Newcombe’s involvement began much earlier - but it came to a head in 1939 with the publication of the Peel Commission in 1937 and the 1939 White Paper, an inquiry and a policy paper that were set against the backdrop of the Great Arab Revolt in Mandatory Palestine, a popular uprising that was then in its third year. This article explores just a few of the key British personalities that were there at the birth of the pro-Palestinian movement.

This is their one-hundred-year-old story.

A TIME OF RECKONING - Post war years

In 1921, Colonel Stewart Newcombe was tasked with delineating the northern borders of Palestine, Lebanon and a small but significant corner of Syria with his French counterpart, Lieutenant Colonel Maurice Paulet, on behalf of the British Mandate of Palestine and Iraq and the French Mandate of Lebanon and Syria.

The physical process of surveying the proposed border had followed nearly two years of protracted negotiations between Whitehall and the Quai d'Orsay, with considerable influence injected into the British argument from the Zionist Organisation, aided by Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, a Zionist sympathiser who had recently been appointed Chief Political Officer for Palestine at the urging of Chaim Weizmann, leader of the newly founded World Zionist Organisation. With the French growing increasingly suspicious of the British using Zionist claims as a pretext to penetrate further into the Middle East, Prime Minister Lloyd George needed all of his wily negotiating skills to overcome the basic problem that the British Government, under pressure from the Zionist Organisation, had been independently advised by Jewish experts who had already carried out their own boundary surveys to revise the borders as set out in the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. Their aim was to take advantage of several water sources in the north and the east of the proposed mandate in order to electrify the future Jewish homeland.

 

Pinhas Rutenberg

The previous year, renowned Jewish engineer Pinhas Rutenberg had arrived in a country impoverished by the Ottoman war machine and neglected by decades of misrule with a grand scheme to electrify and transform the country. For his plan to be successful, Rutenberg needed water, and so he turned his attention to the marshland of the upper Huleh Basin, a finger of land in the far north-east of the country extending beyond the proposed boundary of the mandate for Palestine. His scheme was so far removed from the ‘spiritual’ dimensions of the “promised land” that the issue of water now became central to the protracted negotiations. Newcombe’s explorations had identified the Huleh as land traditionally administered by Syrian sheikhs and their communities. From a military point of view, the wetlands of the Huleh would be difficult terrain to defend. Newcombe proposed including the region within the French sphere of influence as a fair compromise if concessions to control the railways connecting Deraa, Hejaz and the future Baghdad routes were ceded by France to Britain in exchange for the water. His recommendations were accepted by leading military advisors in Egypt and at the War Office in London on strategic grounds but would prove to be a point of contention that threatened wider discussions at government levels.

Soon, everyone was weighing in on the border question. Zionists in the US were especially vocal on the subject and were able to persuade President Woodrow Wilson to lobby the British government to include the Litani River and tributaries from the Jordan to be included in Palestine. Rutenberg wielded considerable influence and had powerful friends and later claimed that he was able to convince the French to modify the northern boundary to “conform with the economic and topographic requirements of Palestine.”

Newcombe fought back on his own terms. During his survey, the absence of negotiations with representatives from the Palestinian Arabs was a glaring omission not lost on Newcombe, despite several group petitions from tribal leaders asking for their needs to be considered. His experience on the ground and in heated discussions with his own government over Zionist demands, and pressure from Rutenberg and Weizmann in particular, would ultimately bring matters to a head. Newcombe informed the Colonial Office that he would refuse to sign any agreement “unless British interests are fully protected”. They promptly responded by dispatching an old colleague, Major Hubert Young, to inform Newcombe that in fact all the details had already decided behind the scenes and that he was duty-bound to accept the boundary as proposed by Rutenberg and the Zionists.

Much to Newcombe’s chagrin, his own carefully considered recommendations based on personal observations were set aside in favour of water for Palestine at any cost, irrespective of British or Arab interests. It was a matter of such deep concern to Newcombe that he took the highly unusual step of resigning from his post. As he claimed, “I had been brought up in the Sudan to consider natives’ interests and that the methods being employed were entirely against my principles”.

Young was quick to point out that the decision had come from the Cabinet and not the Colonial Office, and so after consultation with General Congreve, his GOC in Cairo, Newcombe had no option but to withdraw his resignation. He did so “with deep regret”, for as a serving officer he could not go against the Cabinet’s decision.

But if Rutenberg’s proposal for electrifying Palestine alleviated the problem of the country’s overdue development, it further reinforced Palestinian concerns, seeing the proposal as “not just a power system but also the base plate of a future Jewish state.” The seeds of discontent had been sown; this was electricity as power politics and the Palestinians were not fooled, condemning the network of high-tension cables and hydropower stations that delineated new borders and chanting in protest: “Rutenberg’s lampposts are the gallows of our nation!”

If Newcombe suspected that the electrification of Palestine by the Zionist movement was one of the chief vehicles of Jewish state building, then his role as a British officer meant that he had to hold his personal views in check, at least for now. However, at this defining moment in his career, where he had clearly wrestled with his conscience in the face of unrelenting Zionist pressure, he chose to pledge his unwavering support to the Palestinians and their goal of achieving self-determination and statehood. Thereafter, his stance as a British Arabist would mark him out as a troublemaker within Zionist circles.

The Paulet-Newcombe Boundary Line was eventually ratified in March 1923 and included the Rutenberg extension into the Huleh Valley as physical evidence of the depths of Zionist influence to achieve their own political aims over local interests and British military considerations. The electrification of Palestine by the Zionists had become crucial to its conquest and the future dispossession of the Palestinians. Arab leaders clearly understood the significance of what they saw as  the encroachment of Jewish nationalism upon their own aspirations. In a letter sent to the British government in 1922, they protested that "the Zionists, through Mr. Rutenberg, are aiming at getting a stranglehold on the economics of Palestine, and once that is in their hands they will become virtual masters of the country."

In 1917, with the backing of Christian governments employing the Bible as supporting evidence, the Zionists had wasted no time in utilising religious, spiritual and cultural themes for its own end. But by the mid-1930’s, even David Ben-Gurion, then Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency and later first Prime Minister of Israel, disabused anyone who claimed there was any connections between political Zionism and those who saw Palestine as a spiritual centre for world Jewry: "I never believed and do not believe now in a spiritual centre and if I thought that that was all it was possible to achieve in Palestine, I would not advise even one Jew to come here." Having exploited the support of Christian Zionists, the scene was set for the forced dispossession of the Palestinians from their own land.

In the years before his retirement, Newcombe began to develop his own ideas on Jewish immigration with numbers to be limited by the economic absorptive capacity of the land. He favoured Jewish immigration that was supported by a cultural and spiritual connection to the land; political Zionism was anathema to his principles, suggesting that the role of the Zionist Commission should be limited to a philanthropic immigration agency. He fought tirelessly for a just solution to the establishment of a viable sovereign state for the Palestinian people in the face of significant Zionist advances into the country and remained a steadfast advocate on behalf of the Palestinians for the rest of his life. He became most politically active during the years prior to the Second World War.

After 34 years of military service, Newcombe's retirement in 1932 came in like a storm, with plans and schemes in hand that indicated that this next stage of his life was going to be far from the quiet retreat he deserved after years of strenuous physical exertion. Empires were shifting and the whole world was in a state of flux; Germany's war machine was on the move once again, and the Middle East was set to erupt in violent protest over an uncertain future.

BRITISH ACTIVISM IN SUPPORT OF THE PALESTINIANS IN THE 1930’S

“I was one of the instruments through whom promises were made to the Arabs. We have broken faith with them. I feel very deeply in this matter and ashamed to have taken so little part in rectifying matters.”

S.F. NEWCOMBE

THE PALESTINE INFORMATION CENTRE – 1937 

The committee list

The timing of Newcombe’s retirement coincided with a critical stage in Palestinian history, when the outcome of vigorous negotiations and lobbying on both sides would determine its future. Among the many clubs and societies that he was involved with - The Royal Central Asian Society, The Royal Geographical Society, the Palestine Exploration Fund, and others - Newcombe unhesitatingly became an enthusiastic member of a coalition of Muslim and non-Muslim campaigners advocating for Palestinian self-determination through an organisation he helped form called the Palestine Information Centre (the PIC), whose stated object was "To uphold the rights of the Arab population".

With no fewer than seven groups active in London countering the Zionist project on behalf of the Palestinians, the PIC attracted a group of men and women who kept the Arab cause alive despite firm opposition from persistent and persuasive lobbying that had grown in strength since the formation of the English Zionist Federation in 1899 and the emergence of political Zionism, reinvigorated by the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and the break-up of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the war.

The depth of experience and dedication to the cause is evident in the list of committee members of the Palestine Information Centre, which can be seen on a letterhead dated 8 May 1937. Among the names that stand out alongside Newcombe are Mrs Steuart Erskine (Beatrice Caroline Strong) and Francis Emily Newton, both long-standing committed activists, and Joseph Jefferies, a respected world-affairs journalist.

“I think it is right that the public should know the names of some of those who have kept the cause of the Arabs alive in Great Britain in the teeth of overwhelming opposition. Two motives have maintained their courage, when hope seemed farthest away. One was that a small country should never be downtrodden if they could help it. The other was that their own country should be true to her vows and to herself.”

J.M.N. JEFFRIES

Mrs STEUART ERSKINE (1860-1948) – Assistant Secretary. Beatrice Erskine was an accomplished travel writer and biographer who among her many works had written Trans-Jordan (1924), The Vanished Cities of Arabia (1925), and the authorised biography King Faisal of Iraq (1934), the latter producing an appreciation by Field-Marshal Viscount Allenby, and a foreword by his excellency Ja'far Pasha al Askari. With the publication of her book Palestine of the Arabs in 1935, she was one of the first members of the PIC to support the cause. The title itself was a lesson towards understanding the problem. As Secretary of the Centre, she worked tirelessly and brought a depth of knowledge and understanding to her role, as well as an impressive and influential list of contacts.

Published in 1948

FRANCIS EMILY NEWTON (4 November 1871 – 11 June 1955) – Honorary Secretary. Francis Newton’s first experience of Palestine was as a volunteer for the Church Missionary Society, soon becoming a fierce supporter of women and children's rights in the country, being a leading member of the Palestine Women's Council. She lived and worked in Palestine from 1889 to 1938 and during that time she became Dame of Justice of the Venerable Order of St. John in Jerusalem in 1930. Among her written works is Fifty Years in Palestine (1948) containing commentaries on her personal experiences: life in Galilee, the surrender of Jerusalem, the welfare of women, the mandate for Palestine, Dead Sea oilfields, the London Conference, and more. She was once described as "tall and masterful and with the hell of a temper". Her home on Mount Carmel in Haifa was known by the Arabs to represent the best of British tradition and hospitality. When she died in 1955, such was her close association with her cause she was described as having "the exterior of an English woman and the mind of a Palestinian." She bequeathed a considerable sum of money, equivalent today of nearly 1.5 million Pounds Sterling, to displaced Palestinian Nakba refugees in Jordan.

Both Erskine and Newton were fervent anti-Zionists.

COLONEL STEWART FRANCIS NEWCOMBE (1878 -1956) - Honorary Treasurer

"Above all there is Lawrence's old companion, Colonel S.F. Newcombe, whose courteous and conciliatory manner, expressed in plans of his own for a settlement, has never hidden his firm espousal of justice for the Arabs."

J.M.N. JEFFRIES

Newcombe’s expressions of support for the Arabs and his proposals for a lasting settlement of what was then known as the "Palestine Question" will be discussed in my next post. In 1941, he helped establish the first permanent mosque in London, the East London Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre, becoming its first non-Muslim Honorary Secretary.

J.M.N. JEFFRIES (1880-1960) was a highly respected journalist from the Daily Mail who was best known as a war correspondent who had set a record during the four years of the war by sending dispatches from 17 different countries. The contribution of Joseph Mary Nagle Jeffries to Palestinian politics and history is so significant that it warrants deeper examination.

J.M.N. Jeffries

Few people will be familiar with his name, even those with a knowledge and interest in Palestinian affairs, but his contribution cannot be overlooked. His 750-page magnus opus, Palestine: The Reality, is largely unknown due to the bombing of a publishing house in London during the German blitz of 1940. Only 20 copies were known to be in circulation until a recent reprint in 2017 by Skyscraper Publications brought Jeffries' work back into wider public accessibility and with it his 12 years of meticulous research into the primary source material, historical documents, debates, and dispatches from Palestine. The result produced a critical assessment of the Balfour Declaration and its legacy and is an invaluable resource providing a persuasive argument for historians studying the Palestine question in the years 1917 to 1938.

“Palestine: The Reality is the most important study of Palestine yet published. As such it deserves to be in the hands of every man who cares for justice and peace”.

SIR ARNOLD WILSON, 1939

Jeffries recognised that for the Zionist project to succeed, the Palestinian people, their national identity, culture, and history would need to be concealed, dehumanised, or reduced to a condition that could easily be swept aside, or as he put it “vanish like the mist before the sun of Zion”. To this end, Zionists sought to establish a framework that Palestine was "a land without a people, for a people without a land", a slogan that Zionists like Israel Zangwill had adopted from early Christian restorationists. It was picked up and paraphrased by Chaim Weizmann, later president of the World Zionist Congress and the first president of the State of Israel, who said at a meeting in Paris in April 1914: "In its initial stage Zionism was conceived by its pioneers as a movement wholly depending on mechanical factors: there is a country which happens to be called Palestine, a country without a people, and, on the other hand, there exists the Jewish people, and it has no country. What else is necessary, then, than to fit the gem into the ring, to unite this people with this country?"

Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, thought that if Palestine could be positioned as an “outpost to civilization as opposed to barbarism,” it might be a more desirable destination for colonisation than Argentina, one of the many options then under discussion. These arguments were clearly designed to negate the validity of Palestinian Arab nationalism. In Ben-Gurion's view, there was no apparent contradiction between upholding the rights of a re-emerging nation in its ancient homeland and rejecting the legitimacy of the political demands of a people whose national instincts had been roused by contact and encouragement from Western governments and by the clash with Zionism itself.

Weizmann’s shuttle diplomacy to promote a Zionist wish list prior to the publication of the Declaration in 1917 betrays the fact that the authors were not British officials at all, but an influential group of some 20 Zionist leaders on both sides of the Atlantic tasked with composing a formula that would give them an unarguable right to the country and that it was Britain’s obligation to assist them in the endeavour. To provide this assistance it was necessary for the British Mandate to use coercion and brute force against an unwilling indigenous population in achieving these goals.

When Britain discarded the rights of the Arabs of Palestine in their quest to achieve self-determination and self-governance, and substituted it with the “rights” of a foreign community, they did so in the full knowledge of the facts. This was no honest mistake. To achieve Zionist goals, the Palestinians had to be erased. After killing 13,000 Palestinians during the Nakba of 1948, destroying 531 towns and villages and with 85% of the population banished and displaced, Ben Gurion endorsed this triumphant moment for the Zionist movement with the words: “We must do everything to ensure that they never do return!”

It was against this ill-conceived and deceitful perspective that Jeffries began to compile the source material, much of it previously unpublished, that forms the bulk of the case against the Balfour Declaration in his book, Palestine: The Reality. Throughout the 750-pages of his monumental work, Jeffries is clear, insistent, and outspoken in who is primarily responsible for the circumstances imposed upon Palestine. With each page being a damning criticism of the Declaration, Jefferies sums up his argument this way:

“More than anything else, we in Britain must keep clear in our minds today that we are the accused.”

Over eighty years have passed since Jeffries wrote these words in 1939, yet how many more countries share the responsibility for the current assault upon Palestine, “this small and wronged country”?

Today, this one-hundred-year-old story of the Palestinian struggle has found a new voice, originating from the ruins of Gaza, chanted on the streets of our capital cities, and echoed by young people in universities around the world. Above all, it is a story of resilience, perseverance, and resistance. The Palestinians have a single word for these traits, it is “sumud,” and the olive tree, ubiquitous throughout the land, is the symbol of sumud, reflecting the Palestinian sense of being rooted in their homeland.

CASUALTY UPDATE

As of 17/05/2024, the Gazan health ministry confirms that over 35,272 Gazans have been killed by the Israeli Defense Force. Of those, 24,686 are people whose identities that have been fully verified. There are 79,205 wounded. Two thirds of all casualties are women and children.

The Health Ministry says that there are more than 10,000 people that have been killed but it does not have their full names, official ID numbers or other information it needs to be certain of their identities.

Moreover, an estimated further 10,000 people remain missing, most likely buried under the rubble across Gaza.

Dr. Sterly's - A story of Gazan healthcare

"The best place in the whole of this country"

In preparation for their secret survey of the region of southern Palestine known as the Wilderness of Zin on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), two archaeologists, Leonard Woolley and T.E. Lawrence, reached Jaffa on 5 January 1914 and travelled down the coast to the old town of Gaza which sat on its round hill two miles inland above the maritime quarter. Here they were surprised to discover that the PEF had failed to provide equipment, stores or money for their expedition. They immediately set about purchasing on credit what could be bought in the town with the assistance of Rev. Dr. Robert B. Sterling, of the Church Missionary Society.

Dr. Sterling, who had built what was possibly the first fully functioning hospital in the Holy Land, situated then as now in the south-west corner of the town, was a prominent and important personage in the region, accompanying his treatment of the sick with a liberal dose of Scottish evangelism. Theodore Dowling, a traveller to the town in 1912 describes his arrival to meet the doctor: "On reaching Jaffa I secured a fresh carriage on April 12, for Gaza, reaching that city in nine and a half hours, an unusually quick journey. During my visit of ten days there I was the guest of the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Sterling, in the Church Missionary Society's compound. Nothing could have exceeded their kind hospitality, and I am greatly indebted to them for valuable local information." 

Dr. Sterling was also an excellent guide to the region and often accompanied visitors on trips to sites of historical interest throughout the town that was once celebrated as one of the five royal cities of the Philistines. The port area was of particular importance. "In company with Dr. Sterling I visited this spot, enveloped in sand, on April 18, where we found broken pieces of marble, ornamented glazed pottery, and ancient glass scattered in every direction... Augustus gave this port to Herod the Great, who rebuilt it, and changed its name into that of Agrippeion, after his friend Marcus Agrippa." 

The same traveller describes the continuing saga of the town which has stood at the crossroads of history for centuries: "Gaza was taken by Alexander the Great after a siege of two months. When he subdued it, he ordered all the men to be slaughtered without quarter, and carried away all the women and children into bondage... Gaza must have been at this time a city of great strength, for Alexander's Greek engineers acknowledged their inability to invent engines of sufficient power to batter its massive walls. Alexander himself was severely wounded in the shoulder during a sortie of this garrison."

A formally recognised health service in Gaza did not start until 1882, the first Church Missionary Society work of its kind in Palestine. Starting as a simple dispensary, funds were raised for establishing a permanent medical mission which soon became a favourite stopover of General Gordon (of Khartoum) who spent many weeks there in 1883 on his way up to Jerusalem to 'discover' his own preferred site for the garden tomb of Jesus. An interesting relic was the iron bedstead on which Gordon slept and was preserved in his name to show visitors.

All this time the medical work was confined to the treatment of out-patients, but in March 1891 a hospital adapted from a native house was opened. Dr. Sterling arrived in 1893 and expanded the services offered by the hospital to include in-patient care. It's reputation grew and in 1906 the Muslim community presented Dr. Sterling with £100 which they had collected in token of their gratitude for his work among them. The hospital and out-patient hall were now much too small to match its growing reputation and on 1 April 1908 the Bishop of Jerusalem dedicated a new hospital containing forty-six beds followed by the opening of a spacious out-patient block on 22 February 1911.

Patients were drawn from across the community, Muslims, Orthodox Syrians and Jews. They would sit side by side in the out-patient hall waiting patiently to be seen by the doctor, an accomplished Arabic scholar. During 1912 it is recorded that there were 29,581 out-patients, 701 in-patients, 452 visits in town, and 411 major operations. Fees from the in-patients and out-patients during 1912 amounted to just over £326 which went to assist in the upkeep of the hospital.

On the eve of the First World War, Woolley and Lawrence had completed their clandestine mission to provide an archaeological cover to Newcombe's military exploration of the Aqaba hinterland but were delayed in their return to England. Newcombe, however, eager to get his maps back to the Geographical Department of the War Office, arrived back in London earlier and presented their account of the archaeological survey of Zin to the 49th Annual General Meeting of the Palestine Exploration Fund held on Tuesday, 16 June 1914.

In concluding his talk, Newcombe praised the indomitable Dr. Sterling whose Church Mission Society Hospital was, he considered, "the best place in the whole of this country," and that full value was obtained for every contribution to the Hospital. He described Sterling’s reputation among the Arabs and the townspeople of Gaza as remarkable and "one to make anyone feel proud of his nationality." Sterling’s work among the Palestinians of Gaza had become legendary and his name was synonymous with the hospital he had helped create, so much so that it was known locally as the English Hospital or even Dr. Sterly’s, an Arabic corruption of his name. 

Dr. Sterling spent 20 years in Palestine before his death in 1917. Today, his legacy has been renamed the Al Ahli Arab Hospital and is run by Anglican management, the only Christian hospital in the Gaza Strip and the only centre for cancer treatment. At 6:59 pm on 17 October 2023, a rocket explosion killed and wounded an unknown number of Palestinians who were seeking refuge from Israeli airstrikes in the courtyard in front of the hospital entrance. Palestinian officials blame an Israeli airstrike for the explosion and Israel says the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denies blame. Yet despite these extraordinary setbacks and under extreme circumstances, the hospital and its resilient, heroic staff remain a beacon of hope in today's war-torn Gaza.

Its website states that despite "constant turmoil, Al Ahli has been the sole fully-functional hospital in all of northern Gaza for over six weeks, serving many more patients than the staff is equipped to accommodate. In defiance of extraordinary, temporary setbacks, intermittent military occupation, and terrifying, life-threatening circumstances, the inspirational medical team and staff at Ahli Arab Hospital continue to persevere and work tirelessly for the sick, injured, and others in need. The stress on these brave individuals and the hospital facility is incomprehensible, and their resilience in fulfilling their mission of healing is exemplary." It seems the spirit of the Rev. Dr. Robert Sterling lives on.

"Whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we could. Remember us"

⁠

These words were written on 20 October 2023 by Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila, on a whiteboard normally used for planning surgeries at the Al Awda Hospital situated just a few kilometers north of Al Ahli Hospital.

One month later Dr. Abu Nujaila was killed by an Israeli strike on 21 November. The same strike killed another Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) doctor, Dr. Ahmad Al Sahar, as well as a third doctor, Dr. Ziad Al-Tatari. 

In a text message sent one week before his death, Dr Abu Nujaila described his heartbreak at caring for three patients, children aged eight, seven and four. The only survivors from three different families, the children were brought to the hospital suffering from fractures, burns and deep wounds. Dr Abu Nujaila said in his message: “I take care of them daily. They have become my own children.

“We await at any time the order from the Israeli army to forcefully evacuate to the southern region of Gaza and to leave these children. Tell me, for God’s sake, 'how can I leave them?' I don’t dare even think about it.”

Dr Abu Nujaila and Dr Al Sahar were treating patients on the third and fourth floors when the hospital was targeted. Other medical staff, including MSF staff, were also severely injured. Along with the Al Ahli, the Al Awda hospital was one of the last remaining partly functional hospitals in northern Gaza.

As of December, MSF staff reported that the Israeli Defense Force had surround and seized the hospital and had stripped, bound, and interrogated all men and boys over the age of sixteen. For more than 20 days, no one was able to enter or leave the hospital after it was surrounded by snipers. Medical provision was halted as 170 people trapped inside – staff, patients, and their relatives – fought to survive on increasingly dwindling food and water supplies.

Action Aid, a partner of the hospital, reported that Dr Adnan Radi, head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Al-Awda Hospital, had informed them that six healthcare workers died in the final days of the siege, while pregnant women were killed while attempting to access the hospital. The manager of the hospital, Dr Ahmed Muhanna, who was arrested and taken away, is still being held, his whereabouts unknown. 

Following the end of the siege, doctors at Al-Awda have once again resumed treating patients despite experiencing a severe shortage of medical supplies, fuel, food and water. With no electricity, surgery is carried out under headlights.

"I want to become a doctor, like those who treat us, so that I can treat other children"

This is the story of 12-year-old Dunia Abu Mohsen who was recovering from losing her leg in an Israeli air strike on 27 October that struck her home in Al-Amal neighbourhood of Khan Yunis. Six of her family members were killed in the air strike, including her parents and two of her siblings. During the seven-day truce, Dunia was interviewed in hospital by the Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) and said: “When they shelled us with the second missile, I woke up and was surrounded by rubble,” she calmly tells her interviewer. “I realized that my leg had been cut off because there was blood and I had no leg. My father and mother were martyred, my brother Mohammed and my sister Dahlia, too,” she said calmly. “I want someone to take me abroad, to any country, to install a prosthetic leg, to be able to walk like other people.”

Her dream? “I want to become a doctor, like those who treat us, so that I can treat other children. ” But then she added: “I only want one thing: For the war to end.”

For Dunia, the war ended on 17 December 2023 when an Israeli tank shell burst through the children's ward of the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, a so-called safe zone where Israel had told people to evacuate to. Miranda Cleland from the DCIP called Dunia's story the distillation of the Palestinian child's experience in Gaza: "Displaced, bombed, orphaned, maimed, and finally killed by the Israeli military."

WCNSF

Wounded Child, No Surviving Family

UNICEF, the UN’s children’s fund, estimates that minors account for at least 40% of the estimated 24,000 people killed so far, with many more suffering life changing injuries. For this reason, many of the patients filling the hospitals have been assigned a new chilling acronym: “WCNSF” – “wounded child, no surviving family”.

“When we speak of a war on children, it’s not to try to be dramatic. It’s rooted in the data,” said James Elder, UNICEF's chief spokesperson, who spent weeks in Gaza under bombardment. “In ‘normal’ past conflicts, the rate was about 20%, so you’re looking at twice the number of children who have been killed and injured compared with previous conflicts.

“That speaks obviously to the severity and the intensity of the bombardment. We believe it also speaks to the indiscriminate nature of the bombardment, and it speaks to a disregard for civilians, particularly children.”

"Gaza has become a place of death and despair" 

Martin Griffiths, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator stated last Friday, 5 January: "Gaza has become a place of death and despair. Tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured. Families are sleeping in the open as temperatures plummet. Areas where civilians were told to relocate for their safety have come under bombardment. Medical facilities are under relentless attack. The few hospitals that are partially functional are overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all supplies and inundated by desperate people seeking safety. 

A public health disaster is unfolding. Infectious diseases are spreading in overcrowded shelters as sewers spill over. Some 180 women are giving birth daily amidst this chaos. People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded. Famine is around the corner. 

For children in particular, the last 12 weeks have been traumatic: no food, no water, no school, nothing but the terrifying sounds of war, day in and day out. Gaza has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats to their very existence, - while the world watches on."

The above was quoted on 11 January 2023, by Blinne Ni Ghralaigh K.C, an Irish lawyer speaking for South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the genocide case against Israel. She closed by calling this:  "the first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real time in the desperate so far vain hope that the world might do something."

Healthcare in Gaza, 2024

International medical aid groups including the World Health Organization (WHO) and Doctors Without Borders said last week that the Gaza health system is “completely collapsing" with many operations carried out without anesthesia. With only four hospitals partially functioning in northern Gaza, they remain a lifeline for thousands of desperate people seeking medical aid and shelter. On Sunday, 7 January 2024, the WHO said it had called off a planned mission to bring medical supplies to Al-Awda and other hospitals in the north for the fourth time after failing to receive safety guarantees. It has now been almost two weeks since the agency was last able to reach northern Gaza. 

I may occasionally diverge from my normal narrative relating to Stewart Newcombe's life and his active involvement in the region, but if I know anything about the man it is that he would want his voice heard at this critical point in the history of Palestine and its people. In 1914, Newcombe announced that Britain should be proud of the achievements of Dr. Sterly's Gaza Hospital; in 2024, we should all be horrified that healthcare in Gaza has become yet one more battleground where more than 300 healthcare workers have been killed during 100 days of Israel's assault on Gaza. 

At the ICJ on 12 January, during their response to South Africa's case of genocide against Israel, a lawyer representing Israel claimed under oath that hospitals "have not been bombed, rather the IDF sent soldiers to search and dismantle military infrastructure, reducing the damage and destruction." The Indonesian Hospital, Al Shifa Hospital, The International Eye Care Centre, the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, The Al Quds Hospital, could all tell a different tale with many more coming under repeated Israeli strikes. Some may never reopen so severe is the damage. The forced closure of many medical facilities stems not just from damage by attacks but from the absence of electricity, fuel and supplies. Ambulances and staff have also been repeatedly targeted. In a rare admission, Israel claimed responsibility for one such attack on an ambulance convey outside the Al Shifa Hospital where at least 15 people were killed and over 50 wounded. According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society all 15 were civilians. 

Asymmetrical warfare is messy and lines can be blurred, but there are clear rules of engagement. Article 3 (4) common to the Geneva Convention 1949 stipulates that all parties to an armed conflict must distinguish between persons engaging in hostilities and persons who are not, or no longer, taking part in them. The latter must be dealt with humanely and, in particular, they must not be maltreated, taken hostage or summarily sentenced or executed. The sick and wounded must be cared for. 

The resilience of the Gazan people is rooted in history and a deep connection to their land. As Gerald Butt says in his excellent biography of the town, Life at the Crossroads (Rimal Publications, 2009):

"For those familiar with the history of the region, the Israeli bombardment (2008) evoked echoes of previous ones - the two-month-long siege of Gaza and its ultimate destruction by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE to mention just one example". 

When Gaza finally succumbed to Alexander, its military commander, a stubborn man named Batis, refused to kneel before Alexander and acknowledge him as the new King of Asia nor submit to the rule of the Macedonians. It was a defiant act of resistance that so enraged Alexander that ropes were inserted through Batis' Achilles tendons and he was dragged behind a chariot around the perimeter of the town walls until he died.      

The Grand Mosque of Gaza, showing WW1 damage

Gaza may be in ruins once again, but as Gerald Butt says: "its people have inherited the stubbornness that has allowed the city and the territory to survive so long and under such overwhelming odds." It could be said that the cycle of death and destruction that the Gazans have endured since 1948 - 81% of Gazans are Nakba refugees or their descendants - have shaped their character in a way that has made them tougher and more determined than other Palestinians. They will need those characteristics more than ever in 2024.

Photograph: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

NEXT POST: Part Two - The Long Road to Collective Dispossession