Colonial diplomacy through art: Jerusalem 1918-1926

Abstract

"Addressing Zionists in 1923, the British artist C. R. Ashbee spoke of "that preposterous Balfour Declaration whose Arabic tail you people perpetually ignore, but the lash of which you will some day feel." His warnings received no attention at the time, nor has his radical pro-Arab Palestinian political position been researched since. One hundred years later, this art historical study asks what possibilities individual colonial actors had to influence official colonial policy. In the example of Jerusalem under British rule, Moya Tönnies analyses how three members of the British administration, Ashbee, architect Ernest Tatham Richmond, and governor Ronald Storrs, all three identifying with the International Arts and Crafts Movement, used art as a diplomatic sphere for their British colonial anti-Zionist interventions"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Discourses on the demolition of Jerusalem -- English and Armenian sensitivity to Middle Eastern tiles -- C.R. Ashbee and the Preservation Movement -- Ronald Storrs and the souls -- The Friendship of Storrs and Ernest Tatham Richmond -- Early stages of the Balfour Declaration -- Storrs' early pro-Arab advocacy -- Prohibitive legislations -- Forming an organizational agent : the Pro-Jerusalem Society -- A ceramic workshop on the Haram -- Embracing Herbert Samuel -- Ashbe's designs for Herbert Samuel's private interior -- Ashbee's appeal to the Royal Family -- Work under early civil rule -- Richmond's entanglement with Muslim notables -- The monograph on the dome of the rock -- After the separation -- Storrs and the "preachers of assimilation to the Arabs" -- Finale : withdrawal to British Christian institutions -- Ashbee's and Richmond's political positions after leaving Palestine : anti-Zionist lectures and publications.