The establishment of a National Government responsible to a Parliament elected by the people of Palestine is urged by Ragheb Bey Nashashibi, the Mayor of Jerusalem, who is regarded as the leader of the moderate section of the Palestine Arabs, and of the Opposition to the Grand Mufti, in a communication which he has addressed to the high Commissioner, General Sir Arthur Wauchope.
Iraq and Transjordan enjoy representative Government, Ragheb Bey points out, and the people of Palestine, he says, are as advanced and as capable of self-government as the people of those two neighbouring countries.
DEMOCRATIC AND PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT NOT PROVIDED FOR EITHER BY LEAGUE OF NATIONS COVENANT OR MANDATES AND NOT NOT EVEN COMPATIBLE WITH OBLIGATIONS DEVOLVING UPON MANDATORY POWER: THE MANDATES COMMISSION’S REPLY TO ARAB DEMAND FOR PALESTINE PARLIAMENTARY REGIME
The demand for the “establishment of a democratic Parliamentary system of Government in Palestine”, in place of the present “absolute colonial rule”, invoking in support Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations and the argument that “Palestine stands on an equal basis with the neighbouring Arab countries which now enjoy Parliamentary government in various forms” has been made repeatedly by the Palestine Arab Executive to the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations, only to be met by the statement that “as trustee of the principles of the Covenant and of the Mandates, the Permanent Mandates Commission is not called upon to recommend any particular form of Government in the mandated territories. It is for the Mandatory Power alone to determine the regime applicable. So long as this regime does not appear to be inconsistent with the Covenant and the Mandates, it is not for the Commission to criticise it. In the present instance, it seems obvious that a form of democratic and parliamentary government is not provided for either by the Covenant or by the Mandates, and that it is not even compatible with the obligations devolving upon the Mandatory Power under those engagements”.
Only about a month ago the Office Committee of the Palestine Arab Executive, including the President, Moussa Kazim Pasha, and the Secretaries Jemal Husseini and Auni Bey Abdul Hadi interviewed the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope, on the same question, Auni Bey making a passionate plea for the establishment of a Parliament for Palestine.
The High Commissioner’s reply, according to the information of the J.T.A. at the time, was very noncommittal.
So far as Palestine Jewry is concerned, the Jewish Elected Assembly, Assefath Hanivcharim, at its annual session held as recently as last week, reaffirmed the decision of the previous annual session a year ago, declaring that “the Yishub will not recognise and will not take part in any Parliamentary institutions, calculated to arrest the development of the Jewish “National Home”, adding that “the political situation does not warrant any change in this attitude, but the reverse”.
The Husseini family, to which the Grand Mufti and Moussa Kazim Pasha belong, and the Nashashibi family have been for many years rivals for the leadership of the Palestine Arabs, and the Nashashibis have been in general moderate in their attitude to the British policy in Palestine and in favour of cooperation with the Government on the basis of the acceptance of its policy.
The Arab National Party, which the Nashashibis dominated as the Husseinis have dominated the Arab Executive, was formed as a protest against the “policy of negation” of the Arab Executive.
On account of their moderate attitude, the Jews of Jerusalem gave their support to the Nashashibi Party in the municipal elections, in which Ragheb Bey was elected as Mayor of the Holy City.
After the 1929 outbreak, however, Ragheb Bey joined the Grand Mufti and Moussa Kazim Pasha as a member of the Palestine Arab Delegation to London, and in consequence he lost the regard which the Jews had previously had for him.
In January, when it was understood that he would, as Mayor of Jerusalem, attend the first graduation ceremony at the Hebrew University, there was considerable fear of protest demonstrations among the gathering, and ## consequence, it is believed, he snated######
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