a number of mi'ar's residents participated in 1936–1939 arab revolt against british rule and mass jewish immigration in palestine, and the village became a center of rebel operations in the galilee. the rebels often opened fired on british troops passing near mi'ar, damaged roads in the vicinity to render them impassable by the british authorities, cut electrical cables, and planted landmines to hit british vehicles. one of the authorities' controversial methods of suppressing the revolt was the blowing up of houses in a village where there was support for rebels. on 26 october 1938, two british battalions launched a raid against mi'ar and began dynamiting the large houses of the village. they then demanded mi'ar's "mukhtar" (headman) to issue a call to the village's rebels to surrender their rifles or else the dynamiting would continue. no rifles were surrendered and the british resumed their dynamiting of the village's homes. mi'ar was entirely destroyed for its alleged support of the rebels.> a "new york times" reporter present during the destruction wrote, "when the [british] troops left, there was little else remaining of this once busy village except a pile of mangled masonry."