Independence Party Arabic:حزب الاستقلال | |
|---|---|
| Founders | Izzat Darwaza Fahmi al-Abboushi Mu'in al-Madi Akram Zu'aytir ‘Ajaj Nuwayhid Rashid al-Hajj Ibrahim Subhi al-Khadra Salim Salamah |
| Founded | 13 August 1932 |
| Dissolved | 1947 |
| Ideology | Arab nationalism Palestinian nationalism Anti-tribalism Constitutional monarchism Hashemitemonarchism Anti-Zionism Pan-Arabism |
| Slogan | "England is the root of the illness and the basis of all disaster" (rhyming in Arabic:Inkilitira asl al-da’ w-asas kul bila’)[1] |
TheIndependence Party of Palestine (Hizb al-Istiqlal) was anArab nationalistpolitical party established on 13 August 1932[2] inPalestine during theBritish Mandate. The party was founded byMuhammad Izzat Darwaza, and the other founders of the party wereFahmi al-Abboushi,Mu'in al-Madi,Akram Zu'aytir, ‘Ajaj Nuwayhid,Rashid al-Haj Ibrahim,Subhi al-Khadra, and Salim Salamah.[3][4] The party did not achieve a large membership butAwni Abd al-Hadi, through his role as private secretary toAmir Feisal in Damascus between 1918-1920, had good relations with many senior leaders across theArab world.[5]
Its origins lay in the Istiqlal movement associated with the short-livedSharifian government inDamascus.[6]
The party's creation was spurred by theal-Husayni–Nashashibi rivalry, which had almost paralyzed the Palestinian national movement. Its founders, most of whom hailed from the Nablus area, called for the adoption of new methods of political action, including noncooperation with the British Mandate authorities and nonpayment of taxes. The party also called for total Arab independence, pan-Arab unity, the abrogation of the Mandate and theBalfour Declaration, and the establishment of Arab parliamentary rule in Palestine. The party called for mass resistance to theZionist project and its British patron in Palestine.[7] During the1936–39 Arab revolt the party called for anIndian Congress Party-style boycott of the British.[8]
The party reached its maximum influence, especially among the young and the educated, in the first half of 1933, and then declined very rapidly. Among the factors responsible for its decline were the active hostility of the Husayni camp, the lack of financial resources. A distinctive mark of the party was its espousal of the idea that British imperialism was the principal enemy of the Palestinians; thus the party urged them to focus their struggle not simply on Zionism, but on British colonialism as well.[9]
Istiqlal was represented on the firstArab Higher Committee formed in April 1937, with its leader,Awni Abd al-Hadi,[10] being general secretary of the AHC.[11] Following the continuing disturbances, and the assassination on 26 September 1937 of the Acting British District Commissioner ofGalilee, the AHC and other political parties, including Istiqlal, were outlawed by the British administration in October 1937. Al-Hadi, who was out of the country at the time, was not allowed to return. However, he was a member of the Palestinian Arab delegation that attended theLondon Conference of 1939.
