page_title: Arab Higher Committee
section_title: Formation - 1936-37
hierarchical_section_title: Arab Higher Committee / Formation - 1936-37
caption_attribution_description: Palestine disturbances 1936. Members of the Arab Higher Committee. Front row from left to right: Ragheb Bey Nashashibi, chairman of the Defence Party, Haj Amin eff. el-Husseini, Grand Mufti &amp; president of the Committee, Ahmed Hilmi Pasha, Gen. Manager of the Jerusalem Arab Bank, Abdul Latif Bey Es-Salah, chairman of the Arab National Party, Mr. Alfred Roke, influential land-owner Back row from left to right: Jamal al-Husayni, Husayn al-Khalidi, Yaqub al-Ghusayn, Fuad Saba
context_page_description: The Arab Higher Committee or the Higher National Committee was the central political organ of the Arab 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.
context_section_description: 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. 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
  Abd al-Latif Salah - 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 Secretary
  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. Later it called for the nonpayment of taxes. 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. 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, 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.
  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, and began to arrest its members. On 1 October 1937, the National Bloc, the Reform Party and the Istiqlal Party were dissolved. Yaqub al-Ghusayn, Al-Khalidi and Ahmed Hilmi Pasha were arrested and then deported. Jamal al-Husayni escaped t
caption: Members of the Arab Higher Committee, 1936. Front row from left to right: Raghib al-Nashashibi, Amin al-Husayni,  Ahmed Hilmi Pasha, Gen. Manager of the Jerusalem Arab Bank, Abdul Latif Bey Es-Salah, chairman of the Arab National Party, Alfred Roke.
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