Norman de Mattos BentwichOBEMC (28 February 1883 – 8 April 1971) was a British barrister and legal academic. He was the British-appointed attorney-general of Mandatory Palestine and a lifelong Zionist.
1931 Colonial Office memorandum regarding Norman Bentwich
During the British military administration of Palestine, Bentwich served as Senior Judicial Officer, which continued in the civil administration after 1920 as Legal Secretary.[2] The title was soon changed to Attorney-General, a post he held until 1931.[2]
Bentwich played a major role in the development of Palestinian law.[6][7] According to Likhovski, he "concentrated his efforts on providing Palestine with a set of modern commercial laws that he believed would facilitate economic development and thus attract more Jewish immigration."[7] Bentwich's Zionist leanings sparked the anger of Palestinians.[2] Some British officials, including the Colonial Office and the Chief Justice of Palestine Michael McDonnell, saw him as a liability and pushed for his dismissal.[2][7] In 1929 he was barred from representing the government at the Shaw Commission investigating the 1929 Palestine riots.[2] In late 1930 he left England after failing to gain support for his continued role in Palestine.[2] He was offered senior judicial positions in Mauritius and Cyprus, but turned them down.[8] In August 1931 his appointment as Attorney-General was terminated by the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, who cited "the peculiar racial and political conditions of Palestine, and the difficulties with which the Administration has in consequence to bear."[2][8]
In November 1929, Bentwich was shot in the thigh by a 17-year-old Palestinian employee of the Palestine Police.[9] His assailant was sentenced to 15 years hard labour, despite Bentwich personally advocating for him.[2][9][10]
Hebrew University
From 1932 to 1951 Bentwich occupied the Chair of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[11] His first lecture, on "Jerusalem, City of Peace", was disrupted by Jewish students who considered him too conciliatory towards the Arabs.[12] Several of the ringleaders, one of them Avraham Stern, were suspended.[12] Bentwich was a disciple of Zionist thinker Ahad Ha'am,[13] and wrote a book, Ahad Ha'am and His Philosophy, in 1927. He was one of the Jewish members of Palestine Administration who in 1929 joined Brit Shalom, a society founded to find rapprochement between Jews and Arabs in Palestine.[14]
In his book, Mandate Memories, he stated that "the Balfour Declaration was not an impetuous or sentimental act of the British government, as has been sometimes represented, or a calculated measure of political warfare. It was a deliberate decision of British policy and idealist politics, weighed and reweighed, and adopted only after full consultation with the United States and with other Allied Nations."[15]
During the Second World War, Bentwich was commissioned into the Royal Air Force and on 24 February 1942 was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. On 16 December 1942, as Pilot Officer N. De M. Bentwich OBE MC (RAF/115215), he was cashiered by sentence of a General Court Martial, but this was not reported in the London Gazette until 23 February 1943.[16] The unusual circumstances of this are explained in Bentwich’s book Wanderer in War, 1939-45 (1946). By misfortune, he had dropped an important secret document in the street, and his superiors decided to make an example of him as a warning to others.[17] However, he was then able to join the Ministry of Information, working for Sir Wyndham Deedes, Regional Officer for Greater London. This work took him to the large East End bomb shelters, where steps were taken to transform them into community centres. He also travelled to Ethiopia, on a legal assignment for the Emperor.[18]
Hellenism, The Jewish publication society of America, Philadelphia, 1919.
Ahad Ha'am and his philosophy, Keren Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund) and the Keren Kayemeth Le-Israel, Jerusalem, 1927.
The Mandates System, Longmans, London, 1930.
England in Palestine, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd., London, 1932.
A Wanderer in the Promised Land, The Soncino Press, 1932
Palestine, Benn, London, 1934.
Fulfilment in the Promised land, 1917–1937, Soncino Press, London, 1938.
Solomon Schechter: A Biography, Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1938
Wanderer Between Two Worlds – An Autobiography, Kegan Paul Trench Trubner, London, 1941.
Judaea lives again, V. Gollancz, London, 1943.
A Wanderer in War, V. Gollancz, London, 1946
Israel, Ernest Bend, 1952.
For Zion's Sake. A Biography of Judah L. Magnes. First Chancellor and First President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jewish Publication Society, 1954.
Israel And Her Neighbours: A Short Historical Geography, Rider And Company, London, 1955.
The Jews in our Times, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1960.
Israel Resurgent, Ernest Benn, London, 1960.
My 77 years : an account of my life and times, 1883–1960, Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1961.
Mandate Memories (with Helen Bentwich), The Hogarth Press, London, 1965.
Israel : two fateful years, 1967–69, Elec, London, 1970.
Jewish Youth Comes Home: The Story of the Youth Aliyah, 1933-1943, Hyperion Press, 1976.
