Events in the year 1938 in the British Mandate of Palestine.
Incumbents
High Commissioner – Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope until 1 March; Sir Harold MacMichael Emir of Transjordan – Abdullah I bin al-Hussein Prime Minister of Transjordan – Ibrahim Hashem until 28 September; Tawfik Abu al-Huda
Events
4 January – The British government appoints the Woodhead Commission to explore the practicalities of the partition of Palestine. 10 January – James Leslie Starkey, a noted British archaeologist of the ancient Near East and Palestine who leads the first excavations in Tel Lachish, is killed by a gang of armed Arabs near Bayt Jibrin on a track leading from Bayt Jibrin to Hebron. 23 February – The Port of Tel Aviv officially opens, as a competing (Jewish) port to the port in Jaffa, the latter having been crippled by the Arab revolt and general strike since 1936. 1 March – Sir Harold MacMichael assumes office as the High Commissioner of Palestine. 21 March – The founding of the kibbutz Hanita 13 April – The founding of the moshav Shavei Tzion as part of the tower and stockade settlement scheme. 26 June – The founding of the kibbutz Alonim 29 June – Shlomo Ben-Yosef executed for ambushing an Arab bus near Safad. 6 July – 18 Arabs and 5 Jews were killed by two simultaneous bombs in the Arab melon market in Haifa, 79 people were wounded. 16 July – 10 Arabs were killed and 29 wounded by a bomb at a marketplace in Jerusalem. 17 July – The founding of the kibbutz Ma'ale HaHamisha 25 July – The founding of the kibbutz Tel Yitzhak 25 July – 39 Arabs were killed and over 60 wounded by a second bomb in the Haifa vegetable market. 16 August – Former Jewish policeman Mordechai Schwarcz executed for the murder of an Arab policeman 17 August – The founding of the moshav Beit Yehoshua 25 August – The founding of the kibbutz Ein HaMifratz 26 August – 24 Arabs were killed and 39 wounded by a bomb in the Jaffa vegetable market. 30 August – The founding of the kibbutz Ma'ayan Tzvi 2 October – 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine: In the 1938 Tiberias massacre, Arab rioters kill 19 Jews in the city of Tiberias, eleven of whom are children. During the massacre, 70 armed Arabs set fire to Jewish homes and the local synagogue. 12 October – The British Government announces sending a further four battalions to Palestine. 18 October – British army troops regain control of the old city of Jerusalem, which is occupied by Arab extremists in early October. 9 November – A technical British committee, known as the Woodhead Commission, rejected the Peel Commission partition plan mostly on the grounds that it could not be achieved without a large forced transfer of Arabs. It proposed "a modification of partition which, ...seems, subject to certain reservations, to form a satisfactory basis of settlement", if the U.K is prepared to provide a "sufficient assistance to enable the Arab State to balance its budget". 16 November – The founding of the moshav Sharona 17 November – The founding of the moshav Geulim 24 November – The founding of the kibbutz Eilon 25 November – The founding of the kibbutz Neve Eitan 25 November – The founding of the kibbutz Kfar Ruppin 29 November – The founding of the kibbutz Kfar Masaryk 22 December – The founding of the kibbutz Mesilot
