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A Debt of Honor to British Mandatory Official Lewis Andrews

(Israel Hayom) Nadav Shragai - Australian-born Lewis Andrews was the British district commissioner for the Galilee during the British Mandate and a known friend to the local Jewish community. He was murdered on Sept. 26, 1937, in Nazareth. His killers remain unknown to this day, although it is believed they were followers of Sheikh Izz ad-Din Abd al-Qassam, for which Hamas' Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades are named. During his years in Mandatory Palestine, Andrews transferred tens of thousands of acres of land into Jewish hands, promoting the establishment of communities formed as part of the tower-and-stockade settlement enterprise. Dozens of communities in Israel's northern Hula and Beit She'an valleys and in the central Hefer Valley would probably not exist if not for him. Andrews also provided vital diplomatic protection to the Jewish community during the hearings held in the late 1930s by the Peel Commission, which was tasked with investigating the 1936-1939 Arab revolt, factually debunking the Arabs' assertion of being "dispossessed" of their land. Andrews saved dozens of Jewish lives during the 1921 Jaffa riots and the 1929 Palestine riots, and had survived two previous attempts on his life: in Acre in 1922 and in Jerusalem in the early 1930s. The Arabs rejoiced at his murder. Andrews had taken the Balfour Declaration at its word.
2016-10-25 00:00:00
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