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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780429981715 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
| Publication date: | 03/05/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 376 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
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Chapter 1
Facing the
Truth, 1939
In February 1939, Arabs and Palestine's British overlords gathered behind closed doors in London's St. James' Palace to decide the fate of the troubled land. The Arab side was led by the 48-year-old George Antonius, whose highly acclaimed book, The Arab Awakening, published the previous year, offered conclusive proof that the British had promised Palestinians an independence in exchange for an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire in World War I.
This was one of the high points in Antonius's life: After nearly 20 years of Palestinian anguish, he was helping bring his people's story to a broader public and was at last confronting the British government with its pledges to support Arab independence and self-rule. Antonius was not alone in pushing Britain to relinquish its colonial grip on Palestine and to cease implementing Zionist policy there. The unrelenting Palestinian resistance pressed home the unsustainability of British policy at a time when the ominous signs of war in Europe were demanding a shift of British military forces from Palestine to the home front. By 1939, according to historian Albert Hourani, the British government seemed to have abandoned its earlier partition plan and to be moving toward a different solution. The timing of the book's publication must have heartened Antonius, as it gave his ideas an opportunity for influence in the months leading up to the conference on Palestine that would take place in February 1939 at St. James' Palace. Antonius led the Palestinian and Arab delegation to this conference, and his book was the focal point of the first official hearing ever given to British wartime promises to support Palestinian independence. An erudite speaker of unyielding principle, Antonius dominated the conference, serving in several capacities and unceasingly championing Palestinian indpendence. He stood his ground, refusing to compromise the fundamental democratic principles of majority rule and of "one man, one vote." He had the courage to hold the British government accountable to universal standards and democratic values for the good of civil society and toward a more inclusive diversity.
Officials, academics, and critics throughout the Arab world, in England, and in the United States praised The Arab Awakening. It was recognized as an outstanding historical work, masterfully written and with a grasp of psychological dimensions and political dynamics rarely found in analyses of the Middle East. It was regarded as significant and original for its unprecedented research into the Arab National Movement and its comprehensive analysis of British wartime pledges to the Arabs. Through painstaking research Antonius has unearthed documents the existence of which the British had long denied, which helped greatly to clarify the incomplete and confused story of British dealings in and about Palestine. Antonius's book was regarded not solely as a historical work destined to become a classic among scholars but also as a critical and timely piece on postwar events for diplomats and the public at large. The U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, George Wadsworth, and the principal U.S. diplomats in Cairo and Baghdad considered it the epitome of "all that is known about the Arab World"; consuls general ordered additional copies, and newly arrived American diplomats were told, "If you read the book of Antonius you will need nothing more to guide you in your work in the Near East."
More than half a century after its publication, the book remains a classic in the history of the modern Middle East. A number of academic historians have explored in depth Antonius's historical interpretations. As Hourani noted, Antonius and Arnold Toynbee were the only two historians during the interwar period who transcended the conventional colonialist interpretation of subject peoples. Paul Monroe, professor of history at Columbia University, found Antonius's story "so fair and convincing" that "I believe it to be very important for the American public to get the straight of this discussion." He continued, "We are so moved now by injustice done to the Jews that we are apt to overlook the injustice which may be done and is being done to the Arabs in their own land." Harry Snyder, executive board member of American Friends of the Arabs, gave this resounding endorsement to the book:
To Christians of the Western world this book may be disquieting in its revelations but refreshing nevertheless. To Jews it may provide for the first time an appreciation of the reasons by the Arab strives so desperately to preserve his homeland. To students of Near Eastern affairs this is an indispensable volume…To all readers this is a brilliantly presented story of a neglected aspect of world history. This is truly a masterpiece from the pen of one who has had no small part in the renaissance that is sweeping the Arab world.
British officials hastened to purchase the book in order to study the little-known and hiterhto unpublished documents pertaining to Palestinian claims to independence. One internal memorandum noted, "[Antonius's] views and arguments will no doubt figure prominently in any exposition of the legal case which Arab delegates may put forward." Because of the documents and the force of Antonius's analysis and arguments, British officials in the foreign and colonial offices were forced to restructure entirely their arguments for the denial of Palestinian independence.
Britain previously had claimed that Palestine was excluded from the British pledge of Arab independence that Henry McMahon, the British high commissioner in Egypt, had communicated to Sheriff Hussein ibn Ali, the emir of Mecca and guardian of Moslem holy places, on October 24, 1915. Antonius noted that although the pledge contained no explicit reference to Palestine, the only areas of Greater Syria specifically excluded from the pledge were "portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo"—all of which were north of Palestine. As Palestine did not lie west of those districts, it was within the territory promised indpendence.