Community policing in Israel

Abstract

Modern Israel, the youngest of the four countries reviewed here, is a product of nineteenth-century and post-Second World War nationalism forces, an extensive and unique history, geo-strategic location,¹ and colonial forces, that shaped not only its national character and fate in the region but also its legal and policing heritage. The strong influence of the Turkish Ottoman Empire was reflected in early pre-state policing arrangements that were mostly agricultural in nature, attempting to protect property and crops from sabotage and theft. These arrangements were overhauled with the takeover by the British Empire in 1917 and the installation of the British Mandatory Government. By 1922 the purely colonial police force had added local elements (Arab and Jewish) which became the prevalent police force in the mandatory territory by 1926 following the British police order (Brewer et al., 1988; Shane, 1980). That order remains in effect as the basic code for police functioning in Israel as the newly established government adopted the British system as the law of the land in 1948.