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 Mandate 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