Wednesday, October 03, 2012

The Arab Nos






I would have added at least one more - the Legislative Council idea.

Here -


...Sir Herbert Louis Samuel, formally proposed in August 1922 to the country's Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities the establishment of a legislative council. The council was to be composed of twenty-three members: the high commissioner, ten appointed British members; and twelve elected members - ten Palestinians (eight Muslims and two Christians) and two Jews. However, the British denied the council legislative authority over such central issues as Jewish immigration and land purchases in order to safeguard its Balfour policy of support for the Jewish national home...

Palestinian leaders argued that participation in the council would be tantamount to acceptance of the British mandate and Balfour policy, which they opposed. They considered unfair the allocation of only 43 percent of the seats to Palestinians, who constituted 88 percent of the population. And they objected to the limitations placed on the power of the council. A campaign against the proposed council by the Palestine Arab Executive and the Supreme Muslim Council was a potent factor in the Palestinian boycott of the council elections in February 1923. The Jews accepted the proposal despite their objections to the allocation of only two seats to Jews, which, they argued, would have reduced them to a minority role and would have meant that the concerns of the Jewish people as a whole would have been ignored. The poor election turnout caused the high commissioner to shelve the proposal...

and this:

...Samuels in accordance with League standards proposed a move toward representarive institutions. He called for a legislative council, an advisory council, and an Arab agency comparable to the Jewish Agency. Had the Palestinian Arabs accepted this proposal, they would have dominated the legislative council and other Mandate institutions. They could have then moved to curtail Jewish immigration and land purchases. The Jews were in no position to oppose Samuel's proposal. They were clearly based on the League Covenant of the League of Nations and the mandatory system. Ironically it was the Palestinian Arabs who rejected Samuels' proposals. They apparently concluded that participation in Mandate institutions would represent acceptance of the Balfour Declaration and a Jewish Homeland. The Arabs rejected all of Samuels proposals, including a legislative council, an advisory council, and an Arab agency. This also essentially meant that there would be no institutional base in which the Arab and Jewish communities could consult.

The official version from the 1930 Mandate Report

On the 1st September, 1922, the Palestine Order in Council was issued, setting up a Government in Palestine under the Foreign Jurisdiction Act. Part 3 of the Order in Council directed the establishment of a Legislative Council to be composed of the High Commissioner as President, with 10 other official members, and 12 elected non-official members. The procedure for the selection of the non-official members was laid down in the Legislative Council Order in Council, 1922, and in February and March, 1923, an attempt was made to hold elections in accordance with that procedure.

"The attempt failed owing to the refusal of the Arab population as a whole to co-operate (a detailed report of these elections is contained in the papers relating to the elections for the Palestine Legislative Council, 1923, published as Command Paper 1889).

"The High Commissioner thereupon suspended the establishment of the proposed Legislative Council, and continued to act in consultation with an Advisory Council as before.

"Two further opportunities were given to representative Arab leaders in Palestine to co-operate with the Administration in the government of the country, first, by the reconstitution of a nominated Advisory Council, but with membership conforming to that proposed for the Legislative Council, and, secondly, by a proposal for the formation of an Arab Agency. It was intended that this Agency should have functions analogous to those entrusted to the Jewish Agency by Article 4 of the Palestine Mandate.

"Neither of these opportunities was accepted...


Besides the 1920, 1921 and 1929 riots were, in addition to killing hundreds of Jews, were all a big NO.

^

1 comment:

Shlomo said...

Nice graphic but Khartoum was famous for "the three nos".