Urban-Rural Relations in Mandatory Palestine: Tiberias, Urban Notables and Control of the Palestinian Countryside, 1918–1948.

This article explores the relationship between the Palestinian urban elites and rural population in the Tiberias district during the Palestine British Mandate, 1918–1948. The article argues that due to the heterogeneity of the Palestinian rural population, urban control of the countryside was stronger than elsewhere in Palestine. In this case, urban control centred, in particular, on the wealthy and powerful Muslim family, al-Tabari. This control maintained its strength until the end of the Mandate. However, despite this urban control of the countryside, the Palestinian Arab population of the district failed to create a united front against the better-organised and far more trained and equipped Zionist Haganah forces during the 1948 War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]