ABSTRACT
Gramsci defines the subaltern as part of a non-elite social group, an aspirant who could eventually move beyond a pure defence of his economic position in a capitalist society to participate in social and political leadership. The rebel represents a conceptual challenge to the contemporary historian. When the rebels or sons and daughters of rebels spoke, the cathartic effect was considerable and there were tears, laughter, tirades against oppression, the wisdom of the old. The rebels, according to Bhabha’s model, emerge as a reminder of the ‘excess’ and ‘slippage’ which is bound to occur wherever mimicry has been successful. The start of the Arab rebellion has been officially recorded as 1936, when a nationwide strike was imposed. The trigger to the first phase of the rebellion came in October 1935, when an apparently Jewish arms consignment was discovered at the harbour in Jaffa, the old Arab town adjoining modern Tel Aviv.
