Betrayal Of Palestine

The Story Of George Antonius

Susan Boyle

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780429981715
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This definitive biography of George Antonius tells the life story of a man who lived during a dramatic period of history, amid challenge that remains unresolved: the Palestine-Zionist conflict. Betrayal of Palestine is an important and innovative work about the continuing controversy of empire and nationalism. This book traces Antonius's contribution and ideas on nation building and good governance and resonates for contemporary seekers of peace in the Middle East. As an archaeology of ideas and meaning, the book will be of great significance for the millennium. It speaks to the paradigm of a conqueror's code, and to the ever present danger of special interests capturing public policy and corrupting good governance.By rediscovering Antonius's message about institutions and nation building, and the true meaning of morality, conscience and public service, Betrayal of Palestine speaks to contemporary people in a voice that reconnects the past with the present. The book offers hope to a region where many solutions have failed, and a reminder that the solutions have been there all along, in the people and traditions of the Middle East, but they have been obscured by a conqueror's code of empire and nationalism. It is a reminder of the genius of democracy and the power of first principles: that ordinary people are important, that power must be shared, and that society as nation transcends tribalism and its more virulent contemporary form: nationalism.

1
Facing the Truth, 1939

History matters. It matters not just because we can learn from the past, but because the present and the future are connected to the past by the continuity of society's institutions. Today's and tomorrow's choices are shaped by the past. And the past can only be made intelligible as a story of institutional evolution.

—Douglass North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance

The Arab Awakening and the St. James's Palace Conference

In February 1939, Arabs arid Palestine's British overlords gathered behind closed doors in London's St. James's Palace to decide the fate of the troubled land. The Arab side was led by 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.¹ 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's 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 independence.² 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 had 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."³

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.⁴ 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 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."⁵ 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 why 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.⁶

British officials hastened to purchase the book in order to study the little-known and hitherto 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."⁷ 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.⁸ As Palestine did not lie west of those districts, it was within the territory promised independence. The British government claimed that Palestine was excluded by implication because the phrase district of Damascus referred to the vilayet (province) of Syria, a large administrative unit that in the British interpretation included Palestine.⁹ This southwest portion of territory was to be reserved for France. Anto nius refuted the government's claim, arguing that the phrase used in McMahon's pledge was never intended to refer to the whole province of Syria but simply referred to the town of Damascus and its immediate vicinity. A. L. Tibawi notes that some of the British, including Gilbert Clayton, director of British intelligence in Cairo and architect of the British pledges to Hussein, included Palestine in the pledge of independence and that McMahon recopied Clayton's phrase, inserting the word district, which was erroneously translated to wilaya, the word on which the British government later based its case that the reference to Damascus meant the province of Syria. Although the Arabic word wilaya and the Turkish derivative vilayet referred to a province under the Ottoman system of administration, Antonius grasped the misuse of the term wilaya in McMahon's pledge and argued that since there were, in fact, no provinces of Damascus, Horns, or Hama, the terms used referred to the district in general, meaning the town and its immediate vicinity.¹⁰ Toynbee, who as a British officer had attended the postwar peace conference in Paris, had long agreed with Antonius, noting as early as 1922:

Two points deserve notice. In the first place, no Zionist claim to Palestine was yet in question, and the formula agreed upon arose purely out of a conflict between Arab claims and those of France in Syria. In the second place, while Palestine was not mentioned by name, any more than were Syria, Hejaz, Yemen or other individual provinces, it was included in the boundaries of the area laid down by Hussein . . . and was therefore included in the British promise, unless otherwise excepted. ...The upshot is that Palestine was not excepted from the area in which the British government promised in 1915 to recognize and uphold Arab independence, and that the Balfour Declaration of 1917 was therefore incompatible with a previous commit ment.¹¹

Antonius's arguments forced the British to recognize that the argument "upon which Winston Churchill relied in the White Paper of 1922 and which has been the main plank of the British case until now" was untenable.¹² Lord Chancellor Maugham found it "straw," and Malcolm MacDonald, secretary of state for the colonies, considered it "tricky"—two adjectives that H. L. Baggallay, first secretary of the Foreign Office, regarded as "thoroughly deserved."¹³ Thus, in preparation for the conference, British officials formulated counterarguments to renewed claims for Palestinian independence that they knew Antonius and his book would provoke.

The Arab Delegation

After completing the manuscript of The Arab Awakening during summer 1938 in Egypt, Antonius traveled to England in September, met with his publisher, and began the grinding task of proofreading the galleys. By November 21, 1938, assured of the book's publication before year's end, Antonius sailed for the United States to meet with his American publisher and officials such as Rives Childs of the U.S. Department of State's Near East Division, and to present several lectures, including one with Rabbi Judah Magnes, an early critic of political Zionism, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.¹⁴

Invitations to the St. James's Palace conference were sent to Arab delegates from Palestine and to Arab representatives from Iraq, Egypt, Tran sjordan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. In early January 1939, former members of the Arab Higher Committee, a multiparty committee formed on April 26, 1936 to coordinate the Palestine Revolt, and other Palestinians in exile or recently released from detention in the Seychelles, gathered in the mufti's home in Jounieh, near Beirut,¹⁵ to discuss the conference and nominate their representatives: Jamal Husseini, Awni Abd al-Hadi, Musa Alami, Hussein Khalidi, Amin Tamimi, Alfred Roch, and Antonius, the last of whom was also elected secretary of the Palestine delegation. Palestinian and Arab delegates then assembled in Egypt to agree on fundamentals before departing for London. Musa Alami, a close friend of An tonius's and a former lawyer in the mandatory government, sent an urgent telegram to New York to inform Antonius of his unanimous election and to urge him to hasten to London.¹⁶

Since Antonius's arrival in New York, he had been giving lectures on problems in the Arab world and the likelihood of conflict arising over Italy's actions in the Mediterranean. On receiving Alami's telegram, An tonius canceled his remaining lectures and meetings and embarked on the first ship bound for England. Antonius had aimed for autumn 1938 publication of his book, to coincide with the possible conference on Palestine.¹⁷ At this point, however, he was uncertain of the purpose of the conference and unsure whether the invitation he received would "offer the scope and opportunity for constructive work in the interest of all parties concerned."¹⁸ On January 28, the day after his arrival in London, he called on officials in the Colonial Office to learn about the details.

During these meetings, Antonius discovered that British officials had attempted to contact him during his ocean voyage because they wanted him to assume the role of secretary-general of the united Arab delegations. This appointment included "the important and somewhat onerous duties of coordinating their work, acting as a channel between them and the United Kingdom delegation, and eventually [taking charge] of the custody of the archives, with all that would mean of translation to and from one language into the other."¹⁹ Given ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Author’s Note on Transliteration
• Chronology
• 1 Facing the Truth, 1939
• 2 The Arab Nation
• 3 World War I
• 4 Betrayal
• 5 Constitutional Government
• 6 Resignation: A Protest
• 7 The 1929 Disturbances
• 8 A Moment of Hope
• 9 Representative Government
• 10 Syria and Lectures, 1935
• 11 The Palestinians Revolt: 1936-1938
• 12 Prejudge and Partition
• 13 War and Death
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Interim Report, Final Version
• Selected Bibliography
• Index