A belated review of Porath's "The Emergence of the Palestinian-Arab National Movement 1918-1929.

Submitted by Wallace Edward Brand (United States), Sep 11, 2011 at 22:20

Professor Porath entitled his work "The Emergence of the Palestinian-Arab National Movement 1918-1929. But the book appears to document only the emergence of the Palestinian-Arab Anti-Zionist Movement.

A quest for nationalism may be demonstrated by the long struggle for political self determination such as that by the Basques or the Kurds. Where is it shown by Porath that this characterized the motivation of the Arabs in Palestine? I have not found it yet. (I am still looking.) The Pan-Syrian group had some of these characteristics, but only because a continuation of Ottoman rule was no longer available. While the Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula fought to free themselves from Ottoman Domination, Professor Porath neglects to say that the Arabs local to Palestine fought on behalf of their Turkish rulers against the WWI Allies.

The Palestinian Arabs separated from the Pan-Arab group only when they thought that the Pan-Syrian group was too soft on Zionism and wanted a more efficient anti-zionist group.

Moving quickly to 1948, from 1920, where was the quest for nationalism in the 19 years when Jordan ruled the West Bank, and when Egypt ruled the Gaza Strip? In 1964 when the Soviets drafted the PLO charter they excluded from their definition of "Palestinian Arab People", the Arabs in Jordan and those in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. That left as "the Palestinian Arab People" only the Arabs inside the Green Line now smarting under the proposition of having to acknowledge Jews as their equals. After the 1967 war, the Palestinian Arab People grew rapidly when the PLO removed the exclusions from the definition of Palestinian Arab People. Now this allegedly cohesive group were the Arabs INSIDE the Green Line and those in the West Bank and Gaza. But then came Oslo and the composition of the Palestinian Arab People changed once again. The PLO as sole representative of the Palestinian Arab People claimed that its national group would exclude those Arabs inside the Green Line, a complete volte face. Only those OUTSIDE the Green Line were the Palestinian Nationalists., except for the Jordanians

No, there seems to be no evidence that the Palestinians ever had a national movement, but lots of evidence that they have had a strong anti-zionist movement and still do. I usually fully agree with Professor Pipes based on his long study of the Middle East. But i think he may have deferred to Professor Porath unduly when he should not have. It is noteworthy that Professor Porath's book was published following the 1964 drafting of the PLO Charter in Moscow by the Soviet dissimulators, and affirmed by 422 members of the contemporaneously formed "Palestinian National Council" each hand picked by the KGB. This was a time when the Soviets had completely discarded the prospects of a friendly Socialist Government in Israel giving them access to a warm water port on the Mediterranean. Not a very good beginning for the quest for self determination. I think this shows that Count Folke Bernadotte was right when he noted in his diary and there was not in 1948 and never had been any nationalist movement in Palestine. But it is clear that the Palestinian anti-zionist movement continues to this day.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".