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However in his defence, the Chief Administrator Bentwich drafted the Protection of Cultivator’s
General Money wrote: Ordinance, designed to protect Arab farm
I am confident that the officers employed in labourers who had been evicted as a result of the
the legal department of this Administration sales of land, and to ensure that they received
are absolutely impartial in their judgement adequate compensation.
and administer justice without partiality. As a result of Arab pressure the Colonial Office
They have been selected purely by reason of urged Plumer to replace Bentwich but he resisted
their impartiality, abilities, and legal the advice and advised his successor Sir John
knowledge, irrespective of creed. Chancellor to do the same on his departure in
Bentwich was to endure constant criticism and 1928. Bentwich’s fortunes began to decline
opposition for much of his time in Palestine, rapidly during Chancellor's term of office.
unrelated to his legal acumen or his impartiality. Professor Bernard Wasserstein, the noted
In November 1929 this opposition culminated in historian, wrote about Chancellor that:
an unsuccessful assassination attempt. he was a discontented, self pitying, lonely,
Where possible Bentwich tried to protect Zionist suspicious man, aloof to his subordinates
interests, as long as they didn't conflict with and hyper sensitive to criticism. He
government policy. In 1921, together with the possessed neither the resourceful political
Chief Secretary Wyndham Deedes, a strong non- brain of Samuel nor the benevolence and
Jewish Zionist supporter he opposed Samuel's solidity of Plumer…He believed that the
proposed appointment of Haj Amin el-Husseini Balfour Declaration was a colossal blunder
as the Grand Mufti on legal grounds, but their involving grave injustice to the Arabs, and
opposition was overruled. which induced in him an obsessional
antipathy to Jews and to Zionists.
Much of Bentwich’s work was connected with
land transfer agreements, both in the allocation Whereas Chancellor had resisted Arab attempts
of public land, and in private transactions to get rid of Bentwich, a new Lord Chief Justice
between private Arab sellers of land and Jewish Sir Michael McDonnel, who Wasserstein
buyers. He was also often involved in the describes as a ' fascist and anti-Semite who
complicated proceedings in connection with naturally supported the Arab case,' wrote to him
compensation for Arab tenants who had been soon after his arrival in 1937:
evicted from the land following such sales. I feel strongly that the Government is being
During his term of office the number of hampered at the present time by the presence
Government Ordinances relating to the sale of of Mr Bentwich, a Jew and an ardent
land was very rare. This gave a green light to partisan of Zionism, in the high legal office
Jewish Land Purchasing agencies such as the of Attorney-General
KKL and the Arab sellers, so the two sides were McDonnell, incidentally, had gone to the same
able to conclude many transactions without school as Bentwich. They were both Old
further Government restrictions or interference. Paulines!
The credit for this must go to Bentwich. In September 1929 the Arab Executive
In his book Bentwich: Seventy Five Years, leadership decided to declare war on Norman,
Bentwich describes the very successful and threatened to call a general strike unless he
relationship he had with Samuel's successor, were removed from office forthwith. Although
Lord Plumer, and he became an effective link Chancellor was in favour of dismissing
between the Government and the Zionist Bentwich, he wrote:
leadership. During Plumer's term of office
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