Palestine Arab Congress. Report on the State of Palestine [...] submitted to the Mandate Commission of the League of Nations through H. E. the High Commissioner for Palestine.

€ 2,500.00

Two reports on the administration of Palestine prepared by the Executive Committee of the Palestine Arab Congress (the Arab Executive), signed in print by the secretary, Jamal al-Husayni.

The first report, dated 1924, summarizes the Arab argument against British policy, which is described as creating a Jewish homeland at the expense of long-settled Palestinians, Muslim and Christian.

The second report, dated 1925, contains an interesting review of the state of Palestine during the first years of the British mandate, topics including the pro-Jewish activities of the previous High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, mass Jewish immigration, the failure to develop industry in Jewish cities, and governmental monopolies granted to the Jews (such as the Palestine Salt Company in Atlit and Rutenberg's power station). In addition, the report states the central demand of the Arab Executive from the Mandate authorities: the establishment of a Jewish-Arab state, with government representatives of both nations, the number of which will be based on their relative population percentage in Palestine before the World War.

The Arab Executive was the central political institution of the Palestinian national movement from the early 1920s to the mid-1930s. It was established in December 1920 and operated under the leadership of Musa Kazim Pasha al-Husayni (1853-1934) throughout its existence. The Arab Executive strove for the establishment of an independent Arab state with an elected legislative body, espousing non-violent methods - writing petitions, meeting with representatives of the British governments, sending delegations to London, publishing newspaper articles, and more.

Stamps of an Israeli library to first pages, edges worn with tears to spine. Both reports bear the ownership of the historian K. Friedenberg, member of the "Palestine Historical and Ethnographical Society", on the front cover.