ABSTRACT
The British Royal Investigation Commission, headed by Earl William Robert Peel, was appointed by the British government at the beginning of August 1936, and arrived at the close of that same year in Palestine. The backdrop to the Commission's appointment was the Arab general strike declared in April 1936, which had speedily escalated into riots, disturbances and acts of sabotage that were unprecedented in terms of their scope and force. In the course of these events, hundreds of Jews had been injured and heavy damage inflicted on property. Arab activity was marked by a hatred evinced towards British mandatory rule in Palestine in particular, and to British imperialism in general, and this hatred was no less venomous than the hatred manifested towards the Palestinian Jewish community and Zionism. The Arab camp had already voiced anti-imperialist slogans during the strikes of the early 1930s. What was novel in 1936 was that the Arabs presented demands for political independence, demands that were undoubtedly influenced by the changes taking place in neighboring Arab states and by the achievements of the neighboring Arab national movements. 1 Faced with these disturbing developments in Palestine, the British had, in May, already announced their intention to appoint a special investigation commission. Its task, as defined in the terms of reference that it received, was to examine the fundamental causes of the disturbances and to ascertain whether Arabs and Jews had legitimate complaints regarding the implementation of the British mandate in Palestine in the past and present. If it indeed became clear that there were grounds for these complaints, the Commission was requested to submit recommendations ‘for their removal and for the prevention of their recurrence’. 2
