Palestine Arab Higher Committee

Palestine Arab Higher Committee
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Name	Palestine Arab Higher Committee
Native name	اللجنة العربية العليا
Founded	1936
Dissolved	1948 (effectively)
Headquarters	Jerusalem
Key people	Amin al-Husseini; Jamal al-Husayni; Hajj Izz al-Din al-Qassam; Raghib al-Nashashibi; Awni Abd al-Hadi
Country	Mandatory Palestine

Palestine Arab Higher Committee

The Palestine Arab Higher Committee was the central political body formed in Mandatory Palestine in 1936 to coordinate nationalist activity among Palestinian Arab leaders, notables, and organizations during the period of the British Mandate and the escalating conflict with the Zionist movement and regional actors. It sought to represent Palestinian Arab interests in interactions with the British Mandate for Palestine, the Yishuv, Arab states such as the Kingdom of Iraq, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and regional institutions including the Arab League and the Muslim Brotherhood. The committee emerged amid mobilizations triggered by events including the Jaffa riots (1921), the Hebron massacre (1929), and international developments like the Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations mandates system.

Background and Formation

The committee was established at the outset of the 1936 general strike called in response to tensions that followed the 1929 Palestine riots and policy outcomes from the Peel Commission and the Passfield White Paper (1930), with roots in earlier networks such as the Nadi al-'Arabiyya societies, the Supreme Muslim Council, and familial notability linked to clans from Jerusalem, Nablus, Jaffa, and Hebron. Delegates included figures associated with the Palestinian Arab National Movement, municipal councils like the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, and political currents connected to Haj Amin al-Husseini and the National Defence Party (Palestine). International influence came through ties to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Transjordan), the Kingdom of Egypt, and pan-Arab networks anchored by elites who had engaged with the Syrian Congress and the Iraqi Revolt (1920) veterans.

Leadership and Member Organizations

Leadership centered on prominent personalities drawn from the Nashashibi family, the al-Husayni family, and professional associations including the Arab Executive Committee (pre-1936), the Palestine Arab Party, and the National Defence Party (Palestine). Key affiliated organizations included the Supreme Muslim Council, the Arab Higher Committee-constituent nationalist blocs, the Istiqlal (Arab Independence Party), and trade and guild bodies such as unions with ties to the General Syrian Congress and the Palestine Professional Associations. Religious, charitable, and municipal stakeholders like the Islamic Medical Association and municipal councils of Haifa, Acre, and Ramallah had representation or contact. International interlocutors included envoys linked to the Arab League and diplomats from the Ottoman successor states who had served in the League of Nations mandates framework.

Political Activities and Policies

The committee coordinated the 1936 strike and formulated platforms addressing opposition to the Balfour Declaration, land transfers involving the Jewish National Fund, immigration policy shaped by the Aliyah waves, and proposals for constitutional arrangements that referenced documents such as the Peel Commission Report and alternatives proposed to the Woodhead Commission. It issued communiqués aimed at the British Cabinet, the Foreign Office (United Kingdom), and international bodies like the League of Nations while engaging regional capitals including Cairo, Beirut, and Damascus. The committee promoted boycotts targeting institutions connected to the Yishuv and coordinated political campaigns with media outlets such as the Falastin (newspaper) and other press organs linked to families like the al-Husayni and al-Nashashibi clans. Diplomacy and protest tactics alternated with support for local strikes organized through professional networks and religious institutions like the Waqf administration.

Role in the 1936–1939 Arab Revolt

As the nominal leadership during the Arab Revolt (1936–1939), the committee functioned as a central coordinating council between urban leadership in Jerusalem and rural insurgent groups operating in regions including the Jabal Nablus area and the Judean Hills, interacting with commanders who had links to guerrilla networks influenced by figures such as Izz al-Din al-Qassam and veterans of earlier uprisings. The committee's strategies combined political negotiation attempts with calls for sustained civil disobedience, general strikes, and non-cooperation campaigns against British institutions including the Palestine Police and administrative offices in Haifa and Acre. In response, British authorities enacted security measures inspired by precedents like the Defense of the Realm Act and counterinsurgency policies that led to arrests, exile, and military operations reminiscent of suppression tactics used in the Iraqi revolt of 1920.

Relations with the British Mandate and Zionist Movement

Relations with the British Mandate for Palestine were adversarial and oscillated between negotiation and confrontation; the committee rejected partition proposals from the Peel Commission and sought revisions to immigration limits embodied in the McDonald White Paper debates. It accused Zionist institutions such as the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Histadrut, and the Haganah of advancing settler agendas through land acquisition mechanisms like the Jewish National Fund purchases and support from European organizations including the Keren Hayesod. The committee engaged with British political figures in the Foreign Office (United Kingdom), appealed to sympathetic MPs in the House of Commons, and attempted to use diplomatic channels via the Arab League and regional monarchies such as the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq to pressure London and the League of Nations system.

Decline, Bans, and Legacy

Following concerted British suppression measures including the arrests, proscription, and the exile of leaders to destinations such as the Acre Prison and sites in the Seychelles and Mauritius in later periods, the committee was declared illegal by Mandate authorities; many leaders, notably those allied with Haj Amin al-Husseini, relocated to capitals like Beirut and Cairo and engaged with wartime actors including the Axis Powers or sought refuge within Transjordan. Its dissolution accelerated with the White Paper of 1939 aftermath, World War II geopolitics, and postwar developments culminating in the 1947 UN Partition Plan and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The committee's institutional memory influenced successor political formations such as the Palestine Liberation Organization, nationalist parties in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (East Bank), and representations in exile that fed into debates at forums like the Arab League and later negotiations involving the United Nations.

Category:Political organizations in Mandatory Palestine