Talal Al-Rashoud - The Origins of Solidarity with Palestine in the Gulf, 1924-1948

The Gulf’s engagement with the Palestinian cause is frequently portrayed as the product of the oil age, when this allegedly isolated and stagnant region opened up to the outside world. This lecture will offer a radically different account, tracing the beginnings of Gulf solidarity with Palestine to the first half of the twentieth century. It will argue that the relationship between the region’s peoples and the Palestinian national movement first took shape in the 1920s. This occurred within the context of a boom in the global market for pearls, which allowed for the emergence of merchant-led cultural movements in Kuwait and Bahrain influenced by ideas from the broader Arab world. Gulf-Palestine relations deepened in the tumultuous 1930s, when the collapse of the pearl market and the spread of Arab nationalist ideology gave rise to opposition movements in several states. Domestic activism became closely linked to the Palestinian issue, particularly in Kuwait, while Palestine’s Arab Revolt inspired acts of solidarity in Bahrain, Oman, and the Trucial States. The lecture will conclude with the 1940s, when Bahrain became the primary site of popular support for Palestine in the region, and Saudi forces participated in the 1948 War.
To register please go to:
https://Universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJArd-GurDMoHtOKktb1xxuhBQ4GGxLHBjE0