Anatomy of the 1936–39 Revolt: Images of the Body in Political Cartoons of Mandatory
Palestine
Author(s): Sandy Sufian
Source: Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Winter 2008), pp. 23-42
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies
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ANATOMY OF THE 1936–39
REVOLT: IMAGES OF THE BODY IN
POLITICAL CARTOONS OF
MANDATORY PALESTINE
SANDY SUFIAN
This article analyzes body images in political cartoons during the
1936–1939 Arab Revolt. By deciphering the visual messages in
the political cartoons of two newspapers—the Arabic Filastin and the
Hebrew Davar—the article examines how body representations portray
stereotypes of rivals and reveal assumptions about and relations be-
tween conflicting parties. Visual imagery maintained its impact by
illustrating nationalist attitudes, critiques, and goals. In addition to
being referents to a period not well documented in images, cartoons
are also potent historical sources for reconstructing a sociopolitical
history of Palestine.
DURING THE ARAB REVOLT OF 1936–1939, one of the most contentious periods
of Britain’s Mandate over Palestine, political cartoonists in the country drew
upon the tradition of physiognomy to present recognizable images of well-
known personalities and groups. By deciphering the use of physiognomy in
the political cartoons of two newspapers—the Hebrew Davar and the Arabic
Filastin—this article examines how body images in political cartoons illustrate
and portray partisan responses to the events. By offering possible interpreta-
tions of the pictorial language supplementing the cartoon’s text, the article
suggests a subtextual reading of the revolt.
Political cartoons appeared infrequently if at all before and after the revolt,
but they appeared regularly while it was in progress. Thus, in addition to being
referents to a period not well-documented in images, cartoons are also potent
historical sources for reconstructing a sociopolitical history of the period.1
Cartoonists of both Davar and Filastin manipulated body features to convey
the deviancy of the Other.2 I present here only six cartoons, chosen from
twenty-six comparable cartoons, because they lend themselves especially well
to analysis of the political undercurrents.
SANDY SUFIAN is an assistant professor of medical humanities and history at the University
of Illinois-Chicago. She thanks the staff at the Central Zionist Archives and the National
Library in Jerusalem, Reuven Milon, Reuven Koffler, Yael Cohen, Ronit Cohen, Rashid
Khalidi, Zachary Lockman, Michael Gilsenan, Raja al-‘Isa, Suzanne Poirier, and Salim
Tamari for their help throughout the various stages of this paper.
Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. XXXVII, No. 2 (Winter 2008), pp. 23–42 ISSN: 0377-919X; electronic ISSN: 1533-8614.
C 2008 by the Institute for Palestine Studies. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission
to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s
Rights and Permissions website, at http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp. DOI: jps.2008.XXXVII.2.23.
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24 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES
As scholar of political graphics Robert Phillipe has remarked, “Graphic art
can be a political weapon. . . . it becomes more intense in tone and simpler
in content at moments of crisis.”3 Body images in political cartoons during the
Arab Revolt thus acted as ammunition for national struggle, allowing the stark
representation of divergent opinions. Bodily representations in the cartoons
portray stereotypes of rivals and reveal assumptions about and relations be-
tween conflicting parties. Combined, these messages offer a sharp critique of
negotiations, political tactics, and economic developments during the revolt.
Depending on the newspaper, political cartoons in Palestine served as a tool
of opposition to British, Zionist, and/or Palestinian Arab people and politics.
In a satirical twist as much textual as visual, the cartoonists frequently took
traditional visual markers of deviancy used against their own group and applied
them instead to the adversary. In so doing, they utilized visual markers of the
body based in the pseudosciences of physiognomy and phrenology, relics of
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
A wide gulf separated the two competing nationalisms in Palestine, the
Zionist and the Palestinian Arab. The Palestinians, whose society was largely
agrarian, were numerically far superior, but the Zionist movement, fed by a
growing immigration of skilled people from Europe, enjoyed a clear techno-
logical and organizational superiority, as well as access to financial support
from the Jewish Diaspora, allowing Zionists to buy land, set up schools, and
engage in farming and business.4
Though Zionist leaders had their frustrations with the British Mandatory
government, they were also well aware of its crucial role in facilitating their
national project, a central provision of the Mandate being the establishment of
a Jewish national home in Palestine.5 The Palestinian national movement, on
the other hand, rejecting the Mandate and the Balfour Declaration contained
within it, engaged in anticolonial resistance both against the Zionist presence
in Palestine and British sponsorship of that presence: the 1936–1939 revolt
was a major episode of that resistance. Ultimately, the unequal structure of the
Mandate’s terms and the Palestinian movement’s rejection of those terms, com-
bined with a disunited national leadership and a very different socioeconomic
profile, left the Palestinian Arabs ill-equipped to meet the challenges posed by
Mandate politics and the transformations taking place in Palestine.6
DEVIANCY AND THE BODY IN POLITICAL CARTOONS
Despite their distinctive styles, the cartoonists of the Arabic Filastin and
Hebrew Davar generally employed the same basic physiognomical and phreno-
logical codes to express difference and deviance. Physiognomy helped form the
biological concept of race and criminality and ultimately led to “profiling” an
individual’s personality or a nation’s character through physical features.7 Phys-
iognomy proposed that one’s essential nature was evident in facial features—
the size of the nose and mouth, the color of the eyes, the shape of the skull or
jaw, the length of the forehead.8 Physiognomists imbued hands, feet, and other
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ANATOMY OF THE 1936–39 REVOLT 25
features of the body with symbolic meaning; large palms or hands, for example,
might indicate a brute or distrustful type. Size and shape of fingers were markers
of intellect;9 a small foot signified refinement. According to the tenets of phys-
iognomy, aquiline noses in Caucasians belonged to the elite and professional
classes, whereas stubbed (pug) or upturned noses symbolized the degraded
working class.10 Features such as sunken cheeks or prominent cheekbones,
small eyes, short noses, prominent lower lips, and poor posture—all attributed
to the lower, “less sanitary,” and “criminal” classes—appeared frequently in the
cartoons.
Phrenology, a cousin to physiognomy, studied features of the skull and fore-
head to determine character. Phrenologists believed the capacity for compari-
son and causality to be located in the upper forehead. Thus, a receding and a
projecting forehead both signified lack of intellect; short or receding foreheads
were common features in these cartoons. Passion or animal instinct was said
to be located in the posterior base of the brain, so a protrusion of the back of
the head indicated animal-like qualities such as pugnacity or heightened sexu-
ality. The preferred head shape was one where the forehead and chin formed a
perpendicular line (orthognathous). Prothagnathist faces (those with protrud-
ing jaws), indicative of stupidity and baseness, were associated with persons
phrenologists might consider inferior, savage, or low.11 These cartoonists also
substituted animals for humans to convey certain moral qualities and to ridicule
a group or person perceived as a threat.12 Beaks of various birds stood in for
noses in order to suggest the relative place of the individual in the hierarchy of
nature.13 During the revolt, cartoonists often depicted humans as dogs, birds,
donkeys, cats, frogs, or owls.
Reproducing Pathology in Filastin and Davar Cartoons
Both Davar and Filastin were popular dailies under the Mandate; Davar,
one of nine Hebrew dailies, was the mouthpiece of the Zionist Labor party
(Histadrut), while Filastin, one of the four main Arabic dailies and consid-
ered one of the most important in Palestine,14 was aligned with the Hizb
al-Difa‘ al-Watani (National Defense party) of the Nashashibi family.15 Most
cartoons in Palestine’s newspapers featured daily events and commentary on
the 1936–1939 revolt. Whenever a political cartoon appeared, it always ap-
peared on the first page, and as the conflict intensified, cartoons became more
frequent.16
The cartoonists of Davar and Filastin, both of whom were Europeans, ad-
hered to the conventions of physiognomy in their work. This is not to say
that they studied specific, scientific texts about physiognomy, but they were
certainly familiar with the popularized version of physiognomy and its stereo-
typed correspondences. Indeed, as Europeans, they could not have ignored
the increasing currency of worldwide political propaganda in the 1930s, and
they were likely exposed at least to the most basic physiognomical depictions
common at the time; the famous British satirical journal Punch, for example,
consistently used physiognomy. In the case of Davar’s cartoonist, Arieh Navon,
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26 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES
the exposure is beyond dispute: he studied in Paris at the Institut d’Esth´etique
Contemporain and at other private, well-known artists’ studios in the early
1930s.17 His work showed the influence of French and German caricaturists,
particularly Daumier and Grosz.18 The Yishuv (the Jewish community in Pales-
tine) appreciated the accuracy, wit, and political criticism of his illustrations.19
The editors of Davar were the first to publish political cartoons, starting in
1933, which, according to Navon, were well received.20
The identity of the cartoonist of Filastin remains unknown, but according
to Raja al-‘Isa, son of Filastin’s owner ‘Isa Daud al-‘Isa, the cartoonist was a
Christian woman from Eastern Europe.21 Indeed, women were starting in the
1930s to become professional cartoonists in the Middle East,22 where cartoons,
as Palmira Brummett has shown, bore the influence of the European press.23
‘Isa reported that his father thought up the ideas for the cartoons, which were
then drawn by the cartoonist. ‘Isa al-‘Isa was exposed to European caricatures
through his reading of European newspapers,24 and it is virtually certain that
his cartoonist was as well. In any case, her cartoons deploy the same type
of satiric code as those of Navon and other European cartoonists, indicating
awareness of the technique of physiognomical coding.
Visual images in political cartoons helped drive a nationalist message for both
literate and illiterate Palestinians. A. A. Najjar argues that the daily press signifi-
cantly influenced which issues were deemed important during the revolt, indi-
rectly helping to set the agenda for the Palestinian Arab national movement.25
Although most newspaper readers probably did not have formal knowledge of
the specific pseudoscientific beliefs on which physiognomy was based, many
literate, educated people would know its popular form, for physiognomic be-
liefs were an “international phenomenon during this time.”26 Furthermore, an
increase in literacy among the Palestinian fellahin, along with the practice of
reading aloud and showing pictures and cartoons to illiterate individuals, re-
sulted in a wide audience of Arab newspaper patrons who could absorb its
nationalist messages.
The cartoonists of Palestine frequently drew a certain trait to signify an indi-
vidual or group so that the audience could recognize the characters, the trait
usually reflecting the physical stereotypes and prejudices toward a particular
group. Without the correspondence between these images and some popu-
lar, consensual judgment about what they conveyed, these illustrations would
have been meaningless.27 Although gauging the exact impact of audience re-
sponses is difficult due to a lack of documentation, readers in Palestine likely
became familiar with or at least could identify common physical typologies in
illustration.28
Visual imagery maintained its impact by fulfilling the same role as written
newspaper articles: the illustration of nationalist attitudes, critique, and goals.
H. Can’an points out that all Zionist newspapers adhered to a minimum ide-
ological paradigm of encouraging projects for promoting the interests of the
Jewish sector: free Jewish immigration to Palestine; free development of the
Yishuv; and the right of Jews to settle and build in every part of the land by using
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ANATOMY OF THE 1936–39 REVOLT 27
Jewish enterprise.29 Filastin’s owner allied himself with Raghib Nashashibi’s
Hizb al-Difa‘ al-Watani during the revolt in its fierce critique not only of Zionism
but also of the political platform of Haj Amin al-Husayni, the mufti of Jerusalem
and paramount Palestinian leader. In contrast to Husayni’s party, the National
Defense party took a gradualist approach to achieving nationalist goals and exer-
cised moderation in diplomatic dealings with the British government.30 Rashid
Khalidi says that the newspaper “provides one of the best sources available
for monitoring the development and utilization of the concepts and terms that
are essential for the propagation of the notion of national identity.”31 Cartoons
functioned as vehicles of nationalist concepts and agendas.
Censorship’s Effects on Visual Imagery and Physiognomy
As tensions rose between the two communities, British censorship of Arabic
and Hebrew newspapers increased. In 1933, the new Press Law gave the high
commissioner the right to close papers deemed as endangering public order.
The law did not exercise any direct control over the ideas or tone of the paper.
During the revolt, strict censorship measures included jailing certain journal-
ists, banning the publication of certain types of information, closing Hebrew
or Arabic dailies for “dangerous” articles, and preventing any mention of illegal
Jewish immigration.
Once the government enacted strict censorship, Zionist newspapers
changed their reporting style, shifting from routine summaries of revolt events
to accounts of attacks on Jewish victims or settlements.32 The government oc-
casionally suspended all four Arabic dailies at once for what it considered to
be provocative articles. Arabic newspapers were suspended thirty-four times
during the revolt’s early phase; the Jewish press was suspended thirteen times.
In March 1937, the head secretary of the government claimed that Davar used
provocative language, did not cover the revolt objectively, and did not give the
government enough credit for its actions against Arab groups. After the Royal
Peel Commission visited Palestine in 1937 to look into the causes of the revolt,
the government suspended three of the four Arabic dailies (excluding Filastin)
for more than a month for publishing what it claimed to be false reports on the
commission’s work. During this period, Filastin welcomed contributions from
all parties, even while continuing to support strongly the National Defense
party.33
Censorship increased the usefulness of political cartoons because subver-
sive messages could be shifted out of the text (which then was not evidently
objectionable) and into the image. Physiognomy thus became a camouflaged,
visual way of conveying critique. Incendiary words could be reincarnated as
caricatures, a form more likely to pass censorship regulations.34
DRAWING A DIAGNOSIS OF THE ARAB REVOLT
The Arab Revolt, the first sustained rebellion of the Palestinian Arabs as a
unified national movement, is commonly treated in two phases. The first stage
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28 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES
consisted of a general strike aimed at changing British policy (April to October
1936); the second phase was triggered by the Peel Commission’s recommen-
dation that Palestine be partitioned into Arab and Jewish states, leading to Arab
escalation and military activity (July 1937 to March 1939). Political cartoons
published during this time reflect the shift between these phases.
The cartoons of Filastin portrayed the British government’s unbalanced
negotiations. Such negotiations are presented in the cartoon “Jewish Money
Talks,” appearing on 19 June 1936. This cartoon is a type of caricature called
portrait charge, which essentializes features of the face and body of a leader
to epitomize the nation.
The text of the cartoon reads:
The Honorable Representative: “The government needs to use all
types of force with these Arab robbers and scoundrels.” Jewish
Agency: “Yes . . . once again mister, once again. . . . The more you
defend [us], the more we will continue to give you a push
forward [or] the more we increase your pay. (Kadima) [meaning
“forward” in Hebrew; transliterated into Arabic in text]
Mr. Representative, well done.”
In the ironic interplay between text and illustration, the British represen-
tative calls the Arabs thieves, but he takes Jewish bribes behind the govern-
ment’s back. The representative’s exaggerated hand conveys British hypocrisy.
Like other portrayals of the rulers in this newspaper, the Brit is tall and thin,
with a stubbed upturned nose, sharp chin, short forehead, prominent lower
lip, and sunken eyes—all signs of criminality and baseness according to phys-
iognomy. The Jew is emblematic of the Jewish Agency; his body exudes de-
viance and he is the personification of “capitalist greed and exploitation.”35
His hooked nose and short forehead, large hands, big feet, bull neck, sinister
eyes, and sneer are physiognomic code for greed, ruthlessness, cunning, low
intelligence, low development, and evil intentions. He wears a gold waist chain
(greed), has a large belly (gluttony), and stands on a huge bag of money (cos-
mopolitanism, shrewdness, and greed). All the parliamentary members behind
the desk have short foreheads and sharp chins, characteristics of stupidity.
The British and Zionists here are the thieves, not—as stated in the text—the
Arabs.
The physiognomical subtext of the cartoon provides an essential supple-
ment to the written text. Without the deviant body images, the reader may not
have recognized from the text alone the cartoon’s sarcasm and subversive mes-
sage. Each body image evokes Zionist manipulation of British policy through
bribery and other criminal means, the inherent dishonesty of the Zionist move-
ment, and the British role in actively promoting a corrupt project. To be sure,
the cartoon touches upon a history of British parliamentary meetings about
Palestine in which “British political issues were manipulated adroitly by the
Zionists and the Arab case in question was defeated.”36
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ANATOMY OF THE 1936–39 REVOLT 29
Figure 1. “Jewish Money Talks,” Filastin, 19 June 1936.
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30 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES
A pressing socioeconomic issue during the revolt was the displacement of
Arab farmers through Zionist land purchases and the Zionist policy of “Hebrew
labor.” In the early 1930s, fellah debt and default on credit reached critical levels.
Legislative measures such as the Protection of Cultivators Ordinance of 1933–
1934 (which tried to protect the agricultural tenant from displacement) and
the allotment in 1936 of a minimum subsistence area ultimately failed because
the fellahin did not have written proof of tithe payment or because the law was
not fully implemented.37 Episodes of environmental problems, crop failure, and
competition from cheap agricultural imports aggravated fellah displacement.
The peasants expressed their frustrations by joining trade unions and politi-
cal organizations, engaging in civil protest and cultivation disputes, and other
forms of resistance directed against the British, Zionists, and Palestinian upper
classes, who were charged with aiding the Zionist project by selling land to
Jews. Displaced agricultural tenants or small landowners who sold their land
moved to the cities and found work in urban development projects or petty
trade. Others sought additional income as migrant laborers in neighboring vil-
lages or cities while trying to maintain their agricultural livelihood.38
Economic changes and the inadequacy of the police are featured in the 18
June 1936 Filastin cartoon titled “The Zionist Crocodile to Palestine Arabs” (in
English) and “Zionism’s Crocodile to Palestine Arabs” (in Arabic).
This cartoon portrays a tall, white, uniformed British policeman smoking
a pipe, a common image of Englishmen in both Hebrew and Arabic carica-
tures. The policeman has a stubbed, upturned nose and squinty eyes, mark-
ers of low development, vulgarity, and dishonesty. The upturned nose is re-
peated at the top of the policeman’s hat, extending the trait of baseness to
the general group of policemen who wear it. The policeman’s face resembles
a bulldog’s, an animal commonly equated with pugnacity and an allusion to
John Bull.
The cartoonist inverted the customary physiognomical coding of European
newspapers here; whereas cartoonists in British newspapers typically drew the
Englishman as orthognathous, in Filastin, the cartoonist turned British police
and administrators into beastlike and prothognathous types. Frequently Davar
and Filastin’s cartoonists drew Jews and Arabs, respectively, as refined and
attractive, counter to European colonial images of them.
The officer is smiling, but this is not an innocent smile; it is more the sneer of
a sly, criminal man. Although his hands are not visible, his feet are exaggerated,
a sign of criminality. He is wearing heavy, cleated boots that match the black
scales and claws of the Zionist crocodile, indicating congruence between the
Zionists and the British. The British are complicit in the Zionist project here,
but they are not the main target of the revolt. The subtextual culprit is Jewish
land purchases as represented by the Zionist crocodile, whose tail emerges
from the sea like a ship’s ramp as it devours the citrus groves and fields of
the fellahin, astonished, fearful yet scornful victims of the crocodile’s hunger.
The crocodile’s “hair” evokes stereotypes of Jews as black and hairy deviants,
while its nose is snubbed like the British officer’s. The claws and sharp teeth
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ANATOMY OF THE 1936–39 REVOLT 31
Figure 2. “The Zionist Crocodile to Palestine Arabs,” Filastin, 18 June 1936.
of the Zionist crocodile contrast with the hypocritically assuring text, “Don’t
be afraid! I will swallow you peacefully!” (“in peace” in Arabic). The crocodile
portrays Zionist insincerity and British complicity. The fellahin’s fear shows in
jutting, enlarged eyes, astonished open mouths, and hands gesturing resistance.
The fellahin are small compared to the British officer and the Zionist crocodile,
connoting their relative weakness with respect to what was seen as British-
Zionist collusion.
The historical backdrop to this cartoon is a surge in Zionist immigration in
the 1930s due to global depression and the increased threat of Nazism and
European anti-Semitism. In fact, more Jews entered Palestine during the years
1933–1935, legally and illegally, than at any other previous time.39 This phe-
nomenon brought increased Jewish capital into Palestine, which boosted Jew-
ish employment opportunities and encouraged Zionist land purchases for the
settlement of immigrants.40
The cartoon’s visual background adds to the overall satirical effect. Three
different forms of war vehicles are shown: the plane, the tank, and the ship. The
ship symbolizes the British ships that were bringing more soldiers and arms to
fight against the Arab rebels. It could also refer to the closing of the Jaffa port
during the strike, which led the British to approve a Zionist port and jetty at Tel
Aviv.41 The war vehicles are placed around the British officer, who is carrying
a club, an instrument of repression. These military images are contrasted with
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32 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES
the citrus groves and peaceful fields of the fellahin. Both agricultural areas
look as if wind is blowing through them, signifying change or upheaval. By
showing the three main characters in the conflict (the British, Zionist, and
Arab fellahin), the cartoonist is commenting on three major issues of the revolt:
increasing British armament, Jewish land purchase, and the displacement of the
fellahin.
Cities were the focal point of resistance in the beginning stage of the revolt.
Local Palestinian committees in all major cities were formed soon after the
killing of two Palestinians near Petah Tikva (16 April) by Jewish assailants in
retaliation for the robbery and killing of three Jews the previous day. Four days
later, Arab protests erupted under the umbrella of the Supreme Arab Council
(later the Arab Higher Committee) led by Haj Amin al-Husayni.42 On 25 April
1936, the Supreme Arab Council officially declared a unified general strike.43
The strike quickly shifted to the countryside and remained anchored there
through the revolt’s second phase.
“Two Arab Heads [Two Leaders]” (12 July 1936) addresses the issues of ru-
ral frustration, class division, and internal Arab politics in the characters of the
two party leaders—Husayni and Raghib Bey Nashashibi—and the rural leader,
Shaykh Izzeddine al-Qassam, with Chaim Weizmann, head of the World Zionist
Organization, watching in the background. Qassam, who had organized peas-
ants into guerrilla bands to fight the British in the countryside, had been killed
in action the year before, instantly becoming a national martyr and hero.44 In
the cartoon, Nashashibi says, “We will fight [the Zionists] to the end!” to which
Haj Amin replies, “To the end!” Weizmann, looking on, says, “Is it possible? I
wasn’t expecting it!” Qassam is the shining angel, the symbol of the revolt,
floating above the two notables. The notables are pictured here as allies, but in
fact internal fighting between Husayni’s Arab party and Nashashibi’s National
Defense party was rife.45 Intensified conflict exposed the jockeying for ultimate
leadership of the Palestinian national movement and the different strategies for
achieving Palestinian Arab goals.
The cartoon’s physiognomical code reveals the tension between the two
notables. Both Qassam and Nashashibi have aquiline noses, full cheeks and
long foreheads, indicating honesty and high development. Qassam’s fingers
are long and his palms face down, symbolizing his intelligence and protective
care. These representations signify real figures, but they also reflect the Arab
view about the integrity and legitimacy of the Palestinian nationalist movement
and its purpose.
In contrast to Nashashibi and Qassam, the mufti is portrayed with a long,
sharp nose and occipital protrusion that are the marks of a degenerate man
possessing lower capacities, pugnacity, and a strong will. His legs are short,
bent, and apart, but he leans forward in the posture of a schemer. His sinister
smile and glazed expression seem to suggest secret plotting while he shakes
Nashashibi’s hand. Physiognomical similarities between the mufti and Zionists
in other cartoons of Filastin—including posture (one foot off the ground),
gazing eyes, large hands—suggest a similarity in character.46
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ANATOMY OF THE 1936–39 REVOLT 33
Figure 3. “Two Arab Heads,” Filastin, 12 July 1936.
Such a portrayal of Husayni is not surprising given Filastin’s affiliation with
the Nashashibi party.47 The differences between Nashashibi and Husayni are
reflected not only in their bodily image but also in their attire. Husayni wears tra-
ditional Islamic robes and a tarbush, whereas Nashashibi wears a Western-style
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34 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES
suit with no hat, a signifier of modernity among urban, educated Palestinians
at the time.48 Distinctions in dress were particularly relevant during the 1936–
1939 revolt, especially when the kuffiya headdress shifted from signifying low,
rural status to becoming a symbol of Arab national resistance.49
Weizmann’s presence rounds out the picture of duplicity. Leaning out the
window, he is portrayed with a fleshy lower lip, hooked nose, prominent hands,
beard, and stern expression.50 Weizmann’s shock at the two notables’ hand-
shake and vow for persistent resistance is conveyed by his blank stare and
curved eyebrows.
The text of the cartoon alludes to the ultimate failure of the Zionists to under-
stand the weight of Arab frustration and their assumption that the Palestinian
Arab national movement was not genuine. Zionist leadership initially debated
whether the events of 1936 were an actual revolt (mered) or just a set of distur-
bances (meoraot). This initial misreading was accompanied by a belief within
the Yishuv that the revolt was the plan of a small group of urban activists, not
a popular rebellion.51 Weizmann’s state of shock in the cartoon’s text reflects
this misinterpretation.52
The Davar cartoon “The Writer that Sows His Seeds with Pens Will Cut
[his yield] in Blood” (24 December 1936) takes to task the relationship be-
tween Palestinian intellectuals and the fellahin. The caption of this cartoon
plays on the lyrics of a Zionist pioneer song: “The farmer who sows his seeds
with tears will cut [the crop] with song.” Navon exchanges the word “tears”
(bedim‘a) for “pens” (be‘atim) and “song” (rina) for “blood” (damim).53
Navon introduces two themes through his play on words: the ongoing dis-
cussion within the Zionist movement about “negative” Palestinian nationalism
versus “constructive” Zionist nationalism and the use of print media to incite
violence. Using a song that, in its original form, depicts the Jew as strong and
defiant, he changes the words to depict the Palestinian Arab as violent and
destructive.54
Navon’s caption is reinforced by the visual presentation of the journalist
with a pen behind his ear, dripping ink (and perhaps blood as the text notes).
The Arab journalist is carrying the Arabic newspaper al-Difa‘ with seeds of in-
citement spilling as he runs away from the rebels, who are killing each other in
his wake. Navon sharply criticizes the Arabic newspapers for printing provoca-
tive articles, a common claim in Zionist circles during the 1929 disturbances
and the revolt and one that led to stricter censorship measures.
The urbanite journalist wears a fez, has clawlike hands, a broad nose, sunken
eyes, and bared teeth. The journalist’s flight from the rebels points to the tension
between the urban intellectual class and the rural fellahin. This crop of rebels is
at various stages of growth: those in the foreground are virtually buried whereas
in the background, full figures fight one another with knives, guns, or clubs
held in clawlike hands like the journalist’s. However, all of them are fully armed
from “birth.” Their flailing limbs convey rage in a gesture typical of the violently
insane.55 Two rebels also rob a car, an allusion to the incident that initially set
off the revolt.
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ANATOMY OF THE 1936–39 REVOLT 35
Figure 4. “The Writer that Sows His Seeds with Pens Will Cut in Blood,” Davar, 24
December 1936.
The representation of the rebels as primitive peasants with beastlike
claws resembles the physiognomic image of the Irish Paddy in Victorian
caricature. According to L. Perry Curtis, images of this kind justified the “harsh
measures against the agents of aggressive nationalism and agrarian outrage but
[dismissed] the political aspirations underlying those acts.”56 In these deviant
portrayals, Navon presents a bitter critique of Palestinian Arab nationalism and
the Arab’s relation to the land. The rebels are bound to the land, but only insofar
as that relationship produces violent, destructive people and actions. The
implied contrast (emphasized by the play on the original pioneer song) is to the
Zionist relationship to the land—one of supposed productivity, hard work, and
spirituality.
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36 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES
Figure 5. “Education in Palestine,” Davar, 10 December 1936.
In a cartoon entitled “Education in Palestine” (10 December 1936), Navon
extended his stinging appraisal of Palestinian Arab nationalism to “the people.”
Instead of portraying a public figure, this kind of social caricature targets the
masses and their relationship to the revolt. These cartoons commonly ques-
tioned the legitimacy of the other group’s movement. Caricatures like the one
below suggest the mass appeal of the revolt and the concomitant strengthening
and crystallization of each nationalist movement during this time.
Here a fellah mother teaches her newborn son about the revolt. She gets her
information from the newspaper, demonstrating the mass appeal of newspa-
pers and cartoons during the revolt. The headline in the newspaper (which is
a mishmash of Arabic letters but seems to resemble al-Difa‘) reads “The Great
Disappearance,” referring to a leader who has disappeared, possibly Fawzi al-
Qawuqji, who left Palestine quickly in November 1936 after the mufti negoti-
ated a truce with the British.57 The headline is in Hebrew but the newspaper’s
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ANATOMY OF THE 1936–39 REVOLT 37
name is in Arabic. The newspaper page’s bilingualism allows the Hebrew reader
to understand the contents of the Arabic nationalist press while acknowledg-
ing the press’ import in spreading the Palestinian Arab movement’s message.
The mother’s kufiyya makes her appropriately androgynous and modest (while
telegraphing her possible affiliation with the rebels and the fellahin), but her
jewelry and facial features confirm that she is a woman, one of the nurturers
and educators of future generations. Her sharp tooth and the long, sharp nails
of her feet and hands suggest that she is primitive and evil. Her broad nose is a
sign of baseness and low development. These features, in less developed form,
are mirrored in the baby, whose snubbed nose, in physiognomy, corresponds to
stupidity. Navon thus equates Palestinian Arab nationalism with criminality and
deviancy and tries to relay an intergenerational message where the mother’s
politics are passed onto her child. Most Zionist leaders held such views during
this time, especially Weizmann, who described Arab nationalism as regressive
and identified Arab youth with political violence.58
The first phase of the revolt ended shortly before “Education in Palestine”
appeared. On 11 October 1936, the Arab Higher Committee, following a de-
cision by the local national committees, accepted a collective appeal from
Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Transjordan to call off the strike. Other fac-
tors contributing to its cessation included the harvest season and economic
pressures straining the Palestinian Arab community.
While violent confrontations never came to a complete stop in the period
between the two phases, the revolt did not officially resume until the summer of
1937, when the Royal Peel Commission, which had been formed by the British
government in May 1936 to study the causes of and solutions to the revolt,
published its report recommending the partition of Palestine into an Arab state
and a Jewish state. After the Arab Higher Committee rejected the proposal in
July, the rebellion reached new heights.59 On 1 October 1937, following the
assassination of district commissioner L. Y. Andrews in September, the British
declared martial law, outlawed the Arab Higher Committee, and arrested or
exiled most of its leaders to the Seychelles. Husayni escaped to Lebanon and
continued to direct the revolt from there, while others in Damascus set up the
Central Committee of the National Jihad in Palestine, functioning somewhat as
a government in exile.60
Several weeks after the dramatic events surrounding the crackdown, Davar
featured a cartoon entitled “A Mufti’s Escape” (20 October 1937), which shows
a flight of birds escaping from a birdcage held by a British soldier ignorant
of the transgression. The caption plays on the Hebrew word mofet/mofi(t),
meaning “exemplary,” and Husayni’s title of mufti, thus referring both to the
actors involved and to the success of the escape: the mufti’s to Lebanon and
that of members of his entourage to Syria. (The birds are flying over the “Syrian
border.”)
During the first phase of the revolt, in June 1936, Davar ran a similar cartoon
depicting the escape of Arab leaders from prison: both cartoons suggest de-
viancy and criminality by using black birds and a birdcage to signify the arrested
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38 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES
Figure 6. “A Mufti’s Escape,” Davar, 20 October 1937.
Arabs. (In contrast, Filastin cartoons—for example, on 25 July 1936—depicted
Arabs as white birds.) Their blackness signifies aggression and craftiness. Black
birds, especially ravens, symbolize death and corruption in traditional iconogra-
phy. Here, their wings resemble bat wings. The British officer, with a protruding
jaw, is unaware of their escape or perhaps is ignoring it. His boots resemble
those in Filastin’s crocodile cartoon with their sharp, brutal cleats, yet Navon
shows that the officer’s actions do not fulfill his physical characteristics. Al-
though he carries the key to the cage, the birds escape through the back. Both
cartoons featuring birds in Davar imply British collusion with the Arabs.
Following the exile of the Palestinian leadership, the revolt became politi-
cally disorganized, resulting in intensified, intracommunal Palestinian violence.
Fighters became divided between those who saw their main enemies as the
British and Zionists and those who saw Arab collaborators or traitors as their
primary target. Although most scholarship discusses internal Arab violence as
characteristic of the second phase of the revolt, British reports from as early as
autumn of 1936 report assassinations of informers and leaders’ loss of control
of the revolt.61
The White Paper of 1939, by calling for an “independent Palestine State”
after ten years, restricting Jewish immigration, and protecting Palestinian land
rights, attempted to address Palestinian demands. This was partly an effort to
gain Arab support on the eve of World War II, but the Palestinian Arab leadership
and rebels rejected the White Paper because it neither invalidated the Balfour
Declaration nor recognized Arab majority rule.62 The Zionists also vehemently
protested the White Paper limitations and began their own violent campaign
against the British. Despite rejections from both parties, the White Paper was
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ANATOMY OF THE 1936–39 REVOLT 39
put into effect. The official end to the revolt came with the outbreak of World
War II.63
CONCLUSION
Cartoons, with their manipulation of body images, gave newspapers a cre-
ative way to get around censors, to critique certain policies, and to examine
the political agendas of all parties. Cartoonists’ images, especially physiognomic
representations of the strengths, weaknesses, limitations, or powers of political
leaders, offer the historian an idea about contemporary attitudes of different
groups and constraints on the media.
Physiognomy in political cartoons reflects political and social relations be-
tween actors in Palestine, illustrating the relative empowerment or disempow-
erment of the Zionists and Arabs in relation to the British authorities and to
each other. Among other things, the cartoonists tried to dehumanize their en-
emies by portraying them in animal form, inviting the audience to distance
themselves from the enemy while confirming their own political and moral
superiority. The cartoons also intensified in their political zeal as the revolt
proceeded. All cartoon portrayals extended nationalist ideas and reinforced
the general prejudices of the newspaper’s readership.
Cartoonists of Hebrew and Arabic newspapers used the same stylistic lan-
guage to promote the opposite political/nationalist direction.64 Images in the
Palestinian Arab newspaper reflected a strong anticolonial sentiment directed
toward both the Zionist movement and British rule. Filastin’s European car-
toonist utilized European images, turning them on their head, and projected
them onto the Zionists, while the Zionist cartoonist, Navon, used those same
European notions in caricature and projected them onto those who resisted
Zionist claims. Although their underlying reasons and motivations differed and
certainly derived from distinct positions of power and relations with Europe
itself, the two cartoonists in their images of the British often converged in
a shared critique not often captured in official political documents of the
period.
NOTES
1. I examined issues of Filastin and 3. Robert Phillipe, Political Graphics:
al-Difa‘ from the years 1929, 1938, 1939, Art as a Weapon (Oxford: Phaidon Press,
and 1941 and editions of Davar from the 1980), p. 278.
1920s and 1930s. 4. Uri Ram, “The Colonization
2. Linda Nochlin. “Starting with the Perspective in Israeli Sociology: Internal
Self: Jewish Identity and Its Presentation” and External Comparisons,” Journal of
in Tamar Garb and Linda Nochlin, eds., Jew Historical Sociology 6, no. 3 (Sept. 1993),
in the Text: Modernity and the pp. 326–50; Zachary Lockman, Comrades
Construction of Identity (London: Thames and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in
and Hudson, 1995), pp. 18–19; Tamar Palestine, 1906–1948 (Berkeley:
Garb, “Modernity, Identity, Textuality” in University of California Press, 1996);
Garb and Nochlin, eds., Jew in the Text, Gershon Shafir, Land, Labor, and the
pp. 20–30. Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,
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40 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES
1882–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge 13. The closer a person was to an
University Press, 1989); Tom Segev, One animal in this artistic scheme, the less
Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs human he was considered; see Cowling,
under the British Mandate (Henry Holt: The Artist as Anthropologist, p. 80.
New York, 1999); Rashid Khalidi, The Iron 14. On Davar, see H. Can’an,
Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Milchamata shel Ha‘Itonut: Ma’avak
Struggle for Statehood (Boston: Beacon ha‘Itonut HaIvrit beEretz Israel neged
Press, 2006), pp. 9–22. haShilton HaBriti [The War of the Press:
5. Taking a slightly different The Struggle of the Hebrew Press in Eretz
perspective, scholar Scott Atran has argued Israel against British Rule] (Jerusalem:
that the Zionist movement was a surrogate Tsiyon Press, 1969), pp. 20–21. On
in the British colonization of Palestine. See Filastin, see Qustandi Shumali, al-Sihafa
Scott Atran, “The Surrogate Colonization of al-‘arabiyya fi Filastin: Jaridat Filastin,
Palestine: 1917–1939,”American 1911–1967 [The Arab Press in Palestine:
Ethnologist 16, no. 4 (Nov. 1989), pp. Filastin Newspaper, 1911–1967]
719–44. (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Research Center,
6. Khalidi, The Iron Cage, pp. xxii, 7, 1992), pp. 10, 13, 21–36; A. A. Najjar, “The
31–48. Arabic Press and Nationalism in Palestine,
7. Cartoon figures’ clothes and 1920–1948” (Ph.D. diss., Syracuse
accessories fit the alleged “national University, 1976), pp. 121–27, 136–39. Al-
characters” of these figures in order to Difa‘, associated with the Istiqlal party,
make them more recognizable. L. Perry was another important Arab nationalist
Curtis, Jr., Apes and Angels: The Irishman paper, and Najjar notes that the Arabic
in Victorian Caricature (Washington: newspapers competed to express their
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997), pp. patriotism. Najjar, “Arabic Press,” p. 105.
xvii, xix–xxv. 15. ‘Isa al-‘Isa owned Filastin; Yusif
8. Sander Gilman, Picturing Health Hanna, an Egyptian journalist who moved
and Illness (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins to Palestine to work for Filastin from 1932
University Press, 1995); Mary Cowling, The to 1948, was its editor. In 1939, ‘Isa broke
Artist as Anthropologist: The with the National Defense party. See Ann
Representation of Type and Character in Lesch, Arab Politics in Palestine,
Victorian Art (Cambridge: Cambridge 1917–1939: The Frustration of a
University Press, 1989), pp. 13–22; and J. Nationalist Movement (Ithaca: Cornell
Wechsler, A Human Comedy: University Press, 1979), p. 110; Najjar,
Physiognomy and Caricature in 19th “Arabic Press,” pp. 122 note 2, 167; Rashid
Century Paris (London: Thames and Khalidi, “Anti-Zionism, Arabism, and the
Hudson, 1982), pp. 178–82, endnotes 12 Palestinian Identity: ‘Isa al-‘Isa and
and 17. I use the term physiognomy Filastin,” in Samir Seikaly, ed., Political
broadly, encompassing the “sciences” of Identity in the Arab East in the 20th
phrenology and pathognomy. Where Century (Beirut: American University of
important to distinguish between these Beirut Press, forthcoming), p. 16 note 39.
practices, I use the specific term. 16. These cartoons were likely
9. Nicholas Mirzoeff, “Framed: The intended for readers serving the British
Deaf in the Harem” in J. Terry and J. Urla, administration in Palestine as well, as can
eds., Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives be deduced from their bilingual
on Difference in Science and Popular translations.
Culture (Bloomington: Indiana University 17. Navon continued to send cartoons
Press, 1995), pp. 52, 55, 59–61, 65. to Davar from Paris. Arieh Navon, BeKav
10. For a gendered analysis of snubbed uvikhetav: Pirke hayim, rishumim,
noses in physiognomy, see Cowling, The ukarikaturot taf’urah u-deyookna’ut [In
Artist as Anthropologist, pp. 81, 150. Lines and in Writing: Chapters in Life,
11. Cowling, The Artist as Drawings, and Caricatures of Scenery and
Anthropologist, pp. 40–59; Wechsler, A Portraiture] (Am Oved: Tel Aviv, 1996), pp.
Human Comedy, pp. 142–43. 68–69.
12. Theriomorphism is the tool of 18. Daumier, an eminent political
comparing and transforming humans to caricaturist, used physiognomy to draw
animals. See Curtis, Apes and Angels, pp. leaders and the masses. See Yaakov
xi, xii, xviii. Fichman, “Foreword,” in Arieh Navon,
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ANATOMY OF THE 1936–39 REVOLT 41
Schor al gavei lavan [Black on White 32. Can‘an, Milchamata shel
Backs] (n.p.: n.p., 1938), p. 3; Werner Ha‘Itonut, pp. 30–45, 56–76. Najjar,
Hoffman, Caricature: From Leonardo to “Arabic Press,” pp. 115–20, 135, 201–8.
Picasso (New York: Crown Publishers, 33. Najjar, “Arabic Press,” pp. 154,
1957), pp. 36, 41, 44, 145, 147; Wechsler, 161–62.
A Human Comedy, chapter 5. 34. Navon describes one incident
19. Fichman, “Foreword,” p. 3. where his cartoon was rejected; see BeKav
20. Navon, BeKav uvikhetav, pp. uvikhetav, p. 123.
118–20, 130. 35. Gale Murray, “Toulouse Lautrec’s
21. Raja al-‘Isa, e-mail message to Illustrations for Victor Joze and George
author, January 2001. Clemenceau and their Relationship to
22. A. Akman, “From Cultural French Anti-Semitism of the 1890s,” in
Schizophrenia to Modernist Binaries: Nochlin and Garb, eds., Jew in the Text,
Cartoons and Identities in Turkey p. 62.
(1930–1975),” in Muge Gocek, ed., 36. Richard N. Verdery, “Arab
Political Cartoons in the Middle East ‘Disturbances’ and the Commissions of
(Princeton: Markus Weiner Publishing, Inquiry,” in Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, ed., The
1998), p. 86. Transformation of Palestine: Essays on
23. This fact strengthens the case for the Origin and Development of the
the influence of physiognomy in Arab-Israeli Conflict (Evanston, IL:
Palestinian cartoons. Palmira Brummett, Northwestern University Press, 1971),
“New Woman and the Old Nag: Images of p. 296.
Women in the Ottoman Cartoon Space,” in 37. Kenneth Stein, “Palestine’s Rural
Gocek, ed., Political Cartoons in the Economy,” Studies in Zionism 8, no. 1
Middle East, p. 15. (1987), p. 32.
24. Shumali notes that Filastin also 38. Stein, “Palestine’s Rural Economy,”
published translated articles from French p. 42; Ted Swedenburg, “The Role of the
newspapers, especially those relating to Palestinian Peasantry in the Great Revolt
Palestine, and had a particularly European (1936–1939),” in Edmund Burke III and Ira
flavor. Shumali, Sihafa al-‘arabiyya fi Lapidus, eds., Islam, Politics, and Social
Filastin, pp. 22, 27, 28. Also, Raja al-‘Isa, Movements (Berkeley: University of
e-mail message to author, January 2001; California Press, 1988), p. 182.
Khalidi, “Anti-Zionism, Arabism, and the 39. J. Jankowski, “The Palestinian Arab
Palestinian Identity.” Revolt of 1936–1939,” Muslim World, no.
25. Najjar, “Arabic Press,” pp. 135, 140, 63 (1973), pp. 220.
146, 157, 191–92. 40. For views among the Zionist
26. For widespread belief of leadership about the Palestinian Arab
physiognomy among the public; see Curtis, movement, see Ian Black, Zionism and the
Apes and Angels, pp. 5, 13. Arabs, 1936–1939 (New York: Garland
27. Art played a large part in Publishing, 1986), pp. 15, 22, 205; G.
perpetuating physiognomical beliefs. Sheffer, “The Images of Arabs and Jews as a
See Cowling, The Artist as Anthropologist, Factor in British Policy towards Palestine,”
p. 6; and Curtis, Apes and Angels, Zionism 1, no. 1 (1980), p. 123; Y. Haim,
p. 2. Abandonment of Illusions: Zionist
28. On historians’ difficulty gauging Political Attitudes toward the Palestinian
audience responses, see Curtis, Apes and Arab Nationalism, 1936–1939 (Boulder,
Angels, pp. xviii, 14. CO: Westview Press, 1983); Letter from
29. Can’an, Milchamata shel Consul-General Heathcote-Smith to Sir M.
Ha‘Itonut, p. 17. Lampson, point four, 18 April 1938, India
30. Nasser Eddin Nashashibi, Office L/P&S/12/3350.
Jerusalem’s Other Voice: Ragheb 41. Y. Nimrod, “Reflections on
Nashashibi and Moderation in Palestinian History,” Jerusalem Quarterly,
Palestinian Politics, 1920–1948 (Exeter: no. 25 (Fall 1982), p. 43.
Ithaca Press, 1990), p. 96; Khalidi, 42. Phillip Mattar, The Mufti of
“Anti-Zionism, Arabism, and the Palestinian Jerusalem: Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and
Identity,” p. 5. the Palestinian National Movement (New
31. Khalidi, “Anti-Zionism, Arabism, York: Columbia University Press, 1988),
and the Palestinian Identity,” p. 7. chap. 5 and 6.
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42 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES
43. One month later the Arabs 53. This phrase is also found in Psalm
resolved to withhold taxes from the British 126, Shir HaMa‘alot, usually said before
administration. the Jewish blessing after meals.
44. See I. Gershoni, “The Muslim 54. Sandy Sufian, Healing the Land
Brothers and the Arab Revolt in Palestine, and the Nation: Malaria and the Zionist
1936–1939,” Middle Eastern Studies, no. Project in Palestine, 1920–1947 (Chicago:
22 (July 1986), pp. 367–97. University of Chicago Press, 2007), chap. 1
45. S. W. Abboushi, “Road to Rebellion: and 5; John Efron, Defenders of the Race
Arab Palestine in the 1930s,” JPS 6, no. 3 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994).
(Spring 1977), pp. 26–27; Swedenburg, 55. Sander Gilman, Disease and
“Palestinian Peasantry,” pp. 171, 186; Representation: Images of Illness from
Khalidi, The Iron Cage, pp. 65–67, 69– Madness to AIDS (Ithaca: Cornell
71. University Press, 1988), p. 11.
46. Najjar, “Arabic Press,” pp. 133–34. 56. Curtis, Apes and Angels, pp. xi–xii.
47. By July 1937, Nashashibi had 57. Thanks to Laila Parsons for her
resigned from the Arab Higher Committee, input on Qawukji. E-mail message to
leaving the mufti to become the principal author, 4 July 2007.
player in Palestinian Arab nationalist 58. Black, Zionism and the Arabs,
politics. Nashashibi, Jerusalem’s Other 1936–1939, pp. 254–55.
Voice, pp. 97–99. 59. Verdery, “Arab ‘Disturbances’ and
48. Ted Swedenburg, Memories of the Commissions of Inquiry,” pp. 298–300;
Revolt: The 1936–1939 Rebellion and the Mattar, The Mufti of Jerusalem, p. 80;
Palestinian National Past (Minneapolis: Navon, BeKav uvikhetav, p. 81.
University of Minnesota Press, 1995), p. 31. 60. Mattar, The Mufti of Jerusalem,
49. Swedenburg, Memories of Revolt, p. 83.
pp. 30–32. 61. Summary 29 September 1936,
50. The same image of Weizmann is India Office, L/P&S/12/3345.
featured in another Filastin cartoon of 10 62. Lesch, Arab Politics in Palestine,
July 1936 titled “Another Sharp Weapon.” 1917–1939, p. 228; Mattar, The Mufti of
51. Black, Zionism and the Arabs, Jerusalem, p. 84.
1936–1939, p. 25. 63. Y. Gelber, “The Defense of
52. The British also failed to recognize Palestine in World War II,” Studies in
a unified Palestinian national movement Zionism 8, no. 1 (1987), p. 54.
before the revolt and during its initial 64. Sander Gilman, Difference and
stages. Sheffer, “The Images of Arabs and Pathology: Stereotypes of Sexuality, Race
Jews as a Factor in British Policy towards and Madness (Ithaca: Cornell University
Palestine,” pp. 111, 114, 116–17, 128. Press, 1985), p. 242.
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