Jewish Supernumerary Police

Members of the Jewish Supernumerary Police, 1937.

The Jewish Supernumerary Police (sometimes referred to as Jewish Auxiliary Police) (Hebrew: Shotrim Musafim) were a branch of the Guards (Notrim) set up by the British in the British Mandate of Palestine in June 1936. Around 22,000 Notrim were appointed, armed and equipped by the British to act as a protective militia for Jewish settlements. This force "soon became a legal cover for the Haganah and an increasingly effective shield against Arab forays".^[1]

The British authorities gradually expanded the Supernumerary Police from 6,000 to 14,000. Those trained became the nucleus of the Haganah,^[2] which itself became the main constituent of the Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The other branch of the Notrim was an élite mobile force known as the Jewish Settlement Police.

Footnotes

1. Bowyer Bell, 1996 , p. 33.
2. Nasr, 1996, p. 13.

References

• Bowyer Bell, John (1996). Terror Out of Zion. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1-56000-870-9
• Nasr, Kameel B. (1996). Arab and Israeli Terrorism: The Causes and Effects of Political Violence, 1936-1993. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0280-6