ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the intricate relations that developed between the Palestinian Arab national movement and the neighbouring Arab countries during the British Mandate. It explains how the growing Arab-Muslim identification with the Palestine Question namely, the Zionist threat to the Arab nature of Palestine and the anguish of its Arab population, turned into a prominent cultural and political issue among the Arab and Islamic peoples. The chapter seeks to identify some forces and to analyze their impact on the parties concerned; the increasingly violent Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine; state formation and social and political dynamics; and the emergence of a regional Arab political system marked by both inter-state competition and shared Arab-Muslim identity. The official responses of individual Arab states soon took the form of inter-Arab competition and/or joint action for the sake of Arab Palestine. The Arab states’ selfish interests typically shaped the implementation of some projects.
