Captions are taken directly from AP. No edit made.

The gateway from Syria into Palestine, in 1938. Owing to the secret entry of thousands of Arab Rebels from Syria and the Lebanon into the Holy land, strict watch was kept by the French and British police at the frontier.

The lighter basin, with two big goods sheds in the background, at Tel Aviv, which took its place alongside the great port cities of the world when the high commissioner for Palestine, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, declared the baby port open for passenger traffic, during the ceremony, much of which had to be curtailed owing to heavy rain, a crowd with hoisted umbrellas can be seen in rear of the picture, on Feb. 23, 1938.

"Save our children and our parents!" say these Jewish placards carried by men in the streets of Jerusalem, Israel on Jan. 16, 1939. "Open the gates of Palestine to the times of Nazi prevention hatred at the Christmas period we are crying from the holy city of Jew Salem to all Christian nations to help us against Germany."

Volunteer Arab soldier for the private Army of the Jerusalem Grand Mufti are sworn in on December 15, 1947 at Abu Dis, a small Arab village, near Jerusalem, Israel.

These Arab rookies line up in a barracks square in Palestine on Dec. 28, 1940 for their first drill under a British solider, wearing their native clothes. Soon they'll don a regular army uniform.

Adolf Hitler receives the Grand Mufti of Palestine around Dec. 10, 1941.

Thousands of Jews forced by Nazi persecution to refuge in Palestine have enlisted from Poland, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Bulgaria, Palestine, Hungary and Germany, including doctors, solicitors and university students, many having already seen service in France, Greece, Crete, and Libya. A unit now in Cyprus has defense positions in a crusader castle. The Jewish national flag, bearing the Shield of David, flying over the ancient ramparts May 18, 1942.

Jewish shops in Jerusalem are looted by Arabs during rioting in the Holy Land, Dec. 2, 1947. Thousands of angry Arabs swept through Jerusalem, wrecking, burning and looting Jewish buildings.

On Mount Gerizim, outside Nablus, in central Palestine, there is an ancient Jewish sect known as the Samaritans, which claim to have lived in the Holy Land continuously since the time of Moses. At Passover they conduct the ancient sacrifice of a lamb upon an altar. Aaron, the high priest of the Samaritans with some of their laws, inscribed on ancient scrolls in the Aramaic text shown May 16, 1930.

Modern American style of office building and skyscrapers apartment houses, finely paved wide streets and smart shops show the remarkable growth of New Jerusalem on Oct. 23, 1938. Under the leadership of American Jews, who have converted the holy city from a mere medieval village to a live progressive and prosperous city of the first class, the Arabs have profited very largely from the phenomenal growth of Jerusalem by the profitable sale of the land on which most of these buildings are constructed.

Disregarding the sanctity of Bethlehem, birth place of Christ, Arab rebels in Israel on Sept. 14, 1938, carried out a daring and spectacular raid on the holy city, sacking and burning the post office and police headquarters and terrifying the local populace which is almost entirely Christian.

Original Source

1930-1948 | © Associated Press

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