Palestine under British Mandate rule saw intensive strike action, peaking during World War II. By focusing on the most strike-prone sector, the diamond industry, the paper seeks to unravel the complex association in strikes of workplace issues and international factors, of endogenous and exogenous political and economic forces, and the coupling of the impact of war and imperial interests. A close examination of strikes by diamond cutters in 1941-1946 interlaces the history of capitalism in Palestine with Zionist state-building and British interventionist rule.