Arab Nationalism - History - Expansion of The Movement

Expansion of The Movement

A number of Arab revolts against the European powers took place following the establishment of the British and French mandates. Resentment of British rule culminated in the Iraqi revolt of 1920. The uprising which was carried out by the urban population as well as the rural tribes of Iraq ended in 1921. The British drastically changed their policy in Iraq afterwards. Although the mandate was still in place officially, the British role was virtually reduced to an advisory one. In 1925, the Druze of southern Syria under the leadership of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash revolted against French rule. The revolt subsequently spread throughout Syria, particularly in Damascus where an uprising by the citizens took place. The French responded by systematically bombarding the city, resulting in thousands of deaths. The revolt was put down by the end of the year, but it is credited with forcing the French to take more steps to ensure Syrian independence. In Egypt, resentment of British hegemony led to wide-scale revolts across the country in 1919. As a result of three-year negotiations following the uprising, the British agreed to allow Egypt's official independence in 1922, but their military still held great influence in the country. It should also be noted that the political leaders of the Egyptian revolution espoused Egyptian nationalism, rather than an Arab nationalist alternative.

The relative independence of Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and North Yemen encouraged Arab nationalists to put forward programs of action against colonial powers in the region. According to historian Youssef Choueiri, the "first public glimmerings" of a pan-Arab approach occurred in 1931, during the convention of a pan-Islamic conference in Jerusalem which highlighted Muslim fears of the increasing growth of Zionism in Palestine. Arab delegates held a separate conference and for the first time delegates from North Africa, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula and the Fertile Crescent convened together to discuss Arab matters. A pan-Arabist covenant was proclaimed centering on three main articles:

• The Arab countries form an integral and indivisible whole. Hence the Arab nation does not accept or recognize the divisions of whatever nature to which it has been subjected.
• All efforts in every Arab country are to be directed towards the achievement of total independence within one single unity. Every endeavor which confines political activities to local or regional issues is to be fought against.
• Since colonialism is, in all its forms and manifestations, incompatible with the dignity and paramount aims of the Arab nation, the Arab nation rejects it and will resist it with all the means at its disposal.

Plans for a near-future conference were made, but never came into play due to Faysal's death in 1933 (delegates chose Faysal of Iraq to be their patron and he agreed to provide moral and material support for the movement) and fierce British opposition. However, the Arab Independence Party was formed by Palestinian and Iraqi activists from al-Fatat as a direct result of the Jerusalem conference on 13 August 1932. Most of the AIP's activities were centered in the Palestinian political field, but the party also worked towards achieving Arab unity and solidarity as a means to strengthen Arab resistance against the British Mandate in Palestine and increased Jewish settlement occurring there. In August 1933, the League of Nationalist Action was founded in Lebanon by Western-educated professional civil service groups with the aims of creating a common Arab market and industrial base as well as the abolishment of customs barriers between the Arab countries. By proposing agrarian reforms to limit the power of landowners, abolishing what they considered "feudalism" and promoting the growth of an industry, the LNA sought to undermine the absentee landlords in the Levant who tended to encourage local nationalism and were open to working with European authorities or Jewish land purchasers. The LNA enjoyed popularity throughout the 1930s, but did not survive into the 1940s.

Following the killing of Palestinian Arab guerrilla leader, Izz al-Din al-Qassam, by British forces in Ya'bad, Arab-Jewish tensions in Palestine were at a climax. Anti-Zionist sentiments reached a boiling point on 15 April 1936, when an armed group of Arabs killed a Jewish civilian after intercepting his car near the village of Bal'a. After Jews retaliated by killing two Arab farmers near Jaffa, this sparked an Arab revolt in Palestine. The AIP along with Palestinian notables selected popular leader and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husayni to lead the uprising. The Arab Higher Committee (AHC), a national committee bringing together Arab factions in Palestine, was established to coordinate the uprising. To protest Jewish immigration, a general strike was declared and a political, economic, and social boycott of Jews soon ensued. The events in Palestine followed similar anti-colonial activities in Egypt and Syria which helped inspire the uprising. In Egypt, week-long anti-British demonstrations resulted in the restoration of the Egyptian constitution while in Syria, a general strike held in January–February 1936 led to major negotiations on an independence deal with the French government. The British took a firm stance against the nationalist revolt in Palestine; the AHC was dissolved and al-Husayni was forced into exile in Lebanon in 1937. Although al-Husayni leaned more towards Palestinian nationalism and Islamism, he was instrumental in organizing the pan-Arab Bloudan Conference on 9 September 1937 in Syria which gathered 524 delegates from across the Arab world, although al-Husayni himself was not in attendance.

Meanwhile, a clandestine Arab nationalist society was formed in Iraq in 1938 which came to be known as Arab Nationalist Party (ANP). The ANP typically confined itself to influencing events and leaders in Iraq rather than taking the lead of a mass nationalist movement. King Ghazi of Iraq was one such leader. Ghazi intended to build a strong Iraqi army and actively sought to annex Kuwait. Many Arab nationalist politicians in Kuwait were provided safe haven in Iraq after being repressed by the quasi-rulers of the sheikhdom, the al-Sabah family (Kuwait was still a British territory at the time), who favored independence especially after the discovery of oil there in 1938. Ghazi died in a car accident in 1939, prompting accusations by a number of his army officers that he was assassinated by British forces. That same year, al-Husayni arrived in Baghdad after escaping from Lebanon. This gave a moral boost to the pan-Arab dimension in Iraqi politics. The prime minister at the time, Nuri al-Said and the regent king Abdul Illah, did not harbor the Arab nationalist sympathies Ghazi espoused. Arab nationalist leader Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, together with al-Husayni, gained the support of the disaffected army officers and on 1 April 1941, Nuri al-Said was overthrown in a coup led by al-Gaylani. Iraq came under the direct rule of the army with al-Gaylani taking over as prime minister. To counter a British military response to the coup, he enlisted the support of Germany which was at war with Britain and France at the time, but German military did not arrive to aid the Arab nationalist government. Britain reoccupied Iraq in May to prevent it from joining the Axis Powers during World War II. Al-Gaylani and al-Husayni fled to Germany, while the army officers who carried out the coup were captured and executed. The events in Iraq provoked anger and frustration throughout the Arab world and the British acknowledged the rapid growth of Arab nationalist feeling among the Arab population. British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, officially stated Britain's support of strong pan-Arab ties in a bid to ease anti-British sentiments in the region.