Arab Higher Committee
The Arab Higher Committee was the central political organ of the Arab community of Mandate Palestine. It was established on 25 April 1936, on the initiative of Hajj Amin al-Husayni, the mufti of Jerusalem, and comprised the leaders of Palestinian Arab clans under the mufti's chairmanship.
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[edit] History
The Higher Arab Committee was formed after the start of the 1936-39 Arab revolt. On 15 May, the Committee called for nonpayment of taxes, a general strike of Arab workers and businesses, and an end to Jewish immigration. The committee was banned by the Mandate administration in September 1937.
A committee of the same name was reconstituted by the Arab League in 1945, but went to abayence after it proved ineffective during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was banned by Jordan in 1948, and sidestepped by Egypt and the Arab League with the formation of the All-Palestine Government in 1948.
[edit] Formation
Initially, the Committee consisted of:
- Amin al-Husayni, president - member of the al-Husayni clan, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, president of the Supreme Muslim Council
- Raghib al-Nashashibi - member of the Nashashibi clan, which was considered to be political rivals of the al-Husayni clan, and to hold moderate views when compared to the more militant views of the al-Husayni, member of the National Defence Party
- Jamal al-Husayni - brother of Amin al-Husayni and chairman of the Palestine Arab Party, member of the Supreme Muslim Council
- Yaqub al-Ghusayn - member and representative of the Youth Congress Party, member of the Supreme Muslim Council
- Abd al-Latif Salah - founder of the National Bloc
- Husayin al-Khalidi - founder and representative of the Reform Party
- Awni Abd al-Hadi - the leader of the Istiqlal (Independence) Party, who was appointed General Secretary[1]
On 15 May 1936, the Committee called for nonpayment of taxes, for a general strike of Arab workers and businesses, and demanded an end to Jewish immigration. The strike was called off in October 1936 and the violence abated for about a year while the Peel Commission deliberated and eventually recommended partition of Palestine. With the rejection of this proposal, the revolt resumed during the autumn of 1937.
On 26 September 1937, the Acting British District Commissioner of Galilee, Lewis Yelland Andrews, was assassinated in Nazareth. The next day Britain outlawed the Arab Higher Committee,[2] and began to arrest its members. Amin al-Husayni managed to escape arrest, but was removed from the presidency of the Supreme Muslim Council.[3]
[edit] War period
Amin al-Husayni managed to escape arrest and went into exile. For all practical purposes, the Committee ceased to exist. Al-Husayni spent the war years in occupied Europe, actively collaborating with the Nazi leadership. Membership of the outlaw Committee had dwindled to just Jamal al-Husayni (Amin al-Husayni's brother, as acting chairperson), Husayn al-Khalidi (secretary), Ahmad Hilmi Pasha and Emile al-Ghury.[4] Jamal al-Husayni was interned in Southern Rhodesia during the war.
[edit] Post-war period
After the end of the war, Amin al-Husayni managed to find his way to Egypt and stayed there until 1959, when he moved to Lebanon. On 22 March 1945, the Arab League was formed. In November 1945, it reconstituted the Arab Higher Committee comprising twelve members[5] as the supreme executive body of Palestinian Arabs in the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine. The committee was dominated by the Palestine Arab Party and was immediately recognised by Arab League countries. The Mandate government recognised the new Committee two months later. In February 1946, Jamal al-Husayni returned to Palestine and immediately set about reorganising and enlarging the Committee, becoming its acting president. The Istiqlal Party and other nationalist groups objected to these moves, and formed a rival Arab Higher Front.
As of April 1946, the members of the reconstituted Committee were:
- Jamal al-Husayni
- Tewfiq al-Husayni
- Yusif Sahyun
- Kamil al-Dajani
- Emile al-Ghury
- Rafiq al-Tamimi and
- Anwar al-Khatib (all members of or affiliated with the Palestine Arab Party)
- Izzat Tannus (an independent Christian medical doctor)
- Antone Attallah (a member of the Greek Orthodox community)
- Ahmad al-Shukayri (a lawyer from Acre and an Arab nationalist)
- Sami Taha - head of Palestine Arab Workers Society
- Yusif Haykal (the mayor of Jaffa, who was politically independent)[6]
In May 1946, the Arab League ordered the dissolution of the AHC and AHR and formed a five-member Arab Higher Executive, under Amin al-Husayni's chairmanship, and based in Cairo. The new AHE consisted of:
- Amin al-Husayni, as chairman
- Jamal al-Husayni, as vice-chairman
- Husayn Fakhri al-Khalidi
- Emile al-Ghury
- Abd al-Baqi[7]
In January 1947, it was renamed as "Arab Higher Committee", with Amin al-Husayni as its chairman and Jamal al-Husayni as vice-chairman, and expanded to include the four remaining core members plus Hasan Abu Sa'ud, Izhak Darwish al-Husayni, Izzat Darwaza, Rafiq al-Tamimi and Mu'in al-Madi. This restructuring of the AHC to include additional supporters of Amin al-Husayni was seen as a bid to increase his political power.[8]
[edit] Criticism
Anwar Nusseibeh, a Palestinian nationalist who believed that the best way to advance Palestinian interest was to operate within whichever regime was in power, criticized the Arab Higher Committee's performance during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War as being unaware and ineffective at best and ambivalent at worst to the needs of the Palestinian Arab population. In a personal note, Nusseibeh wrote, "Obviously they thought of the Palestine adventure in terms of an easy walkover for the Arabs, and the only point that seemed to worry them was credit for the expected victory. ... [They] were determined that the Palestine Arabs should at all costs be excluded."[9]
The Committee became politically irrelevant after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and banned from the Jordanian occupied West Bank. Instead, the Arab League - led by Egypt - decided to set up the All-Palestine Government in Gaza on 8 September 1948 under the nominal leadership of al-Husayni.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Text of decree in Haim Levenberg, Military Preparations of the Arab Community in Palestine 1945-1948, Frank Cass London, 1993, p. 7.
- ^ Sayigh, 2000, p. 8.
- ^ Levenberg, 1993, p.8
- ^ David Tal (2004) "Israel-Arab War, 1948 -1949/ Armistices" Routledge ISBN 071465275X p. 7
- ^ Politics and government in the Middle East and North Africa By Tareq Y. Ismael, Jacqueline S. Ismael, Kamel Abu Jaber, p 303
- ^ Khalaf, 1991, pp. 121-122
- ^ Western imperialism in the Middle East 1914-1958 By David Kenneth Fieldhouse, 173
- ^ Khalaf, 1991, p. 129-130
- ^ Tom Segev One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate. Trans. Haim Watzman. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2001. ISBN 0316648590 p.510
[edit] Bibliography
- Khalaf, Issa (1991). Politics in Palestine: Arab Factionalism and Social Disintegration, 1939-1948. SUNY Press. ISBN 0791407071
- Levenberg, Haim (1993). Military Preparations of the Arab Community in Palestine: 1945-1948. London: Routledge. ISBN 0714634395
- David Tal (2004) "Israel-Arab War, 1948 -1949/ Armistices" Routledge ISBN 071465275X
- Sayigh, Yezid (2000). Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198296436
- Segev, Tom. One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate. Trans. Haim Watzman. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2001. ISBN 0316648590
