The Jewish Supernumerary Police (sometimes referred to as Jewish Auxiliary Police) (Hebrew: Shotrim Musafim) were a branch of the Guards (Notrim) set up by the British in Mandate Palestine in June 1936. Around 22,000 Notrim were appointed, armed and equipped by the British to act as a protective militia for Jewish settlements. This force "soon became a legal cover for the Haganah and an increasingly effective shield against Arab forays".
The British authorities gradually expanded the Supernumerary Police from 6,000 to 14,000. Those trained became the nucleus of the Haganah, which itself became the main constituent of the Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
The other branch of the Notrim was an élite mobile force known as the Jewish Settlement Police.
Famous quotes containing the words jewish and/or police:
“It is most important that we should keep in this country a certain leisured class.... I am of the opinion of the ancient Jewish book which says “there is no wisdom without leisure.””
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“I’ve met a lot of murderers in my day, but Dr. Garth, whatever he is, is the first man I’ve ever met who was polite to me and still made the chills run up and down my back.”
—Robert D. Andrews, and Nick Grindé. Police detective, Before I Hang, describing his meeting with Dr. Garth (1940)