A HISTORICAL SLIP OF THE TONGUE, OR WHAT CAN THE ARAB–JEWISH TRANSPORTATION STRIKE TEACH US ABOUT THE ISRAELI–PALESTINIAN CONFLICT?

Abstract

Psychologists attribute great significance to slips of the tongue. In such moments, the train of speech is interrupted by a word that seems to be out of context. Yet analysts say that this interruption actually betrays an inner truth hidden, consciously or not, behind the screen of normal speech. I suggest here that the 1931 Arab-Jewish transportation strike against the Mandatory government in Palestine can be seen as a historical slip of the tongue in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Between the bloody clashes of 1929 and the 1936 Palestinian Revolt, at the same time that Arab newspapers and organizations were calling for strikes and riots against the arming of Jewish settlements, a joint Jewish-Arab general strike broke out to protest taxes levied by the British on motorized transportation. The called the drivers' strike, enjoyed widespread public support and brought transportation throughout the country to a total halt for eight days. Yet after its end, the strike dropped out of the historical annals as if it had never occurred.1 My strategy here is to treat the strike as a historical slip of the tongue, attempting to uncover the hidden, repressed meaning of the strike with respect to the relationship between Jews and Arabs during the British colonial period. This investigation seeks to analyze the relations between Arabs and Jews using material not usually considered in the official national narratives offered by the Zionist and Palestinian establishments.