ABSTRACT
The 1936 Arab upheaval in Palestine and the events that led to it are central to any comprehensive understanding of the development of British imperial policy during the interwar period. Moreover, they set the political and social background against which Italian propagandists operated. Not only were the problems faced by the British administration in Palestine, and the increasing tension between the British authorities and the Arab nationalist leadership, clearly exploited by the Italian government for propaganda purposes, but the social and political environment also served to develop the salient features of Italian propaganda in the area. In other words, Italian propaganda appears to have been both organic and responsive. Palestine is central to the purposes of this study for two reasons. First, because its complexity – the interconnection between two antagonistic communities fighting over the right to inhabit and rule the same land, at that time administered by an increasingly resented European colonial power – draws out important nuances in the thinking of Fascist powers. Second, because the pivotal role of the Palestinian Arab rebellion in undermining British relations with the Arab world as a whole, by generating a wave of public support and feelings of deep empathy throughout the Middle East, induced even the most moderate Arab leaders eventually to move towards pan-Arabist positions.
