Supreme Islamic Council (Palestine)

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The Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini at the time of the mandate, with students on the Temple Mount .

The Supreme Islamic Council ( Arabic المجلس الإسلامي الاعلى al-madschlis al-islāmī al-aʿlā , English Supreme Muslim Council ) wasthe highest authorityin the British mandate of Palestine , which was responsible for religious affairs of the Muslim population. As the representative of the Muslim Arab population of Palestine to the Mandate Government, the Supreme Islamic Council administered funds from the Waqf , funds for orphans and Sharia courts, and appointed teachers and preachers . The agency was established in 1921 and existed until 1951 when it wasdissolvedby Jordan .

In the Mandate Palestine

The Supreme Islamic Council was founded in December 1921, before the mandate was established, by the first High Commissioner of Palestine, Herbert Samuel . The authority consisted of a president and four members, two from the Ottoman district of Jerusalem and one each from the districts of Nablus and Akko .

At the first meeting of the council on December 9, 1922, the 53 former electors of the last Ottoman parliament had to elect a president. Mohammed Amin al-Husseini was elected by an overwhelming majority, with Said al-Shawa as one of the opposing candidates . Al-Husseini had previously been appointed by Samuel to succeed his half-brother Kamil al-Husseini, who died on March 31, 1921, as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. His office as President of the Supreme Islamic Council was characterized by nepotism and favoritism. One of the first council decisions under his presidency was a ban on Jews from bringing objects to the Western Wall . The council also raised funds from all over the Muslim-Arab world to renovate the Temple Mount and build new mosques. Among other things, the Hassan Bek Mosque in Jaffa , built in 1916, was expanded in 1923.

In 1924 the Supreme Islamic Council appointed Hussein ibn Ali , the Sherif of Mecca , as a "servant" ( chādim  /خادم) the al-Aqsa mosque . This office subsequently became a privilege of the Hashemite royal family of Jordan. Further elections took place in 1926, 1929 and 1930. However, the 1926 elections were annulled by the High Court and the council members were appointed by the Mandate Government.

After the outbreak of the Arab uprising in 1936, the Arab High Committee was established, with Amin al-Husseini as president. 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 . As a result, Amin al-Husseini fled Palestine to avoid arrest. His presidency of the Supreme Islamic Council was hereby terminated, but the agency continued to function.

After 1948

In the Palestinian War of 1948, East Jerusalem and the West Bank were conquered by Jordan, and the Supreme Islamic Council lost numerous properties in the territory of the newly established State of Israel . King Abdallah I of Jordan appointed Sheikh Hussam ad-Din Jarallah (1884–1954) as President of the Council. In 1951 the council was dissolved and all charitable foundations and the judicial system in Palestine came under the control of the Jordanian Ministry of Religious Foundations.

After the Six Day War in 1967, the Supreme Islamic Council was restored under Israeli administration. Hasan Tahbub (1923–1998), Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs of the Palestinian Authority , was President of the Supreme Islamic Council from 1993–1998.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Zvi Elpeleg and Shmuel Himelstein: The Grand Mufti: Haj Amin Al-Hussaini, founder of the Palestinian National Movement . 1993, p. 23.
  2. ^ Benny Morris : 1948 - A History of the First Arab-Israeli War; New Haven, 2008; P. 16, p. 19

literature

  • Uri M. Kupferschmidt: The Supreme Muslim Council: Islam Under the British Mandate for Palestine . Leiden, Brill Academic Publishers, ISBN 90-04-07929-7 .
  • Reinhard Schulze : History of the Islamic World from 1900 to the Present . Beck, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-68855-3 . ( Online excerpt )
  • Thomas Philipp, Israel and the Occupied Territories, in: Ende / Steinbach, Islam in der Gegenwart, p. 499 f.
  • Mark A. Tessler: A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict ( online excerpt )