START 00:00:34 Views of an Arab village in the Hebron district of Palestine consisting of dwellings built from local stone. Villagers (almost exclusively male) in traditional Arab clothing. Camels in use as beasts of burden, donkeys grazing in the arid countryside. Water being collected from a well in an old Shell petrol tin. Goats and an Arab boy whose job it is to look after them.

00:02:21 Scenes at an Arab school for boys. Pupils and two male teachers (seen wearing fezes which were known locally as tarbushes) walk past the camera in the school grounds. A view of the modern school buildings. Four members of the exclusively-male teaching staff have a meeting with the school headmaster, seen here wearing the traditional 'hatta' headcloth. Scenes inside two classrooms where both text books and slate boards are used as means of instruction by two male teachers. (The Arabic writing on the blackboard reads: "Horse, Horse [ indefinite accusative]. A writer rode a horse trotting")

00:05:20 At a Palestine government 'Infant Welfare Centre', Arab women, almost covered head to foot, bring in their children for examination.

00:06:00 Arab villagers, some playing musical instruments, join in a wedding procession; the bride, covered head to toe in a robe topped by feathers, is seen riding on a camel. At the village weavers, an Arab man pretending to be a woman weaves a clothe. A gathering of men, boys and camels and goats. Village elders seated on the ground listening to the one man who is literate reading out aloud from an Arab-language newspaper.

00:08:45 Scenes filmed under the direction of the cameraman showing the village headman or 'mukhtar' aiding the British war effort in helping to recruit Arab men for the Palestine Regiment. The 'mukhtar' summons his sons; they arrive on horseback to receive his instructions. Brandishing a sword in one hand, the 'mukhtar' shows off his horsemanship. He goes around the village talking to people. On the hillside above the village, there are four herdsboys; one of the riders despatched by the 'mukhtar' arrives on the scene. In the village a number of men gather.

00:11:24 The local 'imam' (?) goes to his usual vantage point and loudly summons people to attend a meeting. Young men in the village hear his call.

00:13:00 A 1930s American saloon car requisitioned by the British Army in Palestine is driven along an unmetalled road through the Hebron district and is seen arriving at the village. Its driver, a British army recruiting officer, steps out of the vehicle, is met by the 'mukhtar' and addresses male villagers, asking them to volunteer for the Palestine Regiment. The 'mukhtar', carrying a stick which he uses to emphasise the points he is making, is seen speaking to villagers and meeting a young man on horseback who has decided to join the Palestine Regiment.

00:17:24 The young man on horseback bids farewell to his male relatives and gallops off to register at the nearest recruiting office. He dismounts from his steed and enters the recruiting office, where an Arabic version of the famous British wartime poster featuring Winston Churchill and the slogan 'Let us go forward Together' is on display. The officer in charge takes down his details and afterwards both men step outside the recruiting office and shake hands. Three Arab men study the Churchill poster outside the entrance to the recruiting office. (The Arabic writing on the poster reads: "The triumphant ones. Winston Churchill - British Prime Minister"

END 00:20:05

Glimpses of life in an Arab village near Hebron in Palestine during the Second World War.

Notes

Summary: John Wernham recorded audio commentary over this film on 14 May 1992, DVD Reel 4 "Reel 15" from 12.51 to 26.24.

Exhibition: Although the film has been allocated the title PALESTINE RECRUITING FILM, it is virtually certain that the film was never shown, for both practical and political reasons. The film was shot on 16mm reversal stock by an outstanding filmmaker of the Army Film and Photographic Unit during the evacuation of his unit from Cairo to Palestine in the summer of 1942. Sergeant John Wernham was already an accomplished amateur film maker before he joined the AFPU at the comparatively advanced age of 25 years in 1941. He edited this film in camera, and had it been intended for distribution and exhibition in Palestine, it would have been shot and edited on the 35mm professional format used by AFPU cameramen for every film intended for official record or instructional purposes.

This film was notionally intended to recruit Palestinian Arabs into the Palestine Regiment. This unit, officially raised on 6 August 1942, attracted many Jewish volunteers but failed to stir much enthusiasm for the British cause amongst the Arabs, for whom the memories of their 1936-1939 revolt against British rule were still strong.

The generally delapidated appearance of the Arab village seen in this film may have owed something to the British policy of house demolitions as a reprisal for Arab attacks on British soldiers and police during the revolt. As the official notice at the Infant Welfare Centre indicates, the signs at all Palestine government buildings during the period of the British Mandate were in English, Arabic and Hebrew. However, no Jews lived near this particular location.

Remarks: Rare footage of life in an ordinary Palestinian Arab village since most of the coverage of Palestine during the period of the British Mandate tended to concentrate on Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv, the activities of the British authorities and the rapid expansion of the Jewish presence in the country. In most cases, the scenes shot by foreign newsreel and documentary cameramen tended to depict rural Arab society, especially its methods of land cultivation and animal husbandry, as a continuation of a way of life that had not altered since Biblical times. Little effort was made to detail the changes going on throughout Palestinian Arab society as a whole. The scenes in this film, especially the ones shot at the Arab school for boys (even though they are brief), constitute a rare film record for this period in the region's history.