ABSTRACT

The Arab rebellion against the British began in April 1936. It had two phases: the first, from April to October 1936; the second, from September 1937 to April 1939. British reactions to the rebellion cannot be comprehended without a prior survey of the geo-strategic changes that swept Europe and the Middle East from the mid-1930s. On 19 April 1936, sporadic outbreaks of violence by Arabs against Jews in Palestine began. On 25 April, the major Arab political parties set up a higher Arab committee (HAC), which assumed the political leadership of the rebellion. Britain's failure to stop the Italian conquest of Abyssinia left a profound impression on the Arab world. The first attacks by Arab peasants against Jewish rural settlements and isolated police and army units began on 10 May, simultaneously with a wave of bomb throwing in the towns.