Palestinian Youth Groups: British Mandate

Figure 1.--This 1924 portrait shows the Wolf Cubs and Boy Scouts with their camping gear at the Government Secondary Boys' School in Jaffa. The boy third left, first row, is carrying a bag with the Arabic word for 'first aid' on it. Scouting was popular in Palestinian schools. A factor may have been the Jewish emphasis on youth movements.

We note several youth groups during the British Mandatory period in Palestine. We only note Scouts among the Arabs. We note Boy Scout troops organizing after the British victory in Palestine and the end of World War I. There may have been some during the Ottoman period, but we have found no evidence of them. The Palesrinia Scout web site claims that Scouting was founded in 1912, but we have not been able to find any informtion about such early groups. With the arrival of the British we begin to see large numbers of Scout groups, both with the arabs and the Jews. The Arab groups were organized the schools. The Ottoman school system was limited. The British began opening many new schools and for the first time, large numbrs of Palestinian children attended school, both boys and girls. Under the Ottomans schools were mostly located in the cities. And because most Christian Arabs lived in the cities, Christoan Arabs tended to be better educated than Muslims who dominated the larger rural population. As schools began to open in the villges, more Muslim children had access to education. And many of the new schools sponsored Scout troops, especially the secondry schools. A factor here was the popularity of youth groups at the Jewish schools. We do not know to what degree the Arab troops were mixed Christian-Muslim units. We note Jewish Scout groups during the Mandatory period. We do not yet, however, have details these troops such as who the sponsoring groups were. We do not know of any mixd Jewish/Arab troops. We have found no information on any umbrella assocition during the Mandatory era that coordinated Muslim, Jewish, and Christian Scouts. We do note a jamboree which may have include troops of the differented religions. We are still redarching this. There were other youth groups orgnizd among the Jews.

British Mandate

The British seized Palestine in World War I (1917). After the war, the League of Nations appointed Britain as the Mandatory power. Mandatory Palestine would last only 30 years. After World War I, Feisal who would become King of first Syria and then Iraq, proposed to the Zionist leader Chaim Weizman, a mutual partnership in developing a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Arabs leaders subsequently rejected this understanding, clasiming that the Allies had not met their commitment to the Feisal's father Sherif Hussein. Arabs mobs conducted the first major anti-Jewish riots in Palestine (1920). The British introduced Western legal concepts to Palestine. One of the actions taken was abolishing �dhimmitude�.Under this system, non-Muslim dhimmis lived in a system of institutionalised subgegation. Political rights were denied to all but Muslims. Changing this system was a major concern of Palestianiansand other Arabs. As the number of Zionist immigrants increased and the area of land expanded, conflicts began to develop with the Arabs. Here Haj Amin el-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, played a central role. Both sides blamed the other as scattered acts of viloence occurred. There were more Arabs attacks on Jewish settlements than Jewish attacks, but there were viloence perpetrated by both sides. The worst attack occurred at Hebron where Arabs massacred 69 Jews (1929). With Jews being murdered by Arabs, David Ben-Guruon organized the Hagana--the Jewish Defense Force. The Hagana began military training in secret. The British tried to defuse the situation, arresting both Arabbs and Jews and confiscating weapons. Jews claimed that because of the importance of the Arabs in British colonial policy, that the British generally favored the Arabs. Here we are not sure, but it is a topic we need to persue. Even a neutral polic, however, favored the Arabs. Palestine was suronded by Arab states or colonies to become Arab states. Thus if the Jews in Palestine had no weapons they would be defenless if the neighboring Arab states invaded. The "Arab Revolt" led by the Grand Mufti targetted both the British and the Jews (1936-39).

Schools

The schools are important in connection to youth groups because many youth group units were organized at the schools. Palestian children went to separate schools. The state schools were primarily for the Muslim Arab schools. And the Brtish during the Mandate very signifivantly expanded the state system. This substantially increased the number of children able to attend schools. During the Ottomamn era, schools for Christians and Jews wre called millit schools. Under Ottoman law, a millet was a separate legal court pertaining to 'personal law' meaning mates like marriage, inheritances, family disputes, and similar matters. Millets were confessional (rligious) communities, such as a group abiding by the laws of Muslim Sharia, Christian Canon law, or Jewish Halakha, They were allowed to rule themselves under their own laws. And in this case able to maintain their own schools. The millet chools with the mandate took on the character of private schools, although they receved state support. The Muslim state system was totally supportd by state funds and more closely suprevised by the British.

Organiztions

We note several youth groups during the British Mandatory period in Palestine. We only note Scouts among the Arabs. We note Boy Scout troops organizing after the British victory in Palestine and the end of World War I. There may have been some during the Ottoman period, but we have found no evidence of them. The Palestinian Scout web site claims that Scouting was founded in 1912, but we have not been able to find any informtion about such early groups. With the arrival of the British we begin to see large numbers of Scout groups, both with the Arabs and the Jews. The Arab groups were organized at the schools. The Ottoman school system was limited. The British began opening many new schools and for the first time, large numbers of Palestinian children attended school, both boys and girls. Under the Ottomans schools were mostly located in the cities. And because most Christian Arabs lived in the cities, Christian Arabs tended to be better educated than Muslims who dminated the larger rural population. As schools began to open in the villges, more Muslim children had access to education. And many of the new schools sponsored Scout troops, especially the secondry schools. As Muslims and Christians generally attened separate school, the Scout Groups were also largely seatate. A factor promoting Arab Scouting was the popularity of youth groups at the Jewish schools. We do not know to what degree the Arab troops were mixed Christian-Muslim units. We note Jewish Scout groups during the Mandatory period. We do not yet, however, have details these troops such as who the sponsoring groups were. We do not know of any mixd Jewish/Arab troops. We have found no information on any umbrella association during the Mandatory era that coordinated Muslim, Jewish, and Christian Scouts. We do note a Jamboree held in 1926. We do not know, however, if there was participation by the different faith groups. which may have include troops of the differented religions. We are still researching this. There were other youth groups orgnized among the Jews.

Communities

The three faith communities all were involved with youth groups had active youth group, but the patterns were somewhat different although we are hust beginning to acquire information on the youth groups operationg in the three communities. Muslims and Christians were both Arabs and while generally united against the Jews were separate communities, including seprate schools. The only organization we note among the Arab Muslims was Scouting. And as far we can tell, it was entirely secular, organized through the state school system. We do not know of any mosques and madreaases that organized Scout troops. This is not to say that the adult leadership were not Muslims, hey were, but they were not clerics. And we do not know of any clerics that took an interest in the movement which as far as we can tell only became important with the arrival of the British at the end of World War I. There is a report that Palesttinian Arab Scouting began in 1912, a few years before the arrival of the British. The only evidennce we have found is comes after the arrival of the British and their efforts to significntly expand the state school system. Like the Arab Muslims, the only youth organization we note within the Christian community was the Scouts. We do not know, however, just who was sponsoring the Christian troops and to what extent if any the churches were involved in the program. We think tht they were more involved than the mosques in that the Christian schools generally were associated with a church and then the churches has a greater involvemnt with the curriculum and program. Our nformation, however, is limited. Much of the Jewish community at the time of the Mandate came from Europe. This would begin to change after Israel was founded and refugee Jews began arriving from Middle-Eastern and North African countries. But during the Mandatory period, most Jews came from European countries with well established youth movements and organizations. Thus of the three different faith communities, it was the Jews that had the more established tradition of youth groups. We notice Scout groups which was basically a secular movement with some religious involvement. Here there is a mixture of religious Judaism and Zionist nationalism. We have only limited information on the different youth organiztions other than Scouting.