Great Uprising

The Great Uprising, Great Revolt, or Great Arab Revolt was an uprising by Palestinian Arabs in the British Mandate of Palestine which lasted from 1936 to 1939. It should not be confused with the Arab Revolt of 1916-1918.

Origins

In April 1936, the Arab leadership in the British Mandate of Palestine, led by Hajj Amin al-Husayni, declared a general strike to protest against, and put an end to Jewish immigration to Palestine. The revolt was driven primarily by Arab hostility to Britain's tolerance of restricted Jewish immigration and land purchases which Palestinian Arabs believed was leading them to becoming a minority in the territory and future nation-state. They demanded immediate elections which, based on their demographic majority, would have resulted in a government under their control.

Revolt

About one month after the general strike started the leadership group declared a general non-payment of taxes in explicit opposition to Jewish immigration. In the countryside, armed insurrection started sporadically, becoming more organised with time. One particular target of the rebels was the major TAP oil pipeline constructed only a few years earlier from Kirkuk to Haifa. This was repeatedly bombed at various points along its length. Other attacks were on railways (including trains), Jewish settlements, secluded Jewish neighbourhoods in the mixed cities, and Jews, both individually and in groups.

The strike was called off in October 1936 and the violence abated for about a year while the Peel Commission deliberated and eventually recommended partition of Palestine. With the rejection of this proposal, the revolt resumed during the autumn of 1937, marked by the assassination of Commissioner Andrews in Nazareth. Violence continued throughout 1938 and eventually petered out in 1939. The decision of the French to crack down on Arab leaders in Damascus may have been a significant factor in stopping the conflict.

Response

The British responded to the violence by greatly expanding their military forces and clamping down on Arab dissent. "Administrative detention" (imprisonment without charges or trial), curfews, and house demolitions were among British practices during this period. More than 120 Arabs were sentenced to death and about 40 hanged. The main Arab leaders were arrested or expelled. Amin al-Husayni fled from Palestine to escape arrest.

The mainstream Jewish military organization, the Haganah (Hebrew for "defense"), actively supported British efforts to quell the largely peasant insurgency, which reached 10,000 Arab fighters at their peak during the summer and fall of 1938. Although the British administration didn't officially recognize the Haganah, the British security forces cooperated with it by forming the Jewish Settlement Police, Jewish Auxiliary Forces and Special Night Squads. A smaller Haganah splinter group, the Irgun organization (also called by its Hebrew acronym Etzel), adopted a policy of retaliation and revenge (including against civilians).

Outcome

Despite the assistance of 20,000 additional British troops and 14,500 well trained and well armed Haganah men, the Great Uprising continued for over three years. By the time order was restored in March of 1939, more than 5,000 Arabs, 400 Jews, and 200 Britons were killed.

Another outcome of the hostilities was the disengagement of the Jewish and Arab economies in Palestine, which were more or less intertwined until that time. For example, whereas the Jewish city of Tel Aviv relied on the nearby Arab seaport of Jaffa, hostilities dictated building a separate Jewish-run seaport for Tel-Aviv. Historians later pointed to the uprising as a pivotal point at which the Jewish population in Palestine became independent and self-sustaining. During the revolt, British authorities attempted to confiscate all weapons from the Arab population. This, and the destruction of the main Arab political leadership in the revolt, greatly hindered their military efforts in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence/al-Nakba.

References

Ted Swedenburg, "The Role of the Palestinian Peasentry in the Great Revolt (1936-1939)," reprinted in Hourani, Albert H., et al., The Modern Middle East (I.B. Tauris, 2004), pp. 467-503. ISBN 1860649637

External Resources

The Arab Revolt in Palestine at Zionism Israel Information Center
The 1936-1939 Revolt in Palestine A Palestinian point of view by Ghassan Kanafini.

Arabischer Aufstand | Grande révolte arabe en Palestine | המרד הערבי הגדול