The Great Arab Revolt
A nationwide uprising against British colonial rule and mass immigration, beginning with a six-month general strike and crushed by overwhelming military force.
In April 1936, Palestinians launched a general strike that lasted roughly six months — one of the longest in colonial history — demanding an end to British support for Zionist immigration, a halt to land transfers, and the establishment of a representative national government. When negotiations failed, the strike grew into an armed revolt that spread across the countryside and, at its height in 1938, briefly displaced British authority from parts of Palestine, including the Old City of Jerusalem.
Britain responded with emergency regulations, mass arrests, home demolitions, deportations, and the deployment of tens of thousands of troops. By 1939 the revolt had been suppressed at the cost of thousands of Palestinian lives, and much of the Palestinian political and military leadership had been killed, imprisoned, or exiled — a decapitation that left society severely weakened a decade later, in 1948.
The British Peel Commission of 1937, convened in response to the uprising, became the first official body to propose partitioning Palestine into two states. Britain’s 1939 White Paper then reversed course, restricting Jewish immigration and land purchase — a shift the Zionist movement rejected.
Cited works
2- palquest.org — great palestinian rebellion 1936 1939(opens in a new tab)https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/158/great-palestinian-rebellion-1936-1939
- un.org — history(opens in a new tab)https://www.un.org/unispal/history/
Connected in the archive
5 connected records5 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
names this record — 3 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Mi'arميعار
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: The village was punished once before 1948. A number of its residents took part in the Great Revolt of 1936–39, and Mi'ar became a centre of rebel operations in the Galilee — its men firing on British troops passing nearby, damaging roads, cutting electrical cables and laying mines against British vehicles.
- Sha'abشَعْب
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Its catalogue divides the sixty-eight-minute recording into the village's social life under British rule, British strategy during the Great Revolt, political life under Zionist occupation and Palestinian popular resistance.
- Yusuf Abu Durraيوسف أبو درة
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: A railway worker from a village near Jenin who escaped the cordon at Ya'bad where Qassam was killed, became one of the five commanders of the Great Revolt, stormed Atlit prison to free its inmates — and was handed to the British by the Arab Legion and hanged.
named in this record — 2 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Jerusalemالقدس
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: When negotiations failed, the strike grew into an armed revolt that spread across the countryside and, at its height in 1938, briefly displaced British authority from parts of Palestine, including the Old City of Jerusalem.
- The Peel Commission
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: The British Peel Commission of 1937, convened in response to the uprising, became the first official body to propose partitioning Palestine into two states.
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“The Great Arab Revolt.” Timeline, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/timeline/great-arab-revolt.- MLA
“The Great Arab Revolt.” Timeline, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/timeline/great-arab-revolt. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-great-arab-revolt, title = {The Great Arab Revolt}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/timeline/great-arab-revolt}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }