Many of us know this picture of a Palestinian officer regulating traffic in Jerusalem in 1934 that was posted a while ago. However, what many don’t know, me included, is that the officer in the photo is Ahmad Mohamad Jasser Al-Ramahi; a Palestinian from Almuzayria’a village, a displaced village near Ramla. I wouldn’t have known that without a beautiful coincidence that brought me together with his granddaughter earlier this year in Jordan during a small tour I was on for “We were and still are… here”. His granddaughter recognized the picture of her grandfather and told me his story.
The late Al-Ramahi was a Palestinian officer from the Ramla district who served in several cities, and most importantly Jerusalem. During the Palestinian Nakba, Al-Ramahi was forced to flee his village Almuzayria’a that was ethnically cleansed by the Zionist gangs under Dani’s operation on the 12th of July 1948 to pass away in Amman in 1976.
The Palestinian police forces belonged to the authorities of the British Mandate which were entrusted with several tasks to maintain the internal order, and the ability to overcome small violations that come from outside and do not require the intervention of the military.
As for the requirements for joining the Palestinian Police forces, they were: the ability to read and right, the good physical health and behavior, and to be between the ages of 20 and 25. They also should be Palestinian citizens, or has a permanent residency permit in Palestine. The majority of these forces were Arab Palestinians. The Royal Commission report of 1937 says “The Palestinian Police Forces do all their assigned tasks on daily basis. However, when there is an armed revolutionary act, and they are obligated to take measurements against their own civilians, you can’t rely on them” says a British witness