This paper draws on examples from the volatile history of Palestine under the British Mandate (1919-1948) to show how the political legacy of Palestine’s colonization has formed the basis, in part, of “criminal law” and how this was used as a tool in building colonial rule in Palestine. In the wake of the Buraq (Wailing Wall) Revolt in 1929, the British introduced a new legal process in an effort to preserve their control of Palestine, and quell Arab resistance. Barakat explains how the British constructed a system of laws and legal procedures during their colonial tenure that were both reactionary and foundational both within the context of British presence in Palestine and in how their relatively short colonial rule has resonated well beyond its historic tenure. By providing a close reading of the British methods and procedures that, at the time, were part of a concerted effort to control a strategic colonial outpost, Barakat shows how the law was manipulated as a means of control, which subsequently contributed to the ultimate failure of their rule. In an effort to suppress a national movement, the British manipulated their own version of a localized judicial system, to create a criminalizing process that is still used as one of the primary means of controlling the Palestinian Arab population nearly a century later.