Man Hath No Preeminence over the Canine: Forensic Tracking in Mandate Palestine

In 1935, the police force of the British Mandate in Palestine established a canine unit for locating criminals. The work of the unit, which was established on the basis of lessons learned from the 1929 riots, peaked during the Arab Revolt. The article reviews the legal, historical, and sociological aspects of the establishment of the canine unit and the uses of tracking dogs during the Mandate. The use of canine evidence—sometimes as the sole evidence—in criminal proceedings demonstrates the willingness of the British to adopt unreliable means of proof in the guise of forensic science, especially in times of crisis. Specifically, they used evidence that, by its very nature, was virtually irrefutable, and this was the essence of its power. The use of such evidence in the Mandate’s courts exemplifies the failure of the judicial system to prevent such abuses in times of crisis and to examine such evidence critically. Moreover, the ways in which the canine unit was used demonstrate how the British rulers exploited a religious taboo and superstitions to instill fear in the local population in Palestine, despite Britain’s commitment—as part of its civilizing mission—to eradicate superstitions from the empire and replace them with rational science. The replacement of local trackers by animals also had symbolic meaning: It reduced the human trackers to their senses and instincts and simultaneously positioned the tracking dogs above the human trackers.