Palestine: A Modern History (ص 67)

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Palestine: A Modern History (ص 67)

المحتوى

140 The Lull: 1923-1929
desecration of the Holy places and the rebuilding of the Temple on
its original site, then there could be little doubt that Arab hostility
would be more unanimous, more fanatical, and more desperate than
it had ever been.*”
Moreover, Jewish encroachments against the third most sacred shrine
in Islam was bound to elicit solidarity and backing to the cause of the
Palestinian Arabs from all Muslim quarters in the world, which the
Palestinians hoped to use as a countervailing force vis-a-vis Jewish and
Western backing enjoyed by their adversaries.
Nevertheless, the Arab religious and political notability continued to
show restraint in order to avoid trouble with the Government. The
Muslim Conference which was held on the first of November passed off
quietly,°® as did the Balfour Declaration’s anniversary on the second of
November.
A few days earlier Hajj Amin expressed his readiness to comply with
the Government’s request to restrain the Palestine Arab press, despite
his belief that the alarm felt by all classes of Muslims at Jewish
encroachments and propaganda in connection with the Wall was
genuine.*?
Early in 1929, the Palestine Government decided to conduct a closer
examination of the principal question in the Wailing Wall dispute,
namely, the rights of the Jewish worshippers to bring appurtenances to
the Wall. Accordingly, both the Supreme Muslim Council and the Chief
Rabbinate were requested to produce documentary evidence of rulings
given under the Turkish regime and any other evidence in regard to the
bringing of various appurtenances of worship to the Wall. The Supreme
Muslim Council
returned an early reply to this request and in part supported their
statement of the case by documents deriving from the time of the
Turkish regime. On the other hand, repeated reminders to the Chief
Rabbinate failed to elicit any response to the request which had
been made to them by the Government.”
Four months after the issue of the Government’s White Paper which
called -- to the Muslim’s satisfaction — for the maintenance of the
status quo, Hajj Amin complained to Chancellor that
Jews were bringing benches and tables in increased numbers to the
Wall, and driving nails into the Wall and hanging lamps on them.
AN CIRARRA RMT
The Lull: 1923-1929 141
This constituted an infringement of the status quo on which the
White Paper was so explicit.”
Hajj Amin added that the situation ‘was getting serious and might
even become critical’, since there was ‘a widespread fear amongst the
Muslim masses that the surrender of any right relating to the Wall might
endanger their exclusive title to the Haram’. The Muslim authorities
were thus motivated to lower one of the walls in the Haram area in
order to check any Jewish attempt to contravene the status quo. The
Muslim structural alterations in the neighbourhood of the Wall were
suspended by the Hajj Amin, as an act of courtesy,at the request of the
High Commissioner, while the matter was referred to the Law Offices
of the British Crown.’?
Anti-British Agitation Revived
Although the Mufti’s relations with the British Authorities were
friendly it was reported that in the course of his travels abroad to
collect funds for the restoration of the Haram building he was agitating
in favour of the Arab cause in Palestine. During May, Hajj Amin was
Reported to have said to King Fuad (of Egypt) that he would be
happy to place his services at the King’s disposal in Palestine for the
purpose of his ambitions regarding the Khalifate, and that
Palestine was the one place under British rule where Moslems could
without difficulty carry out anti-British agitation.”
Anti-British propaganda, however, was not Hajj Amin’s
preoccupation, despite the fact that the task of agitating against the
British was becoming increasingly easier in view of the economic
situation and the gradual resurgence of Zionist immigration and land
acquisition.
Reflecting the exasperated mood, the Secretaries of the Executive
Committee submitted during June 1929, a strongly worded
memorandum demanding Parliamentary Government, and repudiating
the Government’s policy of ‘Legislation without Representation’.
Moreover, the Arabs believed that the economic crisis was a natural
result of the Government's policies:
The inhabitants of Palestine can no longer tolerate any injustices in
addition to the injustices done to them up till now as an outcome of
the present system of Administration. In fact this Administration

هو جزء من

Palestine: A Modern History

تاريخ

1978

المنشئ

Abdul-Wahhab Kayyali

مجموعات العناصر

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