Summary
The bank which, in the Peel Commission Report’s account, was started during the 1934-1935 Arab campaign against land passing into Jewish hands, with a capital read as £40,000, for the development of Arab land or its exclusion from alien purchase (Report of the Palestine Royal Commission, PDF p.100 / printed p.87).
Details
- The campaign in which it was started was set on foot with the Supreme Muslim Council taking an active part: small landowners were persuaded to register their lands as family waqfs to preclude alienation, one contract for the sale of 5,000 dunums to Jews was cancelled at the Council’s direct instance, and Arabs accused of facilitating land sales to Jews were denounced as traitors to the nation (PDF p.99-100 / printed p.86-87).
- Ahmad Hilmi Pasha, named in Chapter IV as a member of the Arab Higher Committee and its Treasurer, is identified there as Manager of the Arab Bank (PDF p.109 / printed p.96).
- The capital figure is read in the text copy as “#O,OOO”, its first digit lost; it is held under Open questions on the source page and not reconstructed.
Related pages
Report of the Palestine Royal Commission, Arab Higher Committee, Supreme Muslim Council, Waqf