Oren Kessler - Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict

The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict

Oren Kessler

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

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Copyright 2023 by Oren Kessler

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kessler, Oren, author.

Title: Palestine 1936: the great revolt and the roots of the Middle East conflict / Oren Kessler.

Description: Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022033661 (print) | LCCN 2022033662 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538148808 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538148815 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: PalestineHistoryArab rebellion, 19361939. | Jewish-Arab relationsHistory19171948. | PalestineHistory19171948.

Classification: LCC DS126 .K464 2023 (print) | LCC DS126 (ebook) | DDC 956.94/04dc23/eng/20220720

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022033661

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022033662

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992

To my parents,

Ruth and David

Women of Kibbutz Ein Hashofet undergo rifle training,
circa 1938 108

t hanks are due first to the editors at Rowman & Littlefield . Working with Katelyn Turner, Susan McEachern, Jehanne Schweitzer, and Ann Seifert has been an unqualified pleasure.

Michael J. Cohen was generous with his time, feedback, and expertise on the British Mandate. Yossi Klein Halevy was exceptionally gracious with advice. In Jerusalem, Mohammed Dajani and Sari Nusseibeh provided valuable historical and political insights as well as warm hospitality. Matthew Cotton, Don Jacobs, David A. Weinberg, and Eric Trager offered meaningful assistance in the projects earlier stages, and Yossi Alpher, Emanuel Beka, and Yardena Schwartz in the later ones. Hassan Eltaher kindly supplied me with several of the images in this book.

Adam Rasgon and David Daoud each lent Arabic expertise and friendship. Steven B. Wagner gifted me a treasure trove of recently declassified Peel Commission secret testimonies. Rami Hazan shared family memories of his late grandfather Israel, the first fatality of the Great Revolt.

I am especially indebted to Debbie Usher at the Middle East Center Archive, St. Antonys College, Oxford, whose fabled twice-daily mandatory breaks for tea and biscuits I look back on fondly. Rebecca Picard at the Institute for Current World Affairs generously presented me with the correspondence of the organizations former fellow, George Antonius. The Library of Congress African & Middle Eastern Reading Room was a reliably productive workspace, thanks as much to its sublime surroundings as to dedicated staff like Sharon Horovitz of the Hebraic section and Muhannad Salhi of the Near Eastern.

This book is dedicated to my parents, Ruth Traubner Kessler and David Kessler, without whose loving supporteditorial, emotional, and practicalit could not have been written. My brother Yarin provided indispensable commentaryunvarnished but often on-pointand informed me whenever my prose became stale, overcooked, confusing, or otherwise missed the mark.

Alongside my family, my partner Clara was my second editorial anchor, reading every word and saving me from a hundred hidden pitfalls. Even more than that, she has been an extraordinary example of love, patience, and understanding through the frustrations, doubts, and despair of what has been by many miles the most difficult thing I have ever done. Teamo.

Oren Kessler

Tel Aviv

Autumn 2022

Musa Alami: Jerusalem-born, Cambridge-educated attorney, civil servant, and Arab-nationalist activist.

George Antonius: Writer and intellectual, born in Lebanon, raised in Egypt, and long based in Jerusalem. Author of the influential 1938 book The Arab Awakening .

David Ben-Gurion: Poland-born Zionist leader, based in Palestine since 1906. Headed the Histadrut labor federation from 1921, Mapai party from 1930, and Jewish Agency from 1935. From 1948, Israels first prime minister.

Blanche Baffy Dugdale : Author, Zionist activist, and biographer of her uncle Arthur Balfour, who issued Britains 1917 Balfour Declaration backing a Jewish national home in Palestine .

Anthony Eden : Foreign secretary, 19351938 and twice thereafter (later, prime minister, 19551957 ) .

Abdel-Rahim al - Hajj Muhammad : Tulkarem-born merchant and militant . Most important of the rebel commanders whom the British army called The Big Three .
The Viscount Halifax (Edward Wood) : Foreign secretary, 19381940 . An early supporter of appeasement in Neville Chamberlains Cabinet .

Yusuf Hanna : Egypt-born editor of Filastin newspaper, Jaffa, 19311948 . Corresponded regularly with NewYorkTimes Palestine reporter Joseph Levy .

Hajj Amin al-Husseini: Grand mufti of Jerusalem and president of the Supreme Muslim Council for most of the 1920s and 1930s. Founded and led the Arab Higher Committee during the Great Revolt.

Jamal Husseini: Founder and chairman of the Palestine Arab Party, dominated by the Husseini family. Cousin, acolyte, and spokesman of Hajj Amin, and brother-in-law of Musa Alami.

Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky: Odessa-born writer and activist. Barred from Palestine in 1930, he founded the right-wing Revisionist Zionist movement and was titularthough not always practicalcommander of the Irgun militant group.

Malcolm MacDonald : Colonial secretary, 19381940 . Son of the first Labour prime minister Ramsay MacDonald .

Sir Harold MacMichael : High commissioner for Palestine, 19381944 . Career colonial administrator and Arabist, broadly skeptical of Zionist aims .

William Ormsby-Gore: Colonial secretary, 19361938. Long linked to and friendly with the Zionist movement, his clashes with the Foreign Office over Palestine helped end his career.

Moshe Shertok (Sharett): Russia-born Zionist activist. An Arabic speaker, he held the Jewish Agencys second-most powerful role as head of its political department. Later, Israels first foreign minister and second prime minister.

Sir Arthur Wauchope: High commissioner for Palestine, 19311938. His tenure was a heyday for Jewish immigration, investment, and land purchases. Retired amid criticism of applying insufficient force to quell the Arab rebellion.

Chaim Weizmann: Russia-born Zionist leader and chemist, long based in Britain. Key to negotiating the Balfour Declaration, he headed the World Zionist Organization for most of the interwar period. In his final years, first president of Israel.