British soldiers search a house in Tel Aviv for terrorists during a four-day curfew in 1946 (Screenshot of newsreel footage from YouTube)
On July 30, 1946, the British Mandate imposed a 4-day curfew on Tel Aviv. In this newsreel, soldiers perform house-to-house searches for Jewish terrorist suspects in what the narrator calls “the most determined measures ever taken against terrorism in Palestine.”
“Apart from the search for wanted men, a thorough search for weapons was carried out,” the announcer, who clearly sympathizes with the British government, says.
At least 500 residents were detained for further questioning. During the curfew, inhabitants were only allowed out of their homes once a day — when they rushed to stores for food.
“As to the general situation and the Palestine problem itself,” he concludes, “it didn’t seem at the time this film arrived that the solution was yet in sight.”
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(The Associated Press and Movietone News recently released their vast video archives on YouTube, allowing the public to freely access a million minutes worth of historical news clips dating back to 1895 — including many iconic scenes from Israel’s history featured in this Times of Israel series.)
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