11-12-2017 The danger of ignoring Arab opinion: 100 years since Balfour - James J. Zogby +972


https://972mag.com/the-danger-of-ignoring-arab-opinion-100-years-since-balfour/130658/

Following the Balfour Declaration, two academics set out to understand what the people of Palestine wanted for their own future. What comes across from their report is the recognition that local, in this case largely Arab, opinions mattered. The British and French were undeterred…With that, Wilson commissioned the first survey of Arab opinion. In June of 1919, an American commission, led by the president of Oberlin College, Dr. Henry King, and a businessman and diplomat named Charles Crane, arrived in the Mediterranean coastal city of Jaffa to begin the first-ever Arab public opinion survey. The Commission traveled throughout what was then known as Greater Syria, including modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine. They visited three dozen towns, met with representatives of 442 organizations and received nearly 2,000 petitions. At each stop they tried to ascertain what the local population wanted for their political future — to be independent or placed under the mandate of a foreign power. They asked how the people viewed British and French plans to divide their region. They also questioned local populations about Britain's intention to support the Zionist goal of a "Jewish Homeland" in Palestine. At the time, the population of the region in question was 3,247,500, of whom 2,365,000 were Muslim, 587,560 were Christian, 140,000 were Druze and 11,000 were Jewish…

 

Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

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