Palestine: A Modern History (ص 14)

غرض

عنوان

Palestine: A Modern History (ص 14)

المحتوى

30 Crystallisation 1908-1914 Qrstallisation 1908-1914 31 :
starvation.25 On 29 June, Falastin hinted that what Palestine, ‘the
beloved nation’, needed was the bliss of independence but that ‘we
dare not spell it out’. The, same issue carried an article contributed by
a reader in which he emphasised that words cannot stand in the face of
finance, science, zeal and national solidarity of the Zionists. Only
action can stand in the face of action. The writer suggested the
establishment of a national Palestinian land company financed by a
group of wealthy Palestinians to buy lands that were not under
cultivation and to exert pressure on the government to confine cultivated
larid sales to peasants. He concluded by calling for unity and co-operation
to defend the country.
which they claimed were usurped from them by the Ottoman ancien
régime. The signatories considered the delegates as ‘representative of
the Arab Nation’, and the loss of the Beisan lands as a threat to the
whole Arab Nation.?7
It was extraordinary that the First Arab Congress did not discuss
fully the Zionist danger in Palestine and that no resolutions were passed
in relation to this important and preoccupying issue. The fact was that
the incipient Arab national movement was contemplating ways and
means to attain political independence for the Arab provinces of the
Ottoman Empire. In a paper published in Middle Eastern Studies
Neville Mandel reported contacts between certain members of the Arab
In these articles, published in the early part of the second «decade, Decentralisation Party and the Zionist Executive. These contacts must { :
/ two things merit remark. The first is the implicit and permeating feeling _ be viewed, ‘within the context of the nationalists’ search for allies ot
pb ; it of admiration for the advanced technological and organisational against the Turks’.7® However, the Palestinians were unwilling to f .
’ methods employed by the Zionists. The second is the underlying and endorse the policy of taking the Zionists as temporary allies in the k ‘=
sometimes explicit realisation that only through acquiring knowledge, struggle against the Turks. In its issue of 9 July 1913, Falastin rebuked 4
| skill and organisation could Arab opposition to Zionism be effective. a leading figure of the Arab Congress, Sheikh Ahmad Tabbara, ‘For he 4 |.
. did not mention what dangers were connected with the immi ‘ati oe
| . oe the immigration of
iW The First Arab Congress the Zionists into the country and what problems for the future are Hf
The political stirrings and cross-currents of political ideas and aspira- being brought by the Government's‘ attitude on this issue’. What is of gd | :
Je tions culminated in the convening of the First Arab Congress in Paris interest to us in this context is the degree of Palestinian participation in hy |
Hoatill during June 1913, which included an impressive number of prominent th attempts at the ‘Arab-Zionist entente’. According to Mandel, ‘Some f |
i political personalities from the Levant. Arab notables were disturbed by the (anti-Zionist) popular mood. One we 7
I It was an attempt at articulating a political programme demanding such notable was Nassif Bey al-Khalidi, a native of Jerusalem, who in 4
| partnership and equality between the Arabs and the: Turks within the 1914 was Chief Engineer in Beirut.’?? Nassif Bey’s efforts to convene
| |
| Ottoman Empire. Delegates demanded recognition of the Arabs as a an Arab-Zionist conference were unsuccessful. f 7
i nation entitled to autonomy within a decentralised Ottoman state and} Zionist contacts with Palestinian Arabs in Constantinople were also i |
ll to representation on all legislative and executive levels. They also abortive. Their demands were unacceptable to the Zionists. The Arabs iS
i | | demanded cultural independence and promotion of the Arabic language desired the Zionists: '
vif i i to the status of an official language. ' i
4 Among the participants listed in the book published on the proceed- } @ to assist Arab education, by supplying expertise and funds; (ii) to
| A ings of the Congress, there were a number of Palestinian notables and give assurances that the fellaheen would not be deprived of all their
| students. The more striking aspect of the Palestinian presence in the land or proletarianised by the Jewish settlers; and (iii) to find large
" i | Congress were the telegrams sent from Palestine to the Congress. These capital sums to finance extensive public-work: projects for the f
| telegrams revealed the existence of two literary groups in Jaffa. development of the Arab provinces.” i
El al-Multa‘ am al-‘Adabi®® (The Literary Meeting Place) and al-Jam'iyya i
; | i al-Khairiyya al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Benevolent Society). Telegrams In Palestine itself there were unmistakable signs of a hardening of Arab e
| | were also sent by the inhabitants of Nablus and Haifa who pledged their anti-Zionist feeling, in the months immediately following the Congress. “
” support and called for reform and decentralisation. Other telegrams In August, Falastin informed its readers that it had to increase the { -
from the headmen and local notables of Beisan and Jenin urged the number of its pages in-order to publish the increasing number of ’ g
Petitions and protests against Zionist encroachment. On 12 August, A
Congress to declare its opposition to the sale of lands in their district

هو جزء من

Palestine: A Modern History

تاريخ

1978

المنشئ

Abdul-Wahhab Kayyali

مجموعات العناصر

Generated Pages Set