Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

In late 1947 and early 1948, Iraqi and British politicians sat down in London to “renegotiate” Iraqi-British relations. Saleh Jabr, the prime minister, led the Iraqi delegation. His appointment in March 1947 had been intended to ease the pressure from the Shi'i part of the population. Being a Shi'i himself, it was thought that his appointment, as the first Shi'i to occupy that post, would appease growing anti-British sentiment that had been brewing among the politically conscious since 1920. When these “negotiations” produced nothing more than a revision of the 1930 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty, protests began. These protests have come to be known in the annals of Iraqi popular history as al-Wathbah – “the Awakening.” The first phase of the Wathbah started on January 3, 1948 when the Iraqi foreign minister, Fadil al-Jamali, who was a member of the Iraqi delegation in London, made the claim that much of the criticism against the old treaty was without justification and was a result of oppositional party politics. The nationalists were incensed. On January 5, students from a Baghdad secondary school responded by demonstrating on the streets and were met by mounted police. When the students failed to disperse, they were fired upon. On January 6, the right-wing nationalist Istiqlal (Independence) Party came out to support angry students now striking throughout the capital. On January 16, ... log in or subscribe to read full text