IAFS/JWST 3650 Palestinian Nationalism and Zionism in International Context

1. IAFS/JWST 3650Palestinian Nationalismand Zionismin International Context

2. Outline • Palestine, pan-Islam, and Indian nationalism • 1936 Arab Uprising • 1937 Peel partition plan and challenges • Zionists and Gandhi

3. 1930s: Pan-Islamic Connections • 1931 pan-Islamic Congress in Jerusalem: “epoch-making” (Antonius) • Mufti as polarizing force • Call for more Indian Muslim reps George Antonius

4. Gandhi and Palestinian Nationalism • Akram Zu‘aytir’s adoption of Gandhian methods • 1930: Gandhi’s Salt March • Zu‘aytir’s attempted march across Palestine Gandhi on Salt March

5. Gandhi as Time’s Man of the Year (1931)

6. The Mufti’s Trip to India • 1933: Mufti to India for fundraising • Government of India concerns • Hajj Amin “spread[ing] propaganda for Palestine Arab case” Hajj Amin

7. The Mufti’s Trip to India • Trip a financial disappointment, “moral” success? • Palestine Police report: “Indian Moslems have shown increased sympathy . . . And this is what is required to bring pressure on the British Government.”

8. 1936 Arab Revolt • Strikes, violence, wide popular support • Viceroy’s attention to Indian Muslim interest in revolt • August 1936: British declaration of martial law in Palestine, decision to send troops

9. Peel Commission Proposal • 1937: Peel Commission         —recognition that Britain’s WWI promises were incompatible         —recommendation that Britain partition Palestine into Arab state and Jewish state Peel Plan

10. Challenges to Peel Plan • 1938: Woodhead Commission (aka Technical/Partition/Re-Peel Commission) •      —Peel partition plan impracticable

11. Challenges to Peel Plan • 1938: British rejection of Palestine partition • 1939: PM Neville Chamberlain: “if we must offend one side, let us offend the Jews rather than the Arabs.”

12. 1939 White Paper • Limitations on Jewish immigration to Palestine             —75,000 over the next five years • Zionist vow to “fight the war as if there were no White Paper, and to fight the White Paper as if there were no war.”

13. Zionist Contacts with Gandhi • Efforts to win Gandhi’s support for Jewish state in Palestine • Gandhi’s international influence • Zionist efforts unsuccessful Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach in 1937

14. Zionist Contacts with Gandhi • Disappointment at advice to use non-violence vs Nazis —Gandhi: “if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy” —Judah Magnes: Violence against Jews “makes not even a ripple on the surface of German life. . . . Contrast this with one of your fasts, or with your salt march to the sea, or a visit to the Viceroy, when the whole world is permitted to hang upon your words and be witness to your acts.”

15. Zionist Contacts with Gandhi • 1939 meetings • Zionist identity: European or “Eastern”? • Early alignment with British empire • 1930s shift: Jews as “Eastern people” • Zionist distrust of advice to practice non-violence

16. Gandhi’s Advice to European Jewry • 1946: “The Jews should have thrown themselves from cliffs.”