Unearthing an Old Palestine Police Badge in Northern Israel

One of the endlessly fascinating aspects of Israel is that there are ancient artifacts everywhere that people are constantly unearthing. From oil lamps to golden earrings to long-lost moats, most of these discoveries are intentional, taking place during archaeological digs. Well, one day in February 2016, while hiking on a mountain in northern Israel, I found something pretty amazing myself.

I noticed it because it looked like nothing else on the trail of springtime grass, dirt and stones. I bent down, picked it up and felt that it was lightweight metal. Then, I saw that it had writing on it. What did it say?

Now, how did a Palestine Police badge get to a mountaintop in Tiberias, Israel? Was it even a real thing? It didn’t look very official. I had never heard of the Palestine Police. Perhaps it was a toy.

Although some people call the country Palestine instead of Israel, no entity called Palestine Police was in existence at that time. Nor has Tiberias, where this mountain is located, ever been a part of the Palestinian Territories. Likewise, no one had brought this badge to this mountain from the Palestinian Territories because while the territories do have police, their name is not Palestine Police. Anyway the badge was in English, not Arabic or Hebrew. So what was this? Time to do some research.

My research revealed that that the Palestine Police badge was not a toy. It was indeed a real badge from a real police force. It was not from ancient times but it was from a long time ago. This badge was almost 100 years old!

The Palestine Police, I learned, was established in 1920. The police force consisted of British commanders along with Arab and Jewish police officers. It came into being just before the beginning of the British Mandate, which existed from September 1923 to May 1948. The powers-that-be had created the mandate as a temporary measure after the Ottoman Empire fell so they could rule this small part of the former empire until it established its own army and became stable and strong enough to rule itself. During the British Mandate, the name of the land was Mandatory Palestine. Thus, the name Palestine Police.

I may not have found a 5,000-year-old gold earring that day on top of a mountain in northern Israel, but I am delighted that I discovered a very old artifact of a critical transitional time in the history of the country. This ancient land is so full of mysteries and surprises. You never know what you will find in Israel.