Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 310)

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عنوان

Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 310)

المحتوى

sent to Palestine in 1930 to study the causes for the 1929 peasant
revolt. The reference to the Fallaheen will be quoted at length since
{it highlights various aspects of the revolt usually absent in the
literature:
It has been argued before us that the Arab
Falliah takes no personal interest in politics and
that the present state of popular feeling, which in
every village and most country districts finds its
expression in such cries as "down with the Balfour
Declaration” and in demands for a nacional
government is the result of propaganda promoted
artificially and for personal ends by men who wish
to exploit what may be, so far as they are
concerned, quite genuine grievances...
The contention that the Fallah takes no personal
interest in politics is not supported by our
experience in Palestine. No one who has been about
the country as we have been and who has listened to
the applause which greeted many passages in the
addresses read to us by village heads and sheikhs
could doubt that villagers and peasants alike are
taking a very real and personal interest both in
the effect of the policy of establishing a national
home and in the question of the development of
self-governing institutions in Palestine.
No less than 14 Arabic newspapers are published
in Palestine and in almost every village there is
some one who reads from the papers to gatherings of
those villagers who are illiterate. During the long
season of the year when the soil cannot be tilled
the villagers, having no alternative occupation,
discuss politics and it is not unusual for part of
the address in the Mosques on Friday to be devoted
to political affairs.
In conclusion,the report added: "The Arab Fallaheen and villagers
are therefore probably more politically minded than many of the people
of Europe". (56)
Alongside the transformation from peasantry to proletariat there
also emerged a qualitative change in the forms of political resistance
amongst the Fallaheen. Unlike thelr Jewish counterparts whose working
conditions were officially guaranteed by the Histadrut, Palestinian
296
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Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation

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١٩٨٩

المنشئ

Nahla Abdo-Zubi

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Theses رسائل ماجستير ودكتوراه