Six Singular Figures: Understanding the Conflict: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate

211 Pages·2015·2.57 MB·English

by  Hadara Lazar

Praise for Six Singular Figures
With impressive literary ability and profound historical understanding, Hadara Lazar has
succeeded in bringing to life six figures from the past, whose prominence in their own time
makes them significant to ours.
– Abraham B. Yehoshua, Haaretz
The six fascinating characters chosen by Hadara Lazar for her new book do not creep stealthily
into the hearts of its readers, but overwhelm them all at once, making it impossible to put the
book down.
– Yaakov Bar-On, Makor Rishon
Six figures who were active here during the period of the British Mandate; Jews, Arabs, and
Englishmen. Each one is drawn with a wise and loving hand and each one of them represents a
personal path that, if we had followed it, might have made our history less violent. An
enthralling, captivating book.
– Author Amos Oz, Haaretz
Six Singular Figures reads like an interesting novel, and is not a your classic historical study
… Each of the characters represents a different and unusual diplomatic-political, or even
spiritual option, and they all shape themselves in relation to the mainstream figure of David
Ben-Gurion. Read in this light Lazar’s book is particularly original and engrossing: it portrays
… one of the most central figures of that time through the marginal characters who surrounded
him and came into contact or conflict with him. A unique book.
– Tzahi Cohen, Makor Rishon
Six Singular Figures, which reveals the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the
portraits of these figures, is the most superb and important book that I have read for many
years.
– Poet Natan Zach, Haaretz
Hadara Lazar’s enthralling book is the synthesis of a fine grasp of history with impressive
literary skill. She draws these six figures with an artistic hand and remarkable ability, and from
their different viewpoints we see the outline of the Jewish-Arab national struggle for the same
patch of land.
– Professor Zeez Sternhell, Haaretz
Praise for Hadara Lazar’s
Out of Palestine:
The Making of Modern Israel
Hadara Lazar has written a remarkable book dedicated not so much to the British Mandate as
to some of the people who were strongly involved with it.
– Avishai Margalit, New York Review of Books
Out of Palestine is a truly fascinating discussion of a period.
– Jerome A. Chanes, Forward
A gifted writer… Lazar manages to weave her dialogues and descriptions into an intriguing
portrait of a unique period...[and] succeeds in depicting a complex reality…
– Prof. Itamar Rabinovich,
Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University and former Ambassador
to the United States for Israel
-
Six Singular Figures:
Understanding the Conflict
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Lazar, Hadara, author
Six singular figures : Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate
/ Hadara Lazar.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77161-112-1 (paperback).--ISBN 978-1-77161-113-8 (pdf).--
ISBN 978-1-77161-114-5 (html)
1. Palestine--History--1917-1948. 2. Jewish-Arab relations--History--1917-1948. 3. Palestine--Biography. 4. Great Britain-
-Foreign relations--Palestine. 5. Palestine--Foreign relations--Great Britain. I. Title.
C2015-908228-5
DS126.L36 2016 956.94’04
C2015-908229-3
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photocopying and recording, information storage and retrieval systems, without permissiosn in writing from the publisher, except
by a review who may quote brief passage in a review.
Pubished by Mosaic Press, Oakville, Ontario, Canada, © 2016.
We gratefully acknowledge the institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature (ITHL) for their support and help in
preparation of this book.
Distributed in the United States by Bookmasters (www.bookmasters.com).
Distributed in the U.K. by Roundhouse Group (https://www.roundhousegroup.co.uk).
MOSAIC PRESS, Publishers
Copyright in the original Hebrew © 2015 Hadara Lazar
English translation copyright © The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and Sondra Silverton
Printed and Bound in Canada.
Design and layout by Eric Normann
We acknowledge the Ontario Media Development Corporation for their support of our publishing
program
We acknowledge the Ontario Arts Council for their support of our publishing program
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government Nous reconnaissons l’aide financière du gouvernement du
of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) for this Canada par l’entremise du Fonds du livre du Canada
project. (FLC) pour ce projet.
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Six Singular Figures:
Understanding the Conflict
Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate
Hadara Lazar
Translated by Sondra Silverston
Contents
Preface
Musa ’Alami
Manya Shochat
Arthur Wauchope
Judah Leib Magnes
George Antonius
Orde Wingate
Preface
THESE ARE THE STORIES OF SIX PEOPLE—JEWS, ARABS, AND ENGLISHMEN—who lived and were
active in Palestine in the 1930s. I wanted to write about them because they were unique figures
on the historical landscape of those years.
The beginning of that period was quite calm, but by its end, destructive forces had taken the
upper hand. In the early 1930s, bloody riots were rare and there was some dialogue between
Jews and Arabs—dialogue as a political option. Leaders and important figures on both sides
met and discussed terms of peaceful coexistence. The people who appear in this book (with the
exception of Wingate) were actively involved in those attempts at dialogue.
Even when the relations between the two peoples deteriorated, the channels of
communication were kept open. Owing to Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and the growing
anti-Semitism in Europe, Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel became a mass emigration from
Europe, and the Arabs felt they were being pushed out of their country. Both sides realized that
the struggle was for the country—ours or theirs. Nonetheless, those meetings between the sides
continued sporadically until the Great Arab Revolt broke out in the spring of 1936. And those
people grew more intensely involved in the talks. They were part of a small minority who
believed that there was still hope of reaching an agreement that would prevent a bloody
conflict between Jews and Arabs. They undertook this effort under extremely difficult
circumstances, knowing that if nothing changed, the outcome would be disastrous. Since they
tried to mediate, compromise, even to understand both sides, they were caught in a terrible
dichotomy between their faith and the reality of the events taking place around them.
The talks continued later too, during the Revolt, albeit they were more limited, but
nonetheless, Jews and Arabs persisted in discussing one arrangement or another. Those efforts
did not seem unrealistic to the leaders of the Yishuv or to the Arabs involved in the talks. They
believed that not all roads were blocked, that the schism between the sides was not total. They
felt that the adversaries could still meet and talk without hatred, just as Orde Wingate and
George Antonius had. Wingate, the Englishman who would lead the Jews in attacks against the
Arab rebels in the not too distant future, and Antonius, the Christian Arab who was already
deeply immersed in writing the seminal book on Arab nationalism, were on opposite sides of
the conflict. Nonetheless, they strolled around Jerusalem together, talked and joked about
themselves, despite the increasingly grim situation in the country.
All of that was possible because the British governed the country, not the residents. The
latter, in effect, had no responsibility for their political actions, and they enjoyed the benefits of
a well-run and quite enlightened government, since Palestine was not merely another colony.
Despite the political motives and imperial logic, the Mandate was created when the Ottoman
Empire collapsed and placed in British hands the aim of preparing the residents for self-
government. For some thirty years, life in Eretz Israel deviated from its historical course and
came under British protection. Perhaps only during such an exceptional interlude could these
people have become active.
I did not know when I began this book that I intended to write about these people, but I had
no clear direction. I did not choose them with a predetermined plan because I did not want to
put them or myself into the restraints of such a plan. I did not want to present a complete
picture, but rather to write about one and then onto another and lingering on each figure
separately. I discovered that the lives of all these people—Jews, Arabs and Englishmen—
intersected in a network of meetings, talks and personal relations. They admired each other,
met with each other and tried to influence each other.
I also learned that the people had many things in common, the first being that they could not
be easily described. They were not unambiguous. They lived and worked in a country where
the majority had a single purpose, but in those days, it was still possible to live lives that were
not easily defined or categorized. At that time these people could still have opposing lifestyles;
it was an ancient place that had changed all at once. The British established a modern
government, built an infrastructure of roads, electricity and water, and brought about enormous
immigration: Arabs immigrated from neighboring countries; Jews arrived primarily from
Europe. The people (with one exception) were not born here either. They came from large
countries into the intimacy of a small, multi-faceted and immensely dynamic one.
As I delved deeper into their stories, it became clear to me that these people’s lives were
driven by deep-seated personal conflict that was always linked to the political situation of
their time. Whether they were Arabs, Jews, or Englishmen, they lived both outside and inside
the mainstream, and their relationships with each other were based on their unconventionality:
they were controversial people. They were active at a time that began well and deteriorated
sharply; the great hopes were dashed and the bad years came, followed by the truly dreadful
ones. The people I have chosen were not leading figures of the period, but they influenced the
course of events in ways that have become more evident with time, in retrospect.
I did not try to tell their life stories. Many comprehensive biographies have been written of
almost all of them. I tried to understand the essence of who they were, to write about these
people in the context of the 1930s, years that were very important in their lives. I wanted to
describe them within that era, unconventional people who followed their own lights, which
only exacerbated their inner contradictions.
This is not a historical, academic study. I did my own research, and I did it my way, which
included reading historical books, biographies, autobiographies, journals and articles,
personal historical documents and archives, as well as letters, diaries, albums and newspaper
articles—all of which appear in the notes and the bibliography.
For the meetings, talks, material and letters without which this book would not have been
written as it was, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Leila Shahid, the official
representative of the Palestinian Authority in Brussels and the daughter of Musa ’Alami’s
niece, the writer Soraya Antonius, the daughter of George Antonius, and Professor Arthur
Goren of Columbia University.
I would also like to thank the Israel State Archives, the Weizmann Archives, the Magnes
Archives, the Middle East Center at St. Antony College, Oxford, the Black Watch Archives in
Perth, Scotland, the National Archives in England and the Imperial War Museum in London for
their great assistance.
My heartfelt thanks to Osnat Shiran, who edited this book with dedication, sensitivity and
great understanding.
And special thanks to Anita Shapira, Ruth Dayan, Meron Benvenisti, Nissim Calderon and
Avi Shlaim for their help and the time they took to speak with me.