Page 14 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - February 14

HISTORY LESSON:
NORMAN DE MATTOS BENTWICH
NICK REYNOLD, GIVAT OLGA
N He had wanted to join the Zion Mule Corps at
orman Bentwich who died in 1971 was
a leading figure in Anglo-Zionism in
his later years, and his wife Helen was
the Chairwoman of the London County Council.
Prior to returning to take up residence in
England in 1931, Norman had been the longest
serving Jew in a senior position in the British
Mandatory Administration in Palestine.
The Bentwiches were a strong Zionist family.
Herbert the father was a
member of the British
Hovevei Zion and one of
the founders of the
English Zionist
Federation. Of his eleven
children (Norman was the
oldest), eight of them
settled in Palestine and at
the moment there is a
sizeable Bentwich
(Yellin) family, although Norman Bentwich (left) with Henri Berenger,
French delegate to the Evian Conference on Jewish refugees
Norman and Helen Evan-les-Bains, France, July 1938.
themselves did not have
any children. Herbert Bentwich had established a
successful law practice in London and was able
to send his son to the prestigious St Paul's
School. From there Norman studied law at
Cambridge University, and in 1908 was called to
the Bar.
In 1907 he was a delegate at the eighth Zionist
Congresses and in 1908 visited Palestine for the
first time. During this time he was one of the
young Zionists who were part of the Weizmann
entourage.
In 1912 Bentwich decided to work for the
British Ministry of Justice in Cairo. At the
outbreak of War he enlisted in the British army.
14
Gallipoli, but was turned down and served in the
Camel Corps for a while. In 1918 he was
transferred to Palestine and served in the legal
department of the OETA (Occupied Enemy
Territory Administration) under Major Orme-
Clark.
On his boss’s departure, Major Bentwich became
the Administration Legal Adviser, a position he
held until Samuel's arrival
in 1920. From 1922 until
1929 he was the
Attorney–General for
Palestine.
Ronald Storrs, the
Military Governor of
Jerusalem wrote about
Bentwich:
I had known him at
Cambridge and in Egypt,
and cherished an
admiring friendship for
an Israelite who, with all his talents, was
indeed without guile.
When the Arab leadership learned about the
book that he had written during his stay in
Palestine, Palestine of the Jews, it questioned his
impartiality. The Arab leadership made the
observation that ‘it is not possible, the better
Zionist he is, the worse Attorney-General,’ and
the Muslim – Christian Society in Jerusalem
wrote that ‘the injustice of a Legal Department
headed by a Jew is becoming unbearable…there
is no hope for justice as long as it is in Mr.
Bentwich’s hands.’