Perspective: Rashida Tlaib’s critics have Palestinian history all wrong
Rep. Rashida Tlaib listens to testimony during a hearing on May 15. By Maha Nassar Maha Nassar is an associate professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona and a 2018 Public Voices fellow with the OpEd Project. She is author of"Brothers Apart: Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World.
At the turn of the 20th century, all three groups held great hopes that revolutionary change in the Ottoman Empire would lead to greater freedom and equality. They hoped to become what historian Michelle Campos calls “Ottoman Brothers.” With the rise of competing aspirations for the same land, tensions were bound to arise. But the formalization of British colonial rule over Palestine in 1922 made matters much, much worse. The British recognized only Jewish national claims over Palestine, thereby putting Palestinian Arabs in what historian Rashid Khalidi calls “an iron cage.” If Palestinian Arabs recognized British rule over them, they were effectively giving up any hope of true independence.
With mounting social and economic frustrations, Palestinian Arabs turned to mass politics. Some of the first major protests, which took place in Jerusalem and Hebron in 1929, became infamous for the riots that led to the tragic deaths of 116 Arabs and 133 Jews, including 67 Jews who were murdered in Hebron. Yet as Tom Segev points out, Hebron’s Arab residents also saved 435 of their Jewish neighbors. They understood that their conflict was with British colonial rule, not with Jews.
The revolt marked a turning point in the Mufti’s relationship with the British. Lacking alternative leadership, Palestinian Arabs turned to the Mufti to lead the strike. He accepted, hoping to stay ahead of rapidly changing developments. But Britain’s wanton violence against the Arabs radicalized the Mufti, leading him to reject his onetime masters. In 1937 he fled to Lebanon to escape arrest, where he helped lead the revolt until it was crushed in 1939.
After the war, as the full horrors of the Holocaust became known, and as Zionist militias attacked the British over the latter’s immigration restrictions, the “question of Palestine” was handed over to the newly formed United Nations.
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