ABSTRACT
The coup d'etat of August 1937 set up a government headed by Jamil al-Midfa'i who, despite being a moderate and willing to cooperate with Britain, was popular among pan-Arab circles. Al-Midfa'i's rise to power, ideologically vindicated as the antithesis of the Sidqi-Sulayman government, committed him to public support for pan-Arabism and for the Palestinians. Regarding Palestine, the Midfa'i government swung back and forth between al-Midfa'i's personal moderate position and the similar views of his Foreign Minister, Tawfiq al-Suwaydi, and the need to satisfy the pan-Arab circles. The echoes within Iraq of the renewal of the Palestine revolt m the autumn of 1937 caused al-Midfa'i to try to ride the crest of the 'Palestinian wave' – basically, in order to limit its intensity and to prevent the pan-Arabists from using it against the government. Pro-Palestinian activity in Iraq had been on the increase ever since the renewal of the Arab revolt in Palestine in the autumn of 1937.
