A m o n g the A r a b i c - s p e a k i n g c o m m u n i t i e s of Palestine, there was considerable d i s a g r e e m e n t on m o s t i s s u e s , and p e r h a p s even on Z i o n i s m . T h i s was shown in F e b r u a r y 1919, at a c o n g r e s s convened by the anti-Zionist M o s l e m - C h r i s t i a n Society. A majority of the thirty active politicians who a t t e n d e d the congress were able to p a p e r over their differences by agreeing on a program calling for an A r a b federation headed by Feisal a n d centered on S y r i a . T h e r e was s o m e feeling, however, in favor of creating a s e p a r a t e Palestine, s o m e pro-British feeling, s o m e p r o - F r e n c h feeling, a n d e n o u g h d i s c o r d so that five of the thirty delegates did not sign a resolution o p p o s i n g Z i o n i s m. M u c h volatility in political views was d e m o n s t r a t e d by the delegates a n d their colleagues d u r i n g the c o u r s e of the next couple of years, as those who had called for Feisal to b e c o m e king t u r n e d against him, p r o - B r i t i s h a n d anti-British factions c h a n g e d sides, a n d the p r oponents of G r e a t e r S y r i a were forced, by the F r e n c h c o n q u e s t of D a m a s c u s , to restrict the focus of their views to the territory about to be e m b r a c e d within Britain's Palestine M a n d a t e .
A r a b politics within Palestine were f o r m e d by the rivalry between
the great u r b a n families. T h r o u g h o u t the British o c c u p a t i o n , the m o s t c o n s p i c u o u s rivalry was that between the J e r u s a l e m families of a l - H u s s e i n i a n d a l - N a s h a s h i b i . A l - N a s h a s h i b i family politics m o v e d f r o m anti-British to p r o - B r i t i s h a n d pro-conciliation in 1920; a n d in the years immediately thereafter the Zionist leadership believed that it h a d arrived at a b a s i s for m u t u a l cooperation with the a l - N a s h a s h i b i that might lead t o A r a b - J e w i s h h a r m o n y . T h e al-Husseini , however, who moved at the same time from s u p p o r t e r s to o p p o n e n t s of the British, found themselves favored in the competition to lead the A r a b c o m m u n i t i e s of the area by the s y m p a t h y shown by the British local administration to the anti-Zionist c a u s e . If even British officers a r g u e d that the A r a b s s h o u l d m a k e no concessions, how could p r o -conciliation A r a b leaders p e r s u a d e their followers that concessions had to be made?
