Arab Christians in British Mandate Palestine
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This title shows how Arab Christians struggled to balance religious and nationalist identities in Palestine between 1917 and 1948. Noah Haiduc-Dale focuses on the relationship between Arab Christians and the nationalist movement in Palestine as the British Mandate unfolded throughout the first half of the 20th century. Evidence of individual behaviours and beliefs, as well as those of Christian organisations (both religious and social in nature), challenges the prevailing assumption that Arab Christians were prone to communalism. Instead, they were as likely as their Muslim compatriots to support nationalism. When social pressure led Christians to identify along communal lines, they did so in conjunction with a stronger dedication to nationalism. It tracks the history of Palestine's Arab Christians and their relationship to Palestinian nationalism. It challenges the standard historiography of communalism which suggests communal identification is always in opposition to nationalist identification. It refuses to stereotype Arab Christian behaviour and belief based on the actions of a few individuals - instead looks at the variety of Christian activity during the mandate.
Noah Haiduc-Dale is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania.