The Murder of J. L. Starkey According to Local Palestinian Sources: Anti-Colonial Struggle and Local Intrigues

This article reexamines the 1938 assassination of British archaeologist James Leslie Starkey near Tell ed-Duweir in southern Palestine, challenging longstanding interpretations that have framed the killing as a random act of violence committed during the Arab Revolt. Building on the hypothesis proposed by Yosef Garfinkel in 2016, this study draws on overlooked local petitions, oral history interviews, British Mandatory records, and Zionist intelligence sources to argue that Starkey’s murder was a targeted response to unresolved land disputes between the excavation team and landowners from the nearby village of al-Qubayba. The article documents how Starkey’s acquisition of village lands (at times through expropriation) generated intense resentment, particularly among disenfranchised landowning families excluded from employment by the expedition. Oral testimonies, petitions, and archival evidence point to the involvement of local actors and rebel commander ʿĪsā al-Baṭṭāṭ in orchestrating the killing. By situating the assassination within the broader dynamics of colonial archaeology, rural resistance, and agrarian justice, this paper reframes Starkey’s death as an act of localized insurgency. It offers a microhistorical lens through which to view the entanglement of scientific exploration, dispossession, and political violence in Mandatory Palestine.