Political Actors in Palestine Arab Nationalist Organizations: In 1919, most of these organization opposed the Balfour Declaration and the division of Syria. As Syrian nationalist option no longer proved practicable, Palestinian national identity strengthened. Nationalist organizations losing their popularity in the mid-1920s. Arab workers in major urban centers of Palestine, such as Haifa and Jaffa, cooperated with Zionist labor organizations, chief among the Histadrut (the General Organization of Hebrew Workers in the Land of Israel).

Inter-Communal Relations in the 1930s In the early 1930s, cooperation between Arab workers and Zionist labor organizations diminished. These organizations organized Hebrew labor campaigns. The campaign initially achieved limited success because it was a period of prosperity and low unemployment. In the period between 1922 and 1935, economy in Palestine quadrupled.

Problems of Palestinian Peasants: Great Depression By the early 1930s, the economic distress of peasantry was increasing. Most of the Palestinian peasants were cultivating wheat. Great Depression hit the wheat prices. Due to the lack of import tariffs, Palestine became a dumping ground for the agricultural products of others. Under these conditions, peasants’ debts to urban-based money lenders were increasing. Labor migration from the villages.

Problems of Palestinian Peasants: Land Sales Arab landowners began to evict their Arab tenants and sold their land to Jewish settlers. As large estates available for purchase became scarcer, Zionist land agents began buying up smaller plots. In the process, they came into contact with ever greater number of Palestinians. By the mid-1930s, approximately 30 percent of Palestinian farmers had become totally landless.

Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam

The Arab Revolt: General Strike In April 1936, nationalist committees proclaimed a general strike. Arab workers actively participated in the strike. Taken by surprise, the elite politicians tried to catch up with popular energy by endorsing the strike call and forming a new Arab Higher Committee. The strike drained the urban Palestinian population. By June 1936, the revolt in cities had effectively ended. The general strike formally ended in October 1936 after moderate nationalist Arab leaders promised to intercede with Great Britain who has declared she will do justice.

The Arab Revolt: Rural Uprising As the British proposed a plan to partition Palestine and banned one of the most important nationalist organizations, peasants in the hill country resumed armed struggle in the fall of 1937. In this phase, in addition to its anti-British and anti-Zionist, the revolt had a strong anti-landlord and anti-elite character. Peasant rebels imposed a moratorium on all debts, attacked landowners and seized the property of wealthy urbanites who had fled. Many prominent Arabs left Palestine because of the acts of violence and intimidation.

The End… The Arab revolt was suppressed by the combined force of some 25,000 British soldiers and special night squads comprising labor Zionist militia. The revolt resulted in about 3,000 rebel casualties, exile and imprisonment of nationalist leadership. Palestinian countryside laid in ruins. Many educated and wealthy Palestinians fled the country to escape fighting and exactions of the rebels. The general strike allowed Hebrew labor to enter sectors of the economy previously dominated by Arabs.