Norman Bentwich

Norman Bentwich, 1950

Norman De Mattos Bentwich OBE MC (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 life-long Zionist.

Biography

Norman Bentwich was the oldest son of British Zionist Herbert Bentwich. He attended St. Paul's School in London and Trinity College, Cambridge.^[1]

Bentwich was a delegate at the annual Zionist Congresses from 1907 to 1912.^[2] He paid his first visit to Palestine in 1908.^[2]

During the British military administration of Palestine, Bentwich served as Senior Judicial Officer, which continued in the civil administration after 1920 as Legal Secretary.^[1] The title was soon changed to Attorney-General, a post he held until 1931.^[1]

Bentwich played a major role in the development of Palestinian law.^[3][4] 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."^[4] Bentwich's perceived Zionist bias made him increasingly unpopular with Palestinian Arabs, who conducted demonstrations and other protests against his presence in the administration.^[1] Some British officials, including the Colonial Office and the Chief Justice of Palestine Michael McDonnell, saw him as a liability and agitated for his dismissal.^[1][4] In 1929 he was barred from representing the government at the Shaw Commission into the August riots.^[1] In late 1930 he went on leave to England, where he unsuccessfully sought to gain support for his continued role in Palestine.^[1] He was offered senior judicial positions in Mauritius and Cyprus, but turned them down.^[5] 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."^[1][5]

In November 1929, Bentwich was shot in the thigh by a 17-year old Arab employee of the Palestine Police.^[6] His assailant was sentenced to 15 years hard labour, despite Bentwich personally advocating for him.^[1][6][7]

From 1932 to 1951 Bentwich occupied the Chair of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.^[8] His first lecture, on "Jerusalem, City of Peace", was disrupted by Jewish students who considered him too conciliatory towards the Arabs.^[9] Several of the ringleaders, one of them Avraham Stern, were suspended.^[9]

He was later President of the Jewish Historical Society of England.^{[citation needed]}

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."^[10]

Academic and legal career

• Called to the bar (Lincolns Inn), 1908
• Ministry of Justice, Cairo, 1912–1915
• Major, Camel Transport, 1916–1918
• Legal secretary to military administration, Palestine, 1918–22
• First attorney-general in mandatory government of Palestine, 1922–30
• Recalled to Colonial Office, 1930–31
• Professor of International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1932^[11] and 1945–1951
• Director of League of Nations High Commission for Refugees from Germany, 1933–1935
• British Ministry of Information and Air Ministry, 1939–45
• Co-editor of the Jewish Review, 1910–1913 and 1932–1934
• Lecturer at Hague Academy of International Law, 1929, 1934 and 1955
• Vice-President, Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad
• Chairman, National Peace Council, 1944–1946
• Chairman, United Restitution Organization, 1948–1971
• Foreign Office Committee on Restitution in British Zone of Germany, 1951
• President, Jewish Historical Society, 1960–1962
• Chairman, Friends of Hebrew University
• President of London North-Western Reform Synagogue, 1958–71

Published works

Bentwich published a large number of books and articles. Some of his books are listed here.

• Philo-Judaeus of Alexandria, Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1910.
• The Declaration of London, with an introduction and notes and appendices, E. Wilson, London, 1911.
• Students leading cases and statutes on international law, Sweet & Maxwell, London, 1913.
• Josephus, Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1914.
• Palestine of the Jews. Past, Present, and Future, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd., London, 1919.
• Hellenism, The Jewish publication society of America, Philadelphia, 1919.
• The Mandates System, Longmans, London, 1930.
• England in Palestine, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd., London, 1932.
• Palestine, Benn, London, 1934.
• Fulfilment in the Promised land, 1917-1937, Soncino Press, London, 1938.
• Judaea lives again, V. Gollancz, London, 1943.
• 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.
• 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.

References

External links

• Norman Bentwich, The Law of Private Property in War, with a Chapter on Conquest (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1907)] -- his Yorke prize essay from 1906.