Jewish Acquisition of the Municipal Council for the City of Jerusalem from the Late Ottoman Period until the End of the British Mandate in 1948 AD

Abstract

This research deals with the expeditious efforts made by the Jewish settlers in Palestine to gradually occupy and control the municipal council for the city of Jerusalem from its establishment in 1860 AD until the end of the British Mandate on 15th., May, 1948 AD, and it came in two topics, as it dealt with the first topic of the attempts that were carried out by the Jewish settlers in the late Ottoman period to obtain their representation in the membership of the first municipal council for the city of Jerusalem who were covered by the applicable Ottoman laws and regulations as citizens of the state (naturalized by the Ottoman nationality) and the election, as they were able to obtain the representation of a number of Jewish members on the council after every process of amendment and expansion in the regulations and laws related to the work of municipal councils during the late era of the Ottoman Empire, while the second topic dealt with the Jewish acquisition of the municipal council for the city of Jerusalem in the period of the British Mandate 1918 - 1948 AD. If they obtained the broad and broad support from the Mandate authority by enacting or amending many laws, related to candidacy and election for municipal councils in Palestine, including the Municipal Council of Jerusalem, which allowed the wide scope for Jewish settlers to acquire the structure of the council, or by increasing the number of its members after each election, for claiming that they constitute the majority of the city of Jerusalem, or by restricting the Palestinian Arab voters and candidates through the legal legislations issued by the Mandate Authority for the work and election of municipal councils by limiting their role and influencing it, or restricting their activities in the council, or by leasing the council’s activities and work in the field of developing or establishing infrastructures, or providing services, or adopting plans to expand the municipal borders of the city, and implementing them, to enable the addition of more random settlements and Jewish settlements to obtain more municipal services, or disruption of the population in it for the benefit of Jewish settlers.