Where can I find Palestinian Arab Primary Sources Related to Jewish-Arab Relations from 1914-1932?

by Rabshakeh678

I'm working on an university research project regarding Jewish-Arab relations in Mandatory Palestine up to 1932. I have a plethora of British and Jewish primary sources to supplement my study. However, I'm struggling to find primary sources from Arab perspectives. I can only read and speak English, but I haven't been able to find a reader or collection of Palestinian Arab primary sources relevant to the topic of Jewish-Arab relations from 1914-1932.

I'm seeking two main Palestinian Arab perspectives: a "history from below" approach (letters, interviews, diaries from "average" Palestinian Arabs), and then sources from Palestinian Arab elites (memoirs, party platforms, political newspapers, etc.) While I have found an archive of Palestinian Arab newspapers, they are not translated into English. I do have Walid Khalidi's collection of Palestinian Arab photographs, as well as his reader, but the latter contains no Arab sources from the period of interest.

I've become a bit desperate and wonder if translations of Palestinian Arab primary sources from 1914-1932 even exist. I'm hoping you all would be able to help!

I'd appreciate any scholars who are able to point me in the right direction or even provide me with the link to a Palestinian Arab reader or collection of primary sources from 1914-1932. Are there any readers or collections out there? Are there any sites which have translated newspapers, diaries, letters, etc. ?

Thank you!

Anekdota-Press

There are a couple sources from Palestinian Arab elites in:

  • Khater, Akram Fouad. Sources in the history of the modern Middle East. Cengage Learning, 2010.

Similarly I think the Laqueur(ed.) sourcebook has a few arab elite sources relevant to your request, but I don’t have a copy to hand.

  • Laqueur, Walter, and Dan Schueftan, eds. The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict: Eighth Revised and Updated Edition. Penguin, 2016.

Several books I can think of offer a degree of “history from below,” with some primary testimony from non-elite sources, but unfortunately are not primary sourcebooks of the type you ask for:

  • Cohen, Hillel. Army of shadows: Palestinian collaboration with Zionism, 1917–1948. Univ of California Press, 2008.
  • Lockman, Zachary. Comrades and enemies: Arab and Jewish workers in Palestine, 1906-1948. Univ of California Press, 1996.
  • Swedenburg, Ted. Memories of revolt: The 1936–1939 rebellion and the Palestinian national past. University of Arkansas Press, 2003.

Unfortunately, much of the Palestinian Oral history stuff focuses on post-1948 or remains untranslated. Likewise the Nakba resulted in the loss of many of the relevant physical archives and documents.