Communities, Attitudes and Arab-Jewish Relations, important points from Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, Yale University Press, 1947.

From CojsWiki

• Initial differences between Jews and Arabs in Palestine were seen in two very different leaders; Chaim Weizmann and Haj Amin al-Husaini.

• Chaim Weizmann – Background was more religious and intellectual than political, as were his feelings about the development of a Jewish homeland. Later adapted Theodor Herzl’s political ideas, and included British notions of compromise. Weizmann felt strongly about developing science and natural resources to better all peoples and eliminate strife between nations.

• Haj Amin al-Husaini – Descendant of the most powerful Palestinian family, holding great religious positions and huge estates. Al-Husaini was open in his frustrations and disapproval of Zionism and British rule. During World War II, he was found guilty of treachery and sedition, and took up with Hitler’s associates in Berlin.

These ideologies may be seen as “general” or prevalent views between the two communities, but as Albright, et al, point out, with many factions of differing opinions within each community, to say that there was one organized approach for either Jews or Arabs would be overly simplified.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, pp. 494-495.

• As populations in Palestine increased through the first half of the 20th century, census numbers showed an interesting dispersion between Arabs, Christians and Jews. Jewish populations increased with immigration, Arab numbers grew mostly through child-birth, with lower levels of infant mortality as medical and living conditions had improved. The largest cities (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jaffa) held a majority Jewish population by the 1930s, and the smaller towns were predominately Arab. Bedouins, or the nomadic Arab peoples, also constituted a significant, although difficult to track, element of the Arab population.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, pp. 500-501.

• Christians, Jews and Arabs divided into sub-groups within their respective religions. Jews differentiated ethnically between those from the West vs. those from the Orient. Arabs held five separate social classes, based on family lineage and way of life. These distinctions can still be seen today. Christians are divided through their varying denominations.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, p. 500.

• The mostly Muslim Arab community of Palestine divides into five social classes.

• Bedouin – A mostly nomadic people, breeding and herding sheep and goats from which they derive their livelihood. They migrate depending on the crops and the harvesting seasons. They organize themselves by tribes, with a sheikh as leader, and all members of a tribe are responsible to the others in their tribe. They are devout Muslims, but not necessarily Islamic in culture.

• Fellahin – Peasants, living in small villages and making a living from farming, quarrying, pottery, weaving, etc… They are almost entirely Muslim, with only about five percent being Christians. A few fellahin are more well to do, owning large pieces of land that they maintain with the assistance of hired help, but the majority of this class have only very small pieces of land, which they may be in life-long debt for, to the effendi. The fellahin consider the Bedouin to be their oldest enemies. Quoting an old proverb, “Four are the ravages of the land: mice, locusts, Kurds and Bedouins.”

• Arab Lower Class – Here are the urban masses, skilled and unskilled laborers, professional beggars, etc… This class has organized labor unions and cooperatives, but is otherwise not tied to one idea or cause. The lower class makes up the largest of the five classes.

• Arab Middle Class – Made up of merchants/shop owners, teachers, low-level government officials and artisans. There is a large percentage of Christians in the middle class. Many of the middle class work to be accepted by the effendi class, and also feel superior to the fellahin. The middle class tends to be less bound by family lineage, and focus more on business management.

• Effendi – The effendi live in urban areas, but the upper class effendi get most of their livelihood from agriculture, renting land and loaning money to the fellahin. Here we find some of the most recognizable names in Arab families, including the Nashashibis, the Dajanis and the Husainis. Overall, the effendi tend to be literate and cultured, are more likely to travel abroad, and are made up of both Christians and Muslims. The effendi look down on the fellahin, and would be considered the most “upper” of the five classes.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, pp. 500-515.

• The effendi were perhaps the first to react to changes implied by the Balfour Declaration, as it would threaten their level of power and dominion. Having always maintained political rule on their own, Albright et al, note the justified concern of the effendi over potentially having to now share politics with the Jews; they had never had to share their rule with other Arab classes, let alone non-Arabs.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, pp. 5240-525.

• In addition to the threat of having to share political rule, the introduction of Jewish development threatened the power relationship the effendi held over the fellahin, or peasants. As Jewish immigration and development began to offer competitive opportunities for employment to the peasants, immigrants also were able to purchase small pieces of excess land from the fellahin, allowing them to then pay off debts to the effendi and disrupting the socio-economic structure of Arabs in Palestine.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, p. 525.

• It was members of the effendi class who would organize the Arab Executive, under the leadership of Husaini. Although opposed to Zionism and the Zionist movement in theory and propaganda, in fact, many members of the effendi continued to engage in profitable land sales to the Jews.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, p. 525.

• The most influential Christian churches in Palestine at the time were:

• Roman Catholic

• Eastern Orthodox (Greek Catholic)

• Protestant

Protestant missions were largely responsible for bringing education and other forms of modernization to Palestine for the masses, particularly the Arabs.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, pp.534-541.

• The Jewish community in Palestine was differentiated by countries of origin and forms of original Zionist thought.

• Ashkenazi – Jews coming from Central and Eastern Europe, generally with either German or Yiddish as their adapted language. British and American Jews are also classified as Ashkenazi, if their heritage is European.

• Sephardic – These are Jews from Spain, Turkey, North Africa and the Balkans. Many Sephardim use(d) Arabic as an original vernacular, and some spoke a mix of Hebrew and Castilian Spanish, known as “Ladino” .

• Yemenites – Descendants of Jews living in the most southwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula, and although they speak Arabic traditionally, their pronunciation of Hebrew is thought to be very close to that of the ancient Palestinians.

• New Yishuv – Origins in the “Lovers of Zion” from the late 1800s. Zionist views based in working the land itself with their own hands, building a cultural renaissance by reviving Hebrew.

• Old Yishuv – Those Jews living in Palestine prior to the late 1800s, who had moved for the purpose of studying the Talmud. These Jews believed Hebrew was too holy a language to be used for everyday, and continued to use Yiddish as their daily communication.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, pp. 555-557.

• As a socially progressive ideology, the Labor Movement was the hardest pressed to find a working answer to the building tensions between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. The socialist roots of their beliefs encouraged the Labor Movement to not place too much emphasis on differences between the two groups that they partner in a cohesive struggle against both feudalism and capitalism. At the same time, the Labor Movement wanted to see Palestine develop into the homeland for the Jews, which required large-scale Jewish immigration, which the Arabs generally opposed.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, pp. 571-572.

• David Ben-Gurion and the Labor Movement saw two major issues that needed to be addressed before a working understanding could move forward.

1.) Arabs not only recognizing but understanding the history of the Jews and the need for them to now build a homeland in Palestine.

2.) Jews recognizing and understanding that Arabs had been living in Palestine for hundreds of years, and consider it their birthplace where they should be able to continue to live.

Ben-Gurion felt that this type of understanding through political leadership was likely impossible, with the effendi holding the positions of leadership. Instead, the Labor Movement sought an understanding by reaching out to the Arab workers.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, pp. 572-573.

• As a movement, Arab Nationalism began to form in the nineteenth century, stimulated as reaction to western ideas and organizations, as well as imperialism. There was certainly the notion of Arabs as a separate people prior to this, but the ideology of a collective identity under the unifying faith of Islam came later.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press p. 444.

• Arab nationalism looked different in different countries. It was most quick to develop and spread in countries influenced by the Europeans, such as Egypt and Syria. Egyptian nationalism was greatly tied to political and economic issues. Under an Albanian leader, Mehemet Ali, Egypt moved more quickly into a more modern era with a well-developed army and navy. Ali was determined to leave the more traditional ways of Islam behind – he brought in experts to develop the irrigation systems, updated cotton cultivation and sent Egyptian students abroad to study in Western Universities. His idea was to strengthen Egypt as a nation, utilizing the means available.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, p. 445.

• The Syrian national movement, in contrast to Egypt’s focus on economics and politics, was centered in literature, knowledge and cultural retrospective, at it’s inception. With an important influence of Christian Arabs, Syria initially drew strength from the idea of unity of all Arabs and shared Arab history, but by the end of the 19th century it was becoming quite political. Muslim Arabs sought to hold the majority, seeking to take power from the Christians.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, p. 448.

• Albright, et al, point out that although a Pan Arab movement (unifying all Arabs around the world) was and has been idealized by some, it could never be actualized.

“The truth is that the realities of the situation did not permit the actualization of Pan-Arabism: the different backgrounds of social-economic conditions in the various regions and the struggle for power of the different dynasties, as well as the lack of sufficiently strong Pan-Arab feeling among the people at large, were basic causes…. Each country achieved its degree of independence in its own way.”

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press. P. 450.

• Saudi Arabia also developed its own identity, though the military force of Ibn Saud. Sheik Saud received “payments” from the British during the early part of the 20th century, to keep him from attacking King Hussein, whom the British had chosen to govern the area. But in 1923, these subsidies ended and Saud attacked Hussein’s land, taking over as ruler of most of Arabia. Ibn Saud was driven by his beliefs in the traditional doctrine of the Wahabis, a puritanical sect from the 18th century. Hussein, who had held prestige as a direct descendent of the prophet Muhammad, had also been a somewhat more progressive leader. Saud believed only in what was word for word conveyed in the Koran. Albright, et al, list three “virtues” that guided Ibn Saud:

• Prayer

• Reading the Koran

• Waging war against infidels, including anyone who did/does not abide by the strict Wahabi interpretation of Islam.

Albright, et al, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Policies, Vol. I, 1947, Yale University Press, p. 452.

Summary by Rina Abrams.