James Leslie Starkey

[1] Issa Battat, a rebel commander from the ad-Dhahiriya area who led a rebel unit during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine against the British, was held responsible by the British authorities for Starkey's killing.

[2][3] On the other hand, Yosef Garfinkel has suggested that the murder of Starkey had more to do with a dispute between the archaeologists, the government, and the Arab owners of the Lachish site.

[4] No agreement had been reached for access to the top of the mound and the government was in the process of compulsorily expropriating it.

Olga Tufnell eventually published the excavation report, an important publication for Palestinian archeology, after twenty years of research and writing.

Starkey is buried in Protestant Cemetery on Mount Zion, Jerusalem.