Palestine: A Modern History (ص 47)

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Palestine: A Modern History (ص 47)

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96 Deadlock: 1920-1923
Of greater significance was Brunton’s reference to several incidents
that occurred on the first day’s rioting which caused the Arabs to
suspect the impartiality of the troops and the Authorities. The
instances: cited by Brunton included ‘the, placing of Jewish guides on
the armbured cars’; ‘a Jewish civilian being seen and heard ordering
British soldiers to fire on the crowd’: and ‘the searching of Arabs by
Jews in front of-British soldiers’.*? These incidents precipitated what
Brunton described as a monster demonstration on 2 May, where
Palestinian Arabs demanded the teplacement of British troops by
Indians and demanded arms to defend themselves against the armed
Jews.
Troubles continued on 3 May and killing on both sides occurred,
considerable damage being done to Jewish shops. Women played ‘a
considerable part in urging on the Arabs to attack Jews’,°° while the
notables were trying fo calm the population and had a very ‘good
effect’.>!
The events that took place in Jaffa during the first three days‘ of
May galvanised the villagers in other Palestinian districts into a
truculent mood. Samuel reported to Churchill that several Jewish
colonies were attacked in various districts:
af
It has been necessary to send detachments of troops, armoured
cars, aeroplanes, and police to a number of different places, and to
tequest the naval authorities to send warships to Jaffa and Haifa as a
precautionary measure.
The more serious clashes however occurred in the district ‘of Jaffa.
On hearing that Arabs were being killed by Jews in Jaffa; the
neighbouring peasants’and beduins:were immediately drawn‘ into the
foray. *
On the 5th May some 3,000 Arabs (according td reports) had
‘assembled td the north of the Jewish colony of Petah Tkvah
(Mulebbis) about 10 miles north of Jaffa! Another force of Arabs
several hundred strong was preparing to attack from the south.*?
Government forces repulsed the attackers and pursued them with a loss
of sixty killed and many wounded. The Haycraft Commission estimated
the numbe? of ‘killed during the Jaffa outbreak at 95, of whom 48.were
Arab and 47 Jewish, and 219 wounded of whom 75 were Arab and 146
Jewish. These statistics exclude some of the casualties of the,5 May
Deadlock: 1920-1923 97
attack.
Brunton informed his superiors that the Zionists were trying to
substantiate a theory to the effect that the outbreak of 1 May ‘was
premeditated by the Arabs and that it was arranged by a few notables
encouraged'by French intrigue’. In his opinion:
Nothing could be farther from the truth. I have carefully gone into
the case, and there is not a vestige of proof of French or other
intrigue, On the contrary, the attitude of the French consyl appears
to have been all that could have been-desired. There is no evidence
of premeditation on the part of the Arabs.*°
In view of his opinion that the Jaffa disturbances were not a simple
outbreak of mob violence but rather an expression of a ‘deep seated
and widely ,spread popular resentment at the present British policy’,
Brunton found jt inescapable to recommend concessions to, the Arabs
on Jewish immigrdtion, or failing:that increasing the garrison in order
to enforce British support for Zidnism in Palestine.
The Haycraft Commission were impressed by the level of crude
political interest and consciousness in the Palestinian towns and villages
like Tulkarem:
In a small Moslem-centre of this sort the people arg more politically
minded ’than a small English country town, and the discussion of
politics is their chief, if not their only, intellectual occupation.®®
The Role of the Notables
In a report to Churchill, Samuel attributed ‘the outbreaks to political
and economic considerations aggravated by the increase of Zionist
immigration. The Arabs, Samuel added, demanded representative irfsti-
tutions and regarded the Administration as unduly autocratic.57
Furthermore, the delay in the ratification of the Mandate ‘has been an
important factor in preventing the, quiet settlemént of the country.*®
Samuel conveyed. his feeling of gratitude for the leaders, of the ‘Arab
Nationalist Movement’, i.e. leaders. of the Haifa Congress and of the
Myslim-Christian Associations, who
used their best efforts to calm agitation. . .If the political leaders had
set themselves to foster, instead: of to check,.‘the present agitation,
the whole country could have been thrown into a state of turmoil,
and order would have been reestablished only with the greatest

تاريخ

1978

المنشئ

Abdul-Wahhab Kayyali

مجموعات العناصر

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