"Land Matters"
by Russell Cash
Originally Submitted On 04/23/2013 - EKU
Part 2 - Who Are The Palestinians?
Questions still arise with respect to the Palestinians. Were they ever a sovereign body of people, or were they Bedouins turned fellahin (agricultural farmers), or were they always the province of another occupying nation? In fact, this historical debate has often added to the conflict itself. Culturally, there is no lack of evidence that a group of people equivalent to Palestinians existed in the land of Palestine as far back as ancient times. Ethnically, however, evidence suggests Palestinians composed of a melting pot of several nationalities turned immigrants who shared one thing in common, agriculture. As for true Arab Palestinians, most agree they come from nomadic Bedouin tribes that began to settle in agricultural communities as well as immigrants from neighboring Arab countries. Regardless, the push to recognize Palestinians as a sovereign body of people is evident today. We can see the divergence between the Jewish and Palestinian peoples based on their nationalist aspirations. Jews embraced the French definition of nationalism in the form of Zionism. Palestinians, as many Arabic countries, later aligned with the German and Italian philosophies, which places more emphasis on a common culture distinguishing a nation and less importance on the state, as this was the overall Pan-Arab desire, to unite all Arab nations under Islam. “As did their German counterparts the Arabs conceived the Arab nation as an organic entity and not as a political community based on free will or nationality elective.” (Tibi, 1997)
“The Palestinians' claim is predicated on the. right of ownership evidenced by uninterrupted possession and occupation since the dawn of recorded history.” (Kimmerling, 2003) In other words, Palestinians claim they are descendants of the Canaanite, the Philistines, the Edomites, and other Semitic tribes living in the land, while at times being occupied by other nations including the Hebrew. However, the modern Palestinian identity is just as much carved out of the conflict as it is their ancient roots. “The Palestinian people were not mere victims, although, to be sure, fate has not treated them kindly, but were active participants in the creation of their people's collective character.” (Kimmerling, 2003)
Furthermore, Palestinians suffer due to the inability to choose legitimate and effective leaders. Many prominent Palestinian leaders have either ruled from underground or from behind the borders of other nations. Although part of this is historical as Palestine was often ruled by an occupying government, modern leaders such as Arafat of the PLO and Mashaal of Hamas are good examples of Palestinian leaders who tended to govern from undisclosed locations. Adding to this, especially during the British occupation, was reluctance to send ambassadors or emissaries to foreign countries to act on their behalf, instead negotiating through foreign ministers inside Palestine. This has led up to the current Palestinian situation in which they are often part of a proxy-government carrying out the initiatives and policies of other Arab nations instead of their own. Finally, lack of coordination between leaders and civilians has led to many failed policies. In respect to the events leading up to the conflict, “because the disarray, confusion and general absence of clear policy in the Arab capitals concerning the emerging refugee problem … meant … there was very little connection between what was happening in the field and what was discussed … by the Arab leaders.” (Morris, 1989)
These key principles, lack of sound leadership, lack of effective policy, neglect of history, and political indecisiveness are some of the unfortunate characteristics that allowed the Palestinian land to slip beneath the feet of the Arabs and back into the control of the Jews. That is not to say the conflict is entirely the fault of the Palestinians, but a better coordinated and organized political effort originating with Palestinians, without the reliance on other Arab nations, would have strengthened the Palestinian defense in combating British Imperialism and Zionism all together. Even for modern Palestinians, the reluctance to change this cycle on their part only inflates the conflict.
During Ottoman rule, between the time period of the first and second Arab revolt, 1834-1917, census data is considered unreliable and scholars offer their best guesses for the population of Palestine. Earlier predictions estimate “[t]he total population was probably under a quarter of a million, several tens of thousands of Jews and, of the rest, about 20% Christian.” (Kimmerling, 2003) Others place the population just before the first Jewish Aliyah to be roughly 500,000 Arabs and 50,000 Jews. (Dershowitz, 2003) The disparity proved problematic as population figures became important later on when creating policy, such as the Peel Commission and UN Resolution 242. Likewise, pro-Israeli supporters argue the influx of Jewish immigrants attracted Arab migrants to their centers of commerce in hopes of economic prosperity; thus providing evidence that many Arab Palestinians were actually immigrants like the Jews and not an indigenous sovereign body of people that had always existed in the land.
As for nationality, most Palestinians considered themselves as making up the southern part of Syria. “The largest portion of Palestine was part of the vilayet (district) of Syria and was governed from Damascus …, thus explaining why Palestine was commonly referred to as southern Syria.” (Dershowitz, 2004) Despite Arab nationalist aspirations that began to sweep the land, there was no real effort by the Palestinians to seek their own nationhood until the Jews arrived. Instead, for the most part, they either hoped the Ottoman Empire would better recognize their identity or restore their Islamic values and laws, or they would be absorbed in the much larger effort to unify the Arabic world under Arab nationalism. ‘As Auni Bey Abdul-Hati, a prominent Palestinian leader, told the Peel Commission in 1937, ‘There is no such country .... Palestine is a term the Zionists invented .... Our country was for centuries part of Syria.’" (Dershowitz, 2004)
Most of the Arab Palestinians were fellahin and lived in small agricultural communities while some more notable families lived in the cities. Although Jerusalem was largely populated with Jews and other non-Muslims, under the Ottoman reign, behind the city walls, powerful Arab Palestinian families controlled much of the commerce, religion, and regional activity. Inside the city (Jerusalem), two powerful families ruled - the Husseinis and Khalidis. For the fellahin, the village center was the source of life, religion, and politics. Rarely did they interact with officials outside their own clans and political hierarchy was centralized around the local Muslim rulers. “Clan power was largely determined by property. In many villages, land was owned collectively by the clans who had a regional dispersion and influence, with members scattered in a number of neighboring villages.” (Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949, 1989) Oftentimes, conflicts between competing villages were more prominent than those with outsiders. Needless to say, when social and political tension began to escalate, the fellahin were less organized than their counterpart, the Jewish settlers.
Prior to the first Aliyah, Jews comprised roughly 1/10 of the population of Palestine concentrated in the major cities, particularly Jerusalem. Most of them were Sephardic Jews, non-European, who had immigrated to Palestine from countries in Asia and Africa before the nineteenth century and were hardly Zionists. In fact, like many Arab Palestinians, they were, for the most part, loyal to the Ottoman Empire.
Authors and historians tend to disagree on the relationships between the existing Jews and Arabs in Palestine. While Islam was the recognized religion of the Ottoman Empire, and most local Ottoman officials were Muslim, there appear to be time periods and scenarios in which the Palestinians and Jews were tolerant of one another, and in other times discrimination and intolerance was the policy. With so much immigration, to and from Palestine, and disagreements among historians for partisan reasons, it is difficult to determine with any accuracy the true population and their feelings towards one another. That is why many researchers attempt to study the conflict settlement by settlement. Furthermore, such integration complicates the current Jewish and Palestinian identity as they are not merely organic but rather they are both, in one part, a social and political reaction to a wave of nationalism that swept through the land beginning in the nineteenth century. “Had it not been for the pressures exerted on the Arabs of Palestine by the Zionist movement, the very concept of a Palestinian people would not have developed; and Palestinians quite accurately understand their society's essential, existential status as the direct result of Jewish political rejuvenation and settlement.” (Kimmerling, 2003)
Careful analysis of the events leading up to the 1947-1948 Israeli War of Independence provides remarkable evidence that the displacement of thousands of Palestinians from their land was driven by several factors and not so much a careful and coordinated effort carried out by the Zionist movement, at least not in the beginning. Socioeconomic changes in the region, nationalist aspirations turned political movements, technological advances in agriculture, national and foreign stakeholders driven by war, along with the culminating friction between Jews and Palestinians, all rapidly unfolded in a concoction of historical events no one entity could easily author.
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