CHAPTER TWO

THE PALESTINIAN NATIONAL RESISTANCE

The rising Arab political consciousness did not delay the Palestinians' struggle for independence or their efforts to cope with a situation that had greatly deteriorated as a result of Zionist immigration and settlement, which they considered the core of the Arab struggle with the Ottomans. Their peculiar situation required, without any doubt, some form of action capable of putting an end to the drastically worsening conditions of the Palestinian people. Consequently, although of a gradual nature, their actions were steady and effective.

The Palestinians responded to the armed struggle against the Zionist settlers as early as 1886, when a group of peasants, pushed into a corner by the loss of their land, attacked the settlers in Al-Khdirah and Petah Tiqva 'mlabis'. Further decisions to attack other Jewish settlements were born of the same anger and resentment. In addition to deporting peasants from their land and threatening the sources of their livelihood, the Jewish immigration and settlement also represented a threat to Palestinian shopkeepers and artisans, the majority of whom were Christian. Faced with threat of being unable to compete with their Jewish counterparts, the shopkeepers and artisans expressed their reservations concerning the Jewish settlers to Najib Al-Haj, the editor-in-chief Abu Al-Hul, a journal in Cairo, during his visit to Palestine in 1895. In response, Al-Haj, in his writing, accused the Zionists of depriving the Palestinian Arabs of their means of living. The fears of Palestinian Christians also had an impact on the members of the editorial board of the journal Al-Muqtasaf, who expressed their anxiety concerning the economic impact of the Jewish immigration on the Palestinian people.

When the Jewish Agency bought land from the Sursuk family near Tiberias, enraged local villagers attacked the engineers and assistants that the Agency sent to survey the land and determine its size. Preventing them from preparing the information and papers, the transfer would remain unofficial. The Palestinians also succeeded in stopping several other deals involving the Agency in the early 20th Century.

It is worth noting that the resistance against the Zionist immigration and land expropriation for the purpose of agricultural settlement in Palestine increased dramatically following the convening of the First Zionist Congress in Basle in 1897. The fears of the Palestinian people in regard to their motherland and future were rising. The Palestinians saw the Jewish immigration to and settlement in Palestine as posing a major threat to their political and economic existence, as well as to the Arab character of Palestine. Against this background, the Mufti of Jerusalem headed a local, government-authorized committee that was responsible for checking the property transferal files in the Mutasarrifyah of Jerusalem, and it consequently halted the transfer of land to Jewish hands for several years. The year 1900 witnessed the submission of a large number of petitions, in which the people expressed their strong opposition to the Zionist expropriation of land. They demanded an end to this expropriation.5

Political demonstration of Palestinian opposition to Zionism occurred several years before the First Zionist Congress of 1897. In 1891, for example, a representative body of the A'yan and local leaders of Jerusalem was formed, which in itself points to the high level of political awareness and activism that existed at the time. The leaders tried through this political body to express their fear and reservations concerning the Zionist immigration and settlement. Moreover, they asked the Ottoman central authority to enact laws prohibiting Jewish immigration to Palestine and emphasized the need to effectively halt the transfer of Palestinian land to Jewish hands. Although such requests might have helped psychologically in reducing the Palestinian anxiety, they were not expected to bring about serious results.

Amin Arsalan Qa'im Qam, the ruler of Tiberias, was enthusiastic in his opposition to the transfer of land to the Zionists, not so much because of his assessment of the Zionist threat to the Palestinian peasants, but rather because he was concerned that the transfer of Arab land to Jews could potentially change the identity of the country. His motivation implies, therefore, that Arabs at that time fully understood the nature and purposes of Zionism and its potential impact on the country, should it be allowed to realize its established ends. Arsalan understood that Palestine's fate was not in Arab hands but in those of the Ottoman authority. In this respect, he saw the authority as being influenced and controlled by Zionism, resulting in its implicit approval of the Zionist immigration and settlement.6

Regardless of the evaluation of the Ottoman Empire's relationship with Zionism, the Palestinians and Arabs in general in their resistance to Zionism relied heavily on the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans were at that time the rulers of the Arab land, having assumed complete control over the organizational and administrative aspects of the region. Consequently, they were looked upon as the judicial and administrative body that could presumably control the flocks of Jewish immigrants to Palestine and to stem the Zionist expropriation of land. The Palestinians might also have believed that the Ottomans had a vested interest in preventing Zionism from achieving its goals in Palestine. Zionism, through creating an additional nationalist problem in the area for the Ottomans, could have been perceived as threatening not only Palestine but the entire Ottoman Empire.

The Palestinians of the late 19th Century regarded themselves as Ottoman subjects whose only source of support in their resistance to Zionism was the Empire, which was considered the representative of the Islamic Caliphate. The Palestinians could not at that time rely on the Arab movement, of which they were an important part, since it was not yet strong nor fully mature. It was still in its early stages organizationally, and even the idea of total Arab independence was not yet completely formulated.

More importantly, the Palestinian resistance suffered from a lack of cohesion and concerted effort. The relationship between the leadership and the masses was molded by the elitist approach of the leadership. This approach created and deepened the gap between the leaders and their masses, and it would come to have serious ramifications for the Palestinian national movement. In addition, although the leaders, who descended from A'yan families, showed great interest in political activism and the need to preserve their political status and position, they totally neglected the economic factors at hand. They failed to see the importance of investing time and money in forming companies that would deal with the issue of land and the development of agriculture.

The above-mentioned leaders were subsequently preoccupied with the issue of Arab nationalism and Arab independence from the Turks; in other words, with redefining the relationship between the two. Not surprisingly, their activism within the sphere of Arabism came at the expense of Palestinian resistance to Zionism.