The Catholic Advance · Wichita, Kansas · 30 November 1929

CP-1929-003

Palestine Inquiry Committee Has Begun Its Work

Sir Walter Shaw Promises Investigation of Outbreaks and Their Causes Will Be Thorough and Impartial — Arab Women’s Congress

Dr. Alexander Mombelli, Jerusalem Correspondent, N. C. W. C. News Service

Transcribed from the clipping

“Jerusalem, Nov. 13. — Three developments of outstanding significance have taken place in Palestine in recent days. These are the arrival in the Holy City of the Inquiry Commission, the meeting in Jerusalem of the first All-Palestine Arab Women’s Congress, and the All-Palestine Arab Congress, which met the following day in this city… Arab Women’s Congress. About 100 persons, Moslems and Christians, attended the All-Palestine Arab Women’s Congress, which adopted resolutions attacking the policy of the High Commissioner, demanding the dismissal of the attorney general, a Zionist, asking for the abrogation of the Balfour Declaration, protesting against the new Collective Punishment Ordinance and supporting the boycott movement. The meeting was followed by an impressive procession of automobiles through the streets. In the procession, some 200 women rode in 70 cars. Eight of these women went as a committee to wait on the High Commissioner and on the foreign Consuls, while at the Damascus Gate the demonstrators stopped in front of the Government Offices and demanded loudly that justice be done. A large gathering of natives cheered the demonstrators, and troops were busy keeping order. The particular importance of this movement by the Arab women lies in the fact that it is the first time in the history of the Holy Land that native women have taken part in the political affairs of their country. Delegates from all parts of the country attended the All-Palestine Arab Congress the next day… The meeting debated at some length whether Arabs should appear before the Inquiry Commission, and it was finally decided that they should. The meeting also decided to call a general strike, and to recommend that taxes not be paid until representative institutions have been set up. A still further action was the decision to cable to the British Premier a protest against the conduct of the British High Commissioner. Notable Incident. The climax of enthusiasm was reached in the Congress when a Moslem Sheik and a Greek Orthodox priest embraced to symbolize the union of all the natives of Palestine, irrespective of creed, in the common effort to defend the country against the Zionist policy adopted and maintained by the Mandatory Power. When discussion arose concerning the adoption of a national Arab flag for Palestine, it was suggested that the sign of the Holy Cross be represented on it with the Crescent. The matter was not decided, however… The Balfour Declaration, as officially interpreted at present, has not granted to the Jews those political rights which they hold necessary to the establishment of a Jewish National Home, and this fact has led to agitation which causes continual unrest.”

Context added by this archive

The same congress the Associated Press covered in five sentences, which counted the cars and named nobody. A Catholic news service correspondent gives the resolutions, the eight women who went as a committee to the High Commissioner and the consuls, the crowd at Damascus Gate, and the sentence the wire had no room for: that this was the first time in the history of the country that its women had taken part in its political life. The archive holds both printings, ten years before Sadhij Nassar was jailed for what she wrote.

Cite this item

"Palestine Inquiry Committee Has Begun Its Work," The Catholic Advance, 30 November 1929. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1929-003. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1929-003

Elsewhere in the archive

• Land Question Agitates Palestinian Arabs, Plans for Colonization Under WayBuffalo Jewish Review · 19 July 1929 · the same year
• Arab Women Protest.The Plain Dealer · 28 October 1929 · the same year