What was the initial Arab response to Zionism?
The initial response of local Arabs to Jewish immigration was mixed, with examples of dialogue and cooperation as well as suspicion and rejection. Following the post-war conference in 1919, Emir Faisal, the leader of the Arab delegation to the conference, signed an agreement in London with the Zionist leader Chaim Weizman, which welcomed the establishment of a Jewish home as a positive development for the whole region. But hostility towards Jewish immigration, and attacks by armed Arabs on Jewish communities in Palestine, intensified during the early 1920s. Palestinian Arab nationalism arose parallel to, and to some extent in response to, the development of the Zionist movement in Palestine. Whilst some Arabs welcomed the progress that Jewish immigrants brought, others increasingly feared that the Jewish immigrants would come to dominate the local Arab population. The Arab leadership began to campaign for an end both to Jewish immigration and the British Mandate. In 1920, 1921 and 1929
The initial response of local Arabs to Jewish immigration was mixed, with examples of dialogue and cooperation as well as suspicion and rejection. Following the post-war Paris conference in 1919, Faisal Ibn Hussain, the leader of the Arab delegation to the conference, signed an agreement in London with the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, which welcomed the establishment of a Jewish home as a positive development for the whole region. But hostility towards Jewish immigration, and attacks by armed Arabs on Jewish communities in Palestine, intensified during the early 1920s. Palestinian Arab nationalism arose parallel to, and to some extent in response to, the development of the Zionist movement in Palestine. Whilst some Arabs welcomed the progress that Jewish immigrants brought, others increasingly feared that the Jewish immigrants would come to dominate the local Arab population. The Arab leadership began to campaign for an end both to Jewish immigration and the British Mandate. In 1920,
