Amin el- Husseini

Haj Amin el-Husseini controls a vast patronage network by heading the Supreme Muslim Council, giving him power over a large constituency.

This new patronage system competes with and threatens the traditional family-clan and Islamic ties that had existed under the Ottoman Empire.

The intervention draws censure later from senior officials who judge that excessive force had been exercised without good reason.

Haj Amin al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, exploits the incident to distribute leaflets to Arabs in Palestine and throughout the Arab world which claims that the Jews are planning to take over the al-Aqsa Mosque.

One consequence is that worshipers not infrequently are subjected to beatings and stoning.

Hajj Amin al-Husayni has used his religious position as grand mufti to transform himself into the most powerful political figure among the Arabs of Palestine.

While the strongly anti-British al-Husayni family has continued to lead most Arab groups, the National Defense Party (al-Hizb al-Difa'a al-Watani), founded in Jerusalem on November 4, 1934, is under the control of the more accommodating an-Nashashibi family; Ragheb Nashashibi serves as the party's first chair.

Tel Aviv's growth had gathered momentum in the early 1930s after the Nazis rise to power in Germany, and a substantial part of the flood of immigrants that seek refuge in British Palestine have settled in and around the town.

Its population has risen to one hundred and thirty thousand by 1936, making Tel Aviv the largest and most important city in Palestine.

British rule in Palestine during the mandate has, in general, been conscientious, efficient, and responsible.

The mandate government has developed administrative institutions, municipal services, public works, and transport.

It has laid water pipelines, expands ports, extends railway lines, and supplies electricity.

It is hampered, however, because it has had to respond to outbreaks of violence both between the Arab and Jewish communities and against itself.

The aims and aspirations of the three parties in Palestine appear incompatible (which, as later events will prove, is indeed the case.)

The increase in Jewish immigration and land acquisition, the growing power of Haj Amin el-Husayni, and general Arab frustration at the continuation of European rule, has radicalized increasing numbers of Palestinian Arabs by 1936.

Husayni has come to dominate the Palestinian Arab movement after a bitter clash with other nationalist elements, notably the Nashashibis, over personal rather than ideological differences.

During most of the period of the British mandate, bickering between these groups has seriously weakened the effectiveness of Arab efforts.

They achieve a measure of unity in 1936, when all the Palestinian groups join to create a permanent executive organ known as the Arab Higher Committee (AHC) under Husayni's leadership.

A series of bombings of Palestinian civilian buses had occurred in Haifa from August 20th through September 26th, 1937.

The Irgun and Haganah claim responsibility.

Palestinian attacks upon Jewish targets also take place during this year.

The Arab Higher Committee organizes anti-Jewish riots in Damascus, Cairo, and Baghdad.

When the Palestinian Revolt breaks out again in the autumn of 1937, the British use harsh measures to suppress it.

The British are forced to declare martial law in September, and ...

...they remove Amin el-Husayni from the council presidency on October 1, declare the Arab High Committee dissolved, and arrest many officials of the Supreme Muslim Council and other organizations.

The British authorities deport six committee members.