Palestine: A Modern History (ص 27)

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Palestine: A Modern History (ص 27)

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56 Polarisation: The Military Administration 1917-1920
that
The Moslem-Christian Committee at Jaffa have resigned, having
entirely failed to fulfil its purpose of watchirig, over interests of
Moslem and Christian Arabs. The, Military Governor; is taking: steps
to form a new Committee.®*
; Inability to change the situation by the application of internal
pressure led to an‘abortive attempt at a world-wide Christian-Muslim
appeal on behalf of the ‘Arabs of Palestine, which was published by
al-Mustaqbal, the Parisian Arabic paper.*© In a lettériof protest to Picot,
Sykes described the artidle as ‘incendiary and &editious’ as it-called for
an ‘anti-Zionist War Fund’? » “ "
af a yy i
Strategic Considerations 4 oh f.
As‘the War drew ‘nearer to its conclusion the local British- authorities
found it increasingly difficult to- apply pro-Zionist' policy in -Palestine
ahd requested preater leeway and more autonomy irl‘the cartying‘out of
this policy.°#*‘Simultaneously,‘the British were inclined to* adopt an
increasingly ’intransigeNit ‘attitude “fegarding the necessity“of retaining
control over'Palestine in view of its strategic impoftahce'to the defence
of the Suez Canal. A’memorahdum on ‘The Future of Palestine}-by'L.S.
Antery of the War Office, later Colonial Secretary, stréssed that ¢
' : i ' *;
Strategically Palestine'and: Egypt go togéther. Not only is Palestine a
necessary buffer to the Suez Canal, but ‘coriversely., any.defence of
Palestine would: have its main’ base at Kantafa...' Palestine is
geographically ‘practically in the centre of ‘the British Empire.*?
The logical conclusions of this“line of thinking were drawn in a
memorandum, by the General Staff at the'War Office? * —'
pf "
The creation: of a buffer Jewish State in Palestine, though this State
will be weak in itself, is’ strategically desirable for Gréat*Britain so
long as-it can be created without disturbing Mohamrhadar sentiment
and is not controlled by a power which is potentially hdstile to this
country.©
&The first aniversary of the Balfour Declaration was a testirlg ground
for the emerging attitudes and relationships of the three sides’ of the
Palestinian triangle. Whén the Arabs heard that the Zionists intended to
.
Polarisation: The Military Administration 1917-1920 57
celebrate, the anniversary of Balfour’s Declaration, they threatened
‘breaking up the proceedings by a counter procession’! Storrs
threatened that any Arab who dared do such a thing would be arrested
and instantly put in jail. The Military Governor of Jerusalem advised
the, Zionists to break their processions before they reached the Jaffa
ye Gate where the Arabs assemble daily in numbers. Two school proces-
sions disregarded these instructions and a scuffle with two Palestinian
Arabs, one Muslim and the other Christian, developed, and both
received four months jail sentences which Storrs described as severe.
The cesult was: the first Arab demonstration led by the-Mayor, Musa
@. Kazem Pasha al-Husseini, who submitted written ‘protestations to the
e. Government: Another petition .of protest was addressed to the
' American Government.
New'Tactics i
One week after the War was brought to an end, Clayton detected an
soe + f .t : +e <4:
in¢ipient transformation in the Palestinian Arab methods of opposition
to Zionism:
) at
, Christian and Moslem antipathy to Zionism has been displayedimuch
more openly since Armistice. The recent Anglo-French ‘déclaration
has encouraged all parties to make known their wishes by every
available means in view éf:approaching Peace Conference.® -
On the occasion of the‘first ‘anniversary of Allenby’s victory over-the
Turks, the Muslim-Christian Committee of Jaffa submitted a memoran-
® dum to ‘the Military Governor which testified to the accuraty of
» Clayton’s report and mirrored’ the’ prevailing Palestinian reactioris‘ to
; Zionism and their arguthents against the Balfour Reclaration. The
memorandum started:tout' by paying ttibute to Great Britain and
‘feiterated'jthe ‘Committee’s faith in Mt Lloyd ‘George’s déclaration
3, Fegarding’ ‘selfigovernment: for the Arabs’ and Presiderit Wilson’s
declarations regartling ‘national self-determination’. The memorandum
then proceeded to affitm that Palestine was an Arab country in’ the full
meaning’of the word and’expounded a full réfutation of the possible
«Zionist arguments:
If the country be the pretext, we should, hasten to say that the
country as well as ‘the inhabitants are Arabs. If the numbers be the
pretext, it should not be forgotten that the Arab are 30 times more
numerous than the Jews. If majority of the land be the pretext, the
Jews must be warnéd’ that the portion they possess in Palestine is
nothing more than 1/500 comparatively to' the possessions of
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تاريخ

1978

المنشئ

Abdul-Wahhab Kayyali

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