Michael McDonnell

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Harry Herbert Trusted
Personal details
Born
Michael Francis Joseph McDonnell

1882 (1882)
Died1956 (aged 73–74)
EducationSt Paul's School, London
Alma materSt John's College, Cambridge

Sir Michael Francis Joseph McDonnell

CBE (1882–1956) was Chief Justice of Palestine between 1927 and 1936. He had previously been a colonial civil servant and Acting Chief Justice of Sierra Leone
.

Education and career

Born in

Cambridge Union Society. At the Union, Michael and his older brother T.F.R. McDonnell championed the Irish Home Rule cause. Both were also adamant supporters of women's suffrage
and admission to Cambridge.

After graduating from Cambridge McDonnell was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple. At that time he authored the book Ireland and the Home Rule Movement (1908), an attack on British policy in Ireland and a critique of Empire more broadly. McDonnell nevertheless went on to join the Colonial Service in 1911, serving in British West Africa for sixteen years. During his time in West Africa McDonnell served as Assistant District Commissioner in the Gold Coast, magistrate in The Gambia, and Attorney-General and Acting Chief Justice in Sierra Leone.

Retirement

McDonnell was forced into early retirement – historian Matthew Hughes speaks of his being dismissed from office,

Arthur Wauchope, over the role of Palestine's judiciary in suppressing the "disturbances". This clash culminated in McDonnell's ruling in the El Qasir v Attorney-General (1936) 3 PLR 121 case. The decision pertained to house demolitions scheduled to take place in the old city of Jaffa. Although McDonnell ruled that the government had the authority to demolish the houses, he deemed the government's reliance on town planning justifications, rather than military necessity, an act of moral cowardice and accused it of "throwing dust" in the public's eyes.[2][3][4]

After retiring from the bench and returning to London, McDonnell took up advocacy on behalf of the Arab cause in Palestine: he published a number of articles in which he attacked Britain's pro-

Sharif Hussayn of Mecca.[5]

References

  1. ^ Matthew Hughes, Britain’s Pacification of Palestine: The British Army, the Colonial State, and the Arab Revolt, 1936–1939, Cambridge University Press 2019 p.36.
  2. ISBN 0-8050-6587-3
  3. ^ Tom Bowden, The Politics of the Arab Rebellion in Palestine 1936–39, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 11, No. 2 (May 1975), pp. 147-174
  4. ^ Binyamin Blum, The Not Very High Standard of Credibility of Witnesses in Palestine: Perjury, Colonialism, and the Corroboration Requirement in Mandate Palestine Paper presented at the annual meeting of The Law and Society Association, Grand Hyatt, Denver, Colorado, 25 May 2009
  5. ^ Report of a Committee SET UP TO CONSIDER CERTAIN CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN Sir Henry McMahon AND The Sharif of Mecca IN 1915 AND 1916 Archived 24 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine

External links

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