BLUDAN CONFERENCES (1937, 1946)

inter-arab conferences convened in response to proposals for the solution of the palestine question.

A conference was held on 8 to 10 September 1937 at the Syrian summer resort of Bludan, attended by more than 400 delegates (none an official government representative) from Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Transjordan, Iraq, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

Formally organized by the Damascus Committee for the Defense of Palestine, it was in fact the brainchild of the mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Muhammad Amin al-Husayni. The conference members turned down the Peel Commission's recommendation to divide Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state, and rejected the idea of a Jewish state. They called for a boycott of Jewish goods and threatened to take similar measures against British interests if the British government endorsed the Peel recommendation. The conference was considered a landmark in external Arab involvement in Palestine affairs and an achievement for the mufti, who had made great endeavors for its realization.

A second conference was convened in Bludan in June 1946, when the Council of the Arab League met to discuss the report of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. The participants criticized U.S. interference in the Palestine question, recommended an economic boycott of the Jews, and pledged to assist the Arabs of Palestine. The conference also adopted secret resolutions regarding Arab military intervention in Palestine as well as steps against British and U.S. interests, including cancellation of oil concessions.

see also husayni, muhammad amin al-.

Bibliography

Hurewitz, J. C. The Struggle for Palestine (1950). New York: Schocken Books, 1976.

Kedourie, Elie. "The Bludan Congress on Palestine, September, 1937." Middle Eastern Studies 17, 1 (January 1981): 107–125.

Khalaf, Issa. Politics in Palestine: Arab Factionalism and Social Dis-integration, 1939–1948. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991.

Mattar, Philip. The Mufti of Jerusalem: Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.

Elizabeth Thompson

Updated by Joseph Nevo