Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Nationalism and Religious Identification
- 1 1917–1923: Balancing Religion and National Unity
- 2 1923–1929: Christians and a Divided National Movement
- 3 1929–1936: Towards Communalism
- 4 1936–1939: Standing Aloof? Arab Christians and the Great Revolt
- 5 1940–1948: National Strength through Communal Unity
- Conclusion: Nationalism and Communal Identification – Conflicting Identities?
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - 1923–1929: Christians and a Divided National Movement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Nationalism and Religious Identification
- 1 1917–1923: Balancing Religion and National Unity
- 2 1923–1929: Christians and a Divided National Movement
- 3 1929–1936: Towards Communalism
- 4 1936–1939: Standing Aloof? Arab Christians and the Great Revolt
- 5 1940–1948: National Strength through Communal Unity
- Conclusion: Nationalism and Communal Identification – Conflicting Identities?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Arab Christians should be the first to recognise the rights of their Moslem Brethren over public positions and support them with the Government [even] though some Christian officials might suffer from the grant[ing] of Moslem demands.
ᶜIsa Bandak, 14 January 1928Many Christians would prefer the protection of a Western power to a Muslim rule headed by Hajj Amin al-Husseini … Throughout the British Mandate, Christians tended to rally for the Nashashibi family, who formed the opposition to the Husseini family, [which] based its political support largely on the urban middle class and was less afiliated with Islam.
Daphne Tsimhoni, ‘Palestinian Christians and the Peace Process’, 1998In 1931, a group of leaders from the Nashashibi-led National Party demanded that the Husayni-ran Supreme Muslim Council stop renting mosques to Christians, complaining that Armenians were storing wine in the mihrab of one mosque and someone was keeping pigs in another. Another sign of emerging factionalism occurred in the 1930s when a Nashashibi leader wrote to followers in the Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarm subdistricts alerting them to a large number of Christians in a Husayni delegation to London. Fakhri al-Nashashibi assured regional organisers that raising this issue among the rural population would increase support for the National Party ‘in view of the religious susceptibilities of the Moslem fellaheen’. These anecdotes highlight the rising importance of religious differentiation in factional politics as Palestinian Arab nationalist unity devolved into factional fighting.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Arab Christians in British Mandate PalestineCommunalism and Nationalism, 1917-1948, pp. 61 - 96Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2013