Palestinian Leadership on the West Bank: The Ch, Maoz..

Taylor & Francis

The West Bank has for generations been the core area of the Palestinian-Arab community and of its national movement. Since 1967, it has become the main area of confrontation in the prolonged conflict between Palestinian-Arab and Jewish-Zionist nationalism. The Palestinian armed organization, the PLO \u2013 which has undertaken to lead the nationalist struggle of their people \u2013 was for long periods unable to operate on the West Bank because of strict security measures taken by the Jordanian and Israeli governments respectively. Consequently, the Palestinian mayors in the West Bank, who under Jordanian rule (1948-1967) had served as ruling instruments of the government, gradually became under Israeli control the political spokesmen of their communities. This book, first published in 1984, examines this remarkable change in the role of the West Bank Palestinian mayors, and their transformation since the early 1970s from conservative-moderate figures into radical-nationalist leaders.