The objectives of the party were independence for Palestine and an end of the Mandate, the preservation of the Arab majority in the country, opposition to Zionism and closer relations between Palestine and other Arab countries. It was the largest of the Arab political parties formed in Palestine during the 1930s. The first official newspaper of the party was Al Jamia Al Arabiya.[1]
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni was a member of the party and served as secretary-general and became editor-in-chief of the party's paper Al Liwaa[2] and other newspapers, including Al Jamia Al Arabiya.
Jamal al-Husayni represented the party on the Arab Higher Committee, formed on 25 April 1936, during the 1936-39 Arab revolt. Following the violence and assassinations instigated by the various Palestinian nationalist parties and the AHC in mid-1937, the British authorities outlawed the AHC in October 1937 and commenced to roundup its leaders, some of which were deported to the Seychelles. Jamal al-Husayni escaped to Syria, as did Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni. They, as well as Amin al-Husayni, were involved in the 1941 pro-Nazi Rashidi revolt in Iraq. Jamal was captured by the British and interned in Southern Rhodesia, where he was held until November 1945 when he was allowed to move to Cairo.[3][4]
During Jamal's incarceration, the party was re-established in 1942 with Saleh al-Husayni, Jamal's brother, as acting president and Emil Ghuri, a Christian, as secretary.[5]
^A Survey of Palestine - prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. Reprinted 1991 by the Institute of Palestine Studies, Washington. Volume II. ISBN0-88728-214-8. pp.947,948