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In 1516 the Ottoman
Turks conquered Palestine, and the country was incorporated in the
dominions of the Ottoman
Empire. Local governors were appointed from Constantinople,
to which annual
revenues were sent. Various public works were undertaken in
Palestine,
such as the rebuilding
of the walls of Jerusalem by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1537
. Palestine remained
under Turkish rule until World War II.
In the early
sixteenth century, northern Palestine, as far south as Acre, was
temporarily
included in the Druse
state established by Fakhr ud-Din and set up in defiance of Ottoman
authority, but the new
state did not last long.
Toward the close of
the 18th century Napoleon undertook a campaign in
Palestine,
capturing Jaffa, Ramle,
Lydda, Nazareth and Tiberias in 1798, but his siege of Acre was
unsuccessful. In 1831
Mehemet Ali of Egypt intervened in Palestine. Under his son Ibrahim
Pasha, Egyptian troops
captured Acre, but in 1834 the Palestinians revolted against the
Egypticians. By 1840 the
Ottoman authority was fully reestablish in Palestine, and the
Palestinian played an
active role in encouraging the political reforms in the Ottoman
Empire of 1876 and 1908.
The territory of
Palestine under Ottoman rule was composed of two areas. The
independent Sanjak
(district) of Jerusalem was subject to the High Porte in
Constantinople.
Rhe Sanjak extended
from Jaffa to the River Jordan in the East and from the Jordan
south to the borders of
Egypt. The other area was part of the Willayat (province) of Beirut.
This part was composed
of the Sanjak of Balka (Nablus) from Jaffa to Jenin, and the
Sanjak of Acre, which
extended from Jenin to Naqura.
His Eminence the late
Haj Amin Effendi El Husseini, on behalf of the Arab Higher
Committee for Palestine,
testified on the 12th of January 1937, before the
Palestine Royal
Commission sent by the
British mandatory Power. He explained the position of the Arabs
under the Ottoman rule
as follows:
Under the Ottoman
Regime the Arabs formed an important part of the structure of the
Ottoman Empire. It is
wrong to say that the Arabs were under the yoke of the Turks and
that
their uprising and the
assistance, which was rendered to them during the Great War, were
merely intended to
relieve them from such yoke. The fact is that under the Ottoman
Constitution provided
for one from of government of all Ottoman territories and elements.
The Arabs had a complete
share with the Turks in all organs of the State, civil as well as
military. There were
Arabs who held the high office of Prime Minister and Ministers,
Commanders of Divisions
and Ambassadors…. There were Arab ambassadors, provincial
and district governors.
There were two Parliaments, two Constitutions. One was made in the
early days of the reign
of Sultan Abdul Hamid, in 1876, and the other was made after the
grant of the
Constitution in 1908…but even in the Parliament under the first
Constitution
there were Arab
representatives. In the first Parliament, you find the President of
the Council
of the House of
Representatives was a Deputy from Jerusalem, Yusif Dia Pasha Al
Khalidi.
Moreover, the
administration of Arab territories was entrusted to elected
Administrative
Councils. Those Councils
were elected and existed in the provinces, districts, and
sub-districts.
Those Councils were
vested with extensive powers in all matters relating to
administration,
finance, education, and
development, but, irrespective of all this, the Arabs were aspiring
to
he attainment of
complete national independence and the regaining of the
distinguished
position which the Arab
peoples had held in the past centuries, when the Arab peoples
made the greatest
contribution to civilization and to every phase of human activity.
Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem. By Issa Nakhleh. Volume 1.
Page 23.
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