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Israel
The Arab Community During the Mandate
The British Mandate
and the intensification of Jewish settlement in Palestine significantly
altered Palestinian leadership structures and transformed the
socioeconomic base of Palestinian Arab society. First, British
policy in Palestine, as elsewhere in the Middle East, was based
on patronage. This policy entailed granting wide powers to a small
group of competing traditional elites whose authority would depend
upon the British high commissioner. In Palestine, Samuels granted
the most important posts to two competing families, the Husaynis
(also seen as Husseinis) and the Nashashibis. Of the two clans,
the Husaynis were given the most powerful posts, many of which
had no precedent under Ottoman rule. In 1921 Samuels appointed
Hajj Amin al Husayni, an ardent anti-Zionist and a major figure
behind the April 1920 riots, as mufti (chief Muslim religious
jurist) of Jerusalem. In 1922 he augmented Hajj Amin's power by
appointing him president of the newly constituted Supreme Muslim
Council (SMC), which was given wide powers over the disbursement
of funds from religious endowments, fees, and the like.
By heading the SMC, Hajj Amin controlled a vast patronage network,
giving him power over a large constituency. This new patronage
system competed with and threatened the traditional family-clan
and Islamic ties that existed under the Ottoman Empire. Traditional
Arab elites hailing from other locales, such as Hebron and Haifa,
resented the monopoly of power of the British-supported Jerusalem-based
elite. Furthermore, as an agricultural depression pushed many
Arabs westward into the coastal cities, a new urbanbased elite
emerged that challenged the Nashashibis and Husaynis.
Tension between members of Arab elites was exacerbated because
Hajj Amin, who was not an elected official, increasingly attempted
to dictate Palestinian politics. The competition between the major
families and the increased use of the Zionist threat as a political
tool in interelite struggles placed a premium on extremism. Hajj
Amin frequently incited his followers against the Nashashibis
by referring to the latter as Zionist collaborators. As a result,
Palestinian leadership during the Mandate was fragmented and unable
to develop a coherent policy to deal with the growing Zionist
movement.
The other major transformation in Palestinian Arab society during
the Mandate concerned the issue of land ownership. During the
years of Ottoman rule, the question of private property rights
was never fully articulated. The tenuous nature of private property
rights enabled the Zionist movement to acquire large tracts of
land that had been Arab owned. The sale of land to Jewish settlers,
which occurred even during the most intense phases of the Palestinian
Revolt, reflected the lack of national cohesion and institutional
structure that might have enabled the Palestinian Arabs to withstand
the lure of quick profits. Instead, when increased Jewish land
purchases caused property prices to spiral, both the Arab landowning
class and absentee landlords, many of whom resided outside Palestine,
were quick to sell for unprecedented profits. In the 1930s, when
Palestine was beset by a severe economic depression, large numbers
of Arab peasants, unable to pay either their Arab landlords or
taxes to the government, sold their land. The British did not
intervene in the land purchases mainly because they needed the
influx of Jewish capital to pay for Jewish social services and
to maintain the Jewish economy.
Data as of December 1988
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