The Arab Higher Committee () or the Higher National Committee was the central political organ of Palestinians in Mandatory Palestine. It was established on 25 April 1936, on the initiative of Haj Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and comprised the leaders of Palestinian Arab clans and political parties under the mufti's chairmanship. The committee was outlawed by the British Mandatory administration in September 1937 after the assassination of a British official.
A committee of the same name was reconstituted by the Arab League in 1945, but went to abeyance after it proved ineffective during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It was sidestepped by Egypt and the Arab League with the formation of the All-Palestine Government in 1948 and both were banned by Jordan.
Formation, 1936–1937 The first Arab Higher Committee was formed on 25 April 1936, following the outbreak of the Great Arab revolt, and national committees were formed in all of the towns and some of the larger villages, during that month.Peel Commission Report Cmd. 5479, 1937, p. 96. The members of the committee were:
Amin al-Husayni, president – member of the al-Husayni clan, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and president of the Supreme Muslim Council until his dismissal from that position Raghib al-Nashashibi – member of the Nashashibi clan, which was considered to be political rivals of the al-Husayni clan, and to hold moderate views when compared to the more militant views of the al-Husayni, member of the National Defence Party Jamal al-Husayni – related to Amin al-Husayni and chairman of the Palestine Arab Party, member of the Supreme Muslim Council Yaqub al-Ghusayn – member and representative of the Youth Congress Party, member of the Supreme Muslim Council, deported – founder of the National Bloc Husayin al-Khalidi – founder and representative of the Reform Party, deported Awni Abd al-Hadi – leader of the Istiqlal (Independence) Party, who was appointed General SecretaryText of decree in Haim Levenberg, Military Preparations of the Arab Community in Palestine 1945–1948, Frank Cass London, 1993, p. 7. Ahmed Hilmi Pasha – treasurer, deported.
Initially, the committee included representatives of the rival Nashashibi and al-Husayni clans. The committee was formed after the 19 April call for a general strike of Arab workers and businesses, which marked the start of the 1936–39 Arab revolt. On 15 May 1936, the committee endorsed the general strike, calling for an end to Jewish immigration; the prohibition of the transfer of Arab land to Jews; and the establishment of a National Government responsible to a representative council.Peel Commission Report Cmd. 5479, 1937, p. 97. Later it called for the nonpayment of taxes.Norris, Jacob (2008). Repression and Rebellion: Britain's Response to the Arab Revolt in Palestine of 1936–39. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 36(1):25–45. Raghib al-Nashashibi, of the Nashashibi clan and member of the National Defence Party soon withdrew from the committee.
In November 1936, and with the prospects of war in Europe increasing, the British government set up the Peel Royal Commission to investigate the causes of the disturbances. The strike had been called off in October 1936 and the violence abated for about a year while the Peel Commission deliberated. The commission was impressed by the fact that the Arab national movement, sustained by the committee, was a far more efficient and comprehensive political machine than had existed in earlier years. All the political parties presented a 'common front' and their leaders sit together on the Arab Higher Committee. Christian as well as Muslim Arabs were represented on it, with no opposition parties.UN special committee , Palestine under the Mandate, 3 September 1947 The commission reported in July 1937 and recommended the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.
Arab leaders, both in the Husseini-controlled Arab Higher Committee and in the Nashashibi National Defense Party denounced partition and reiterated their demands for independence,Swedenburg, Ted (1988) "The Role of the Palestinian Peasantry in the Great Revolt 1936–1939". in Islam, Politics, and Social Movements, edited by Edmund Burke III and Ira Lapidus. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp 189–194 & Marvin E. Gettleman, Stuart Schaar (2003) The Middle East and Islamic world reader, Grove Press, pp 177–181Pappé Ilan (2004) A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples, Cambridge University Press, arguing that the Arabs had been promised independence and granting rights to the Jews was a betrayal. The Arabs emphatically rejected the principle of awarding any territory to the Jews. After British rejection of an Arab Higher Committee petition to hold an Arab conference in Jerusalem, hundreds of delegates from across the Arab world convened at the Bloudan Conference in Syria on 8 September 1937, including 97 Palestinian delegates. The conference rejected both the partition and establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. After the rejection of the Peel proposals, the revolt resumed. Members of the Nashashibi family began to be targeted, as well as the Jewish community and British administrators. Raghib Nashashibi was forced to flee to Egypt after several assassination attempts on him, which were ordered by Amin al-Husayni.Smith, Charles. Palestine and Arab-Israeli Conflict. Sixth Edition. 2007. p.111-225.
On 26 September 1937, the acting British district commissioner of Galilee, Lewis Yelland Andrews, was assassinated in Nazareth. Four days later Britain outlawed the Arab Higher Committee,Sayigh, 2000, p. 8. and began to arrest its members. On 1 October 1937, the National Bloc, the Reform Party and the Istiqlal Party were dissolved.A Survey of Palestine – prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. Reprinted 1991 by The Institute of Palestine Studies, Washington. Volume II. . p.949 Yaqub al-Ghusayn, Al-Khalidi and Ahmed Hilmi Pasha were arrested and then deported. Jamal al-Husayni escaped to Syria, as did Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni. Amin al-Husayni managed to escape arrest, but was removed from the presidency of the Supreme Muslim Council.Levenberg, 1993, p.8 The committee was banned by the Mandate administration and three members (and two other Palestinian leaders) were deported to the Seychelles and the others moved into voluntary exile in neighbouring countries.Abcarius, M.F. (nd) Palestine. Through the Fog of Propaganda. Hutchinson. P.197. Awni Abd al-Hadi, who was out of the country at the time, was not allowed to return. The National Defence Party, which had withdrawn from the AHC soon after its formation, was not outlawed, and Raghib al-Nashashibi was not pursued by the British.
War period, 1938–1945 When the committee was outlawed in September 1937, six of its members were deported, its president Amin al-Husayni managed to escape arrest and went into exile in Beirut. Jamal al-Husayni escaped to Syria. Three other members were deported to the Seychelles, and other members moved into voluntary exile in neighbouring countries. Al-Hadi, who was out of the country at the time, was not allowed to return. Membership of the outlawed committee had dwindled to Jamal al-Husayni (acting chairperson), Husayn al-Khalidi (secretary), Ahmed Hilmi Pasha and Emil Ghuri.David Tal (2004) "Israel-Arab War, 1948 -1949/ Armistices" Routledge p. 7 For all practical purposes, the committee ceased to exist, however, this brought little change in the structure of Arab political life and the Palestinian revolt continued.
With the indications of a new European war on the horizon, and in an endeavor to resolve the inter-communal issues in Palestine, the British government proposed in late 1938 a conference in London of the two Palestinian communities. Some Arab leaders welcomed the proposed London Conference but indicated that the British would need to deal with the disbanded Arab Higher Committee and with Amin al-Husayni. On 23 November 1938, the Colonial Secretary, Malcolm MacDonald, repeated his refusal to allow Amin al-Husayni to be a delegate, but was willing to allow the five Palestinian leaders held in the Seychelles to take part in the conference.Abcarius, M.F. (nd) Palestine. Through the Fog of Propaganda. Hutchinson. p.204. The deportees were released on 19 December and allowed to travel to Cairo and then, with Jamal Husseini, to Beirut where a new Arab Higher Committee (or Higher National Committee) was established. Amin al-Husayni was not a member of the Arab delegation but the delegation was clearly acting under his direction.Marlowe, John (1946) Rebellion in Palestine. The Cresset Press, London. pp.209–215 The London Conference commenced on 7 February 1939, but the Arab delegation refused to sit in the same room with the Jewish delegation present, and the conference broke up in March with no success. In May 1939, the British government presented its 1939 White Paper which was rejected by both sides. The White Paper had, in effect, repudiated the Balfour Declaration. According to Benny Morris, Amin al-Husayni "astonished" the other members of the Arab Higher Committee by turning down the White Paper. Al-Husayni turned the advantageous proposal down because "it did not place him at the helm of the future Palestinian state."Morris, Benny, "The Tangled Truth", The New Republic, May '07, '08
The deportees were not allowed to return to Palestine until 1941. Amin Al-Husayni spent the war years in occupied Europe, actively collaborating with the Nazi leadership. Amin and Jamal al-Husayni were involved in the 1941 pro-Nazi Rashidi revolt in Iraq. Amin again evaded capture by Britain but Jamal was captured in 1941 and interned in Southern Rhodesia, where he was held until November 1945 when he was allowed to move to Cairo.Pappe, Ilan (2002) The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian Dynasty. The Husaynis 1700–1948. AL Saqi edition 2010. . pp.309,321Cohen, Aharon (1970) Israel and the Arab World. W.H. Allen. . p.312 Husayn al-Khalidi returned to Palestine in 1943. Jamal al-Husayni returned to British Palestine in February 1946 as an official of the new Arab Higher Committee, by then recognised by the Mandate administration. Amin Al-Husayni never returned to British Palestine.
Reconstituted committee, 1945–1948 1945–1946 After the end of the war, Amin al-Husayni managed to find his way to Egypt and stayed there until 1959, when he moved to Lebanon. On 22 March 1945, the Arab League was formed.
In November 1945, on the urging of Egypt, its leading member, the then seven members of the Arab League (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Yemen) reconstituted the Arab Higher Committee comprising twelve membersPolitics and Government in the Middle East and North Africa by Tareq Y. Ismael, Jacqueline S. Ismael, Kamel Abu Jaber, p 303 as the supreme executive body of Palestinian Arabs in the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine. The committee was dominated by the Palestine Arab Party, controlled by the Husayni family, and was immediately recognised by Arab League countries. The Mandate government recognised the new committee two months later. In February 1946, Jamal al-Husayni returned from exile to Palestine and immediately set about reorganising and enlarging the committee, becoming its acting president. The members of the reconstituted committee as at April 1946 were: Jamal al-Husayni Tewfiq al-Husayni Yusif Sahyun Kamil al-Dajani Emile al-Ghury Rafiq al-Tamimi and Anwar al-Khatib (all members of or affiliated with the Palestine Arab Party) Izzat Tannous (an independent Christian medical doctor) Antone Attallah (a member of the Greek Orthodox community) Ahmad al-Shukayri (a lawyer from Acre and an Arab nationalist) Sami Taha – head of Palestine Arab Workers Society Yousef Haikal (the mayor of Jaffa, who was politically independent)Khalaf, 1991, pp. 121–122