In 1936, the British have already been in Palestine for almost twenty years. There’s already a lot of disgruntlement to begin with. The early years of British control [as a League of Nations Mandate], there was probably some kind of feeling that things were going to get better. But they didn’t. It was a project to control the resources and people.
Also, there was, and I’m surprised how few people know this, there was Jewish emigration. But it was before the Holocaust. Yeah, because there was antisemitism, pogroms, and fascism, and Jews were fleeing Europe way before the Holocaust. Everybody thinks it happens later, when Palestine is flooded with refugees. Jews were emigrating — of course, there’s an indigenous Jewish population in Palestine, it was very small. Palestinian society is Jewish, Muslim, Christian, very mixed.
So you look at the numbers of [Jewish emigration], and you see this influx. These things were all coming together and creating a tense atmosphere. There was the beginning of the first mass revolt against British colonialism in 1936. It included a national strike that was really the longest strike in history at that moment, a six-month strike.
The revolt was really in two phases. It begins in ’36, and the British are losing control. Because it’s a farmer-led revolt. They couldn’t figure it out and began to lose control. Then there’s the Peel Commission, and they’re trying to figure out a diplomatic solution. And it becomes clear that there’s going to be no resolution.
Then there’s the second phase of the revolt, which begins after the Peel Commission in 1937. That’s when the British brought in thousands and thousands of troops, weapons, tanks, planes — they were strafing the countryside. The purpose was to crush the revolt as quickly as possible. Many historians feel that was done as quickly as possible because World War II was on the horizon, so they had to crush this revolt and get out of there,…
Auteur: Annemarie Jacir
