Read Palestine

Fakhri al-Nashashibi

Properties2
tags
aliases

2 min read

Summary

Nephew and devoted assistant of Raghib al-Nashashibi who in July 1934 proclaimed the Arab Workers’ Society (AWS) with himself as president, intervened in the 1935 Iraq Petroleum Company strike, and lost interest in labour affairs during 1935 (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 2457-2540).

Details

  • Fakhri hit upon mobilising local support by creating a labour organisation in Jerusalem, where the field was open; he proclaimed the AWS at the end of July 1934, understood as a creation and vehicle of the Nashashibis, and opened branches at Bayt Dajan (August 1934) and in Jaffa under Michel Mitri (October 1934), strongly supported by the pro-Nashashibi Filastin, which hailed him as “protector of the workers” (lines 2457-2472).

  • He publicly demanded forceful British action against the Histadrut’s Hebrew labor pickets, called on Arab workers to set up their own picket lines and boycott Jewish products, and in December 1934 staged in Jerusalem what Filastin called “the first Arab picket”, in reality a march protesting the employment of Jews at Arab contractors’ building sites (lines 2465-2472).

  • In the IPC strike, more than two weeks in, he suddenly appeared in Haifa, largely ignored the PAWS leaders, conducted his own secret negotiations with IPC management, declared his trust in the company’s “good intentions” and persuaded the strike committee to endorse his agreement; most strikers returned on March 11, 1935. The Histadrut denounced him as a reactionary nationalist who had sold out the workers and agreed to what amounted to a company union; the communists agreed he was a bourgeois opportunist but held the Histadrut equally responsible (lines 2507-2518).

  • Lockman lists him, with Hasan Sidqi al-Dajani, among the nonworker outsiders who did try to use the labour movement as a base for political ambitions, while noting such lawyers and notables could be quite useful allies from the workers’ standpoint (lines 2361-2376).

  • During 1935 he lost interest in labour affairs, and Michel Mitri took over the AWS and built it into a strong local force (line 2528).

  • Lockman records that Fakhri al-Nashashibi would be assassinated in Baghdad in 1941 (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 3070-3074).

Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Arab Workers’ Society, Raghib al-Nashashibi, Michel Mitri, Iraq Petroleum Company, Palestine Arab Workers Society

Graph View

Backlinks