Arab High Committee
The Arab High Committee ( English Arab Higher Committee , Arabic اللجنة العربية العليا, DMG al-Laǧna al-ʿArabiyya al-ʿUlyā ) was a central political organ of the Arabs in the British mandate of Palestine .
It was founded on April 25, 1936 on the initiative of Mohammed Amin al-Husseini , the Mufti of Jerusalem .
It played an important role during the Arab uprising in 1936-39. On May 15, 1936, it called for no taxes to be paid to the British, for a general strike and an end to Jewish immigration . In September 1937 the committee was banned by the British Mandate after Lewis Yelland Andrews, the Mandate official responsible for Galilee , was murdered by supporters of al-Qassam . On May 18, 1939, the High Committee issued a written declaration that it rejected the 1939 British White Paper , which stipulated the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine.
A committee of the same name was created by the Arab League in November 1945 . The Arab League tried to involve the political opposition to Husseini within Palestinian society. Husseini's attempts to force them out of the committee led to the self-dissolution of the committee and the establishment of the Arab High Front as a rival organization. In June 1946, at the urging of the Arab League, the Arab High Executive was founded. This body had the same task as the High Committee and was firmly in the hands of Husseini and his clan. In June 1947 this body was renamed the Arab High Committee again, with which Husseini had achieved his goal of bringing the High Committee completely under his control.
In the international debate about the future of the mandate area of Palestine , representatives of the High Committee tried to prevent the creation of a Jewish state by threatening Holy War .
Between 1946 and 1947 the organization built a dense network of officials and national committees. Their impact in the Palestine War , however, remained small. The majority of the officials fled the country. As a result, the attempts to stop the escape of the Palestinians by decree were ineffective. Attempts to collect money and war material also had a very limited effect. The Haganah Intelligence Service described the organization's inefficiency as chaos.
On September 22, 1948, the High Committee proclaimed a Palestinian government under the leadership of Husseini, based in Gaza . However, this became meaningless due to the lost war and the subsequent annexation of Gaza by Egypt .
literature
- Tom Segev : Once upon a time there was a Palestine - Jews and Arabs before the state of Israel was founded . Pantheon Verlag Munich, 2005. ISBN 978-3-570-55009-0
- Sayigh, Yezid (2000): Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 . Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-829643-6
Individual evidence
- ^ Benny Morris : 1948 - A History of the First Arab-Israeli War; New Haven, 2008; P. 16, p. 19
- ↑ Zvi Elpeleg : The Grand Mufti. Haj Amin al-Hussaini, Founder of the Palestinian National Movement . Frank Cass, London 1993, ISBN 0-7146-4100-6 . P. 201.
- ^ Benny Morris: 1948 - A History of the First Arab-Israeli War; New Haven, 2008; P. 27
- ^ Benny Morris: 1948 - A History of the First Arab-Israeli War; New Haven, 2008; P. 34
- ^ Benny Morris: 1948 - A History of the First Arab-Israeli War; New Haven, 2008; P. 82f, p. 91, p. 95, p. 399
- ^ Benny Morris: 1948 - A History of the First Arab-Israeli War; New Haven, 2008; P. 196