Palestine: A Modern History (ص 91)

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Palestine: A Modern History (ص 91)

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192 The Great Palestine Revolt: 1936-1939
and the National Committees to boycott the Government and refrain
from entering any negotiations until the Arab demands were conceded.
A similar manifesto in Jenin declared that no party or Committee had
the right to: negotiate with the Government or take any decisive step
without prior consultation with a national convention. On 8 May: the
Convention of the National Committees was held in Jerusalem. The
Arab radicals carried the day, and the convention resolved not only to
.continue the Strike but also to press for ‘no taxation without-tepresen-
tation’. The aim of the Palestinian struggle was declared to be ‘complete
Palestinian independence within the framework of Arab Unity’.!° The
Arab Transport Committee urged that government officials (Arab)
should be asked to join the strike-but no résolution to that effect was
adopted.
It soon became evident that women and students were piaying a
major role in maintaining morale and providing personnel for the
organisation of relief, demonstrations and medical aid.”
Two days after the Convention the student committees held a
convention in Jaffa,and resolved to support the national demands, to
boycott British and Zionist goods and to withdraw from the British
Baden-Powell Scout Movement. On the same ‘day several bombs
exploded near government offices and on the following day outside the
Central Police Station. Already there were signs that disorders were
spreading to the rural areas of Palestine. A conference of the rural
National Comrhittee was held at Nablus where it was resolved to
advocate the non-payment of taxes, to denounce the installation of
Police stations in some villages at the expense of the villagers, and to
establish National Committees in all the Arab villages of Palestine. On
the same day Wauchope reported to the Colonial Secretary that ‘The
whole population of villdge‘and towns is united’. In the same telegram
Wauchope predictéd that hénceforth each week would see the manifest-
ation of resistance to authority. “In spite of more than 600 arrests’,
Wauchope stated, ‘arson,shooting, bomb throwing and destruction of
railways continue and will grow in intensity’.”"
At that point Wauchope was authorised to play the only card left in
his hands; namely, the 4ppointment ofa Royal Commission of Enquiry
to investigate the causes of the ‘unrest after civil order had been
re-established. He soon found out; however,’that the politicians, the
Mayors and the non-political leaders were powerless ‘in view of the
strength of public opinion all over the country, to call off the strike’.”*
Wauchope’s predictions proved to be accurate, demonstrations in
1
The Great Palestine Revolt: 1936-1939 193
the big towns, shouting of slogans against Britain and Zionism
increased, clashes with the Police strengthened Arab bitterness against
the Government and the Arab youth organised the National Guard in
an effort to maintain morale and defend the shops and the population
in a prolonged strike.
A Full-Fledged Revolt
More threatening’still were the,developments that were taking place in
the countryside where discontent expressed itself in two forms: non-
paymént.of taxes and violence..Air Vice-Marshall Peirse,reported that:
At village: meetings in the Northern districts the people identified
themselves: with the strike movement. On the 18th May. a* large
meeting took place at. Abu:Ghosh, between Jerusalem and Jaffa,
which was attended by several thousands of people from heigh,
bouring villages. The general feeling-abroad was that the time had
come when the Jewish question had to’ be settled once and for all
and -that it was necessaryy.to sustain the struggle against the
Government until the national political aims had been realised.”*
On 18 May the Government announced a new Jewish Labour
Schedule of 4,500 immigrants for the next six months which influenced
Arab public opinion:and committed the Palestinians to further defiance
of the British. On the same day it was announced in the House of
Commons-that it had been decided to appoint a Royal Commission to
‘investigate the causes of unrest in Palestine but that the Commissién
would not proceed to Palestine until the strike was called off and order
restored. The announcement did not produce the desired effect as the
Arabs were committed to continue the strike until the Government
announced the stoppage of Jewish immigration.
Military reinforcements began arriving from Egypt and Malta. On
23 May sixty-one Arab activists and strike organisers were arrested’. No
sooner had the news spread than demonstrators took to the streets of
Nablus where Police killed four of them and wounded seven. Armed
‘villagers also: headed for Tulkarem, and a battle took place at Bal’a
where four of them were wounded including a woman who was
carrying water to the fighters. These incidents turned the peaceful
“strike in Samaria to.a full-fledged revolt.
The stepping up of the armed resistance exerted greater pressures on
the Arab bodies that had refrained from joining the general strike: the
municipalities, government employees and worker's in Haifa’s harbour.
Cadi datetime + alae ar ga
AE OR gee I pe 2 SM ek

تاريخ

1978

المنشئ

Abdul-Wahhab Kayyali

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