ABSTRACT
The early 1930s was a decisive period in the development of the Palestinian Arab national movement which was undergoing at this time a process of political and organisational reform. While the Arab Executive Committee (AEC) headed by Musa Kazim al-Husayni was losing power and gradually disintegrating/new nationalist groups subscribing to more radical and militant ideas were emerging. This development, which took place against the background of the 1929 riots and the subsequent awakening of national awareness among the Arabs of Palestine, was the result of a growing conviction that the political struggle for Arab selfdetermination had failed, and that the national leadership was incapable of bringing about a change in Britain’s policy vis-à-vis the Jewish National Home. While the White Paper of October 1930 was a prominent achievement, perhaps the most significant of Arab politics until that time, the nullification of its promises and the new interpretation of Britain’s policy in the MacDonald Letter of February 1931 (dubbed the ‘Black Letter’ by the Arabs) was regarded as a major setback to the Arab cause and a complete bankruptcy of the AEC’s moderate tactics.
