Mustafa Badran
Through a comparative analysis of the writings of Palestinian intellectuals and scholars of different generations, this article presents the Palestinian historiography of Palestinian leadership during the Mandate period. The article argues that in the discussions regarding the national leadership during that time, Palestinian intellectuals reflected their society’s divisions and its misgivings regarding its leaders and their functioning. First, I review the various stages in which different generations and schools of Palestinian scholarship have addressed the topic. According to Palestinian historians, the source of the elite’s control of the institutions of leadership can be attributed to two factors. The first was external but had a crucial influence: the Mandate, which had institutionalized and strengthened the elite families. The second was internal and can be divided into cause and effect: Palestinian society remained imprisoned in the traditional mechanism of leadership and did not act to change it, and the elite families and their heads thwarted attempts to change social and economic structures and obstructed the development of new leadership. These factors are discussed in the second and third sections. Last, I address the struggle for leadership that took place among the heads of these families and their suppression of new leadership.
