Cement Incident

The Cement Incident took place in the port of Jaffa in Palestine on 16 October 1935. While Arab dockers were unloading a consignment of 537 drums of White-Star cement from the Belgian cargo ship Leopold II, which were destined for a Jewish merchant called J. Katan in Tel Aviv, one drum accidentally broke open spilling out guns and ammunition. Further investigation by British Mandate officials revealed a large cache of smuggled weapons, comprising 25 machine guns (Lewis guns), 800 rifles and 400,000 rounds of ammunition contained in 359 of the 537 drums, but because the merchant was not identified and the final destination was not uncovered, no arrests were made. Almost overnight, protests erupted throughout Palestine and swept other major Arab urban cities, including Amman, Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad. Alongside other groups in Palestine, Al-Qassam carried out incursions against British Mandate forces and Jewish settlers.