Palestinian nationalism

see Chapter 4

The growth and development of Zionism was paralleled by that of Arab nationalism and it was over the territory of Palestine that these two national movements competed and ultimately came into direct conflict.

One question that is often raised with respect to Arab nationalism and Palestine is whether a distinctly Palestinian nationalism existed or whether it developed later purely in reaction to Zionism. Apart from the obvious political implications, this question is particularly pertinent as historians, until the second half of the twentieth century, seem to have answered this question in the negative in the sense that Palestinians are indeed marginal to the mainstream narratives. The first point that needs to be taken into account is that few of these narratives were, in fact, written by Arabs, never mind Palestinians. Second, European historiography on Palestine in the nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries focused on issues of European interest — Jerusalem, biblical Palestine and Crusader Palestine — thus writing about Palestine without Palestinians. Third, traditional Zionist historiography, as the only other main source of writings on Palestine, has denied any meaningful Palestinian existence, thus aiding Jewish settlement in the same way that the notion of the ‘virgin territories’ had aided European pioneer settlement of the Americas and Africa.

Given these historiographical problems, it is necessary to take a closer look at what kind of national identity did exist in Palestine. At the turn of the century, the majority of Arabs in Palestine did not define themselves in national terms, but rather by family, tribe, village or religious affiliation. Among intellectuals, however, the process of nationalist self-definition can be traced back to the Ottoman reforms of 1872, which established the independent sanjak (subprovince) of Jerusalem as well as giving rise to the local urban notables.

However, it took another five decades for this to develop into a more cohesive discourse. This delay can be explained by a number of factors: Arabs generally considered Palestine as the southern part of Greater Syria; the local political culture was highly fragmented; territorial nationalism was generally less developed in the Arab Middle East; and last, but not least, any emerging ideas of Palestinian nationalism were in direct competition with the more encompassing ideas of Arab nationalism.

Only when the European Powers carved up the Middle East following the First World War, drawing artificial boundaries, did local territorial nationalisms, including Palestinian nationalism, start to assert themselves against the ideological pull of pan-Arabism. While Arab and Palestinian nationalisms emerged irrespective of Zionism, their development was profoundly affected by the emerging conflict in Palestine just as it had been by Arab resistance to Turkish rule and the region's encounter with the colonial Powers.

pan-Arabism

Movement for Arab unity as manifested in the Fertile Crescent and Greater Syria schemes as well as attempted unification of Egypt, Syria and Libya.

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Source: Best Antony. International History of the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Routledge,2008. — 638 p.. 2008

Palestinian nationalism

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