National Defense Party (Mandatory Palestine)

The National Defense Party (Arabic: حزب الدفاع الوطني Ḥizb al-Difāʿ al-Waṭanī) was founded by Raghib al-Nashashibi in the British Mandate of Palestine in December 1934.[1]

National Defense Party
Arabic nameحزب الدفاع الوطني
Hebrew nameמפלגת ההגנה הלאומית
FounderRaghib al-Nashashibi
FoundedDecember 1934
IdeologyPalestinian nationalism
Anti-Zionism
Arab-Jewish reconciliation
Anti-Husayni
Political positionCentre

The party was regarded as more moderate than the Palestine Arab Party. Its program called for an independent Palestine with an Arab majority and rejection of the Balfour Declaration. The party was represented on the first Arab Higher Committee, 26 April 1936, but withdrew in early July 1937. [2] It managed to avoid being banned when all the other Palestinian Arab nationalist parties were suppressed by the authorities beginning in October 1937. The party actively assisted the British during the Arab Revolt and were regarded as collaborators and subject to attacks and assassinations. The second Arab Higher Committee tried to exclude members of the NDP from being included in the Palestinian Arab delegation to the 1939 Round Table Conference. A compromise was reached and Raghib al-Nashashibi and a colleague joined the conference two days after its start. The NDP was the first Palestinian political party to announce that it accepted the 1939 White Paper.[3]

References

Citations

  1. Cohen, Aharon (1970) Israel and the Arab World. W.H. Allen. ISBN 0-491-00003-0. p.206
  2. Kabahā 2014, p. 11.
  3. 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. ISBN 0-88728-214-8. p.948,949

Sources


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