Nevill Barbour (17 February 1895 – December 1972) was a BBC journalist and reporter who wrote about the Arab world.[1]
He was born in Eastbourne, England. He was the son of Sir David Barbour, who worked in the British bureaucracy in India. He served as the BBC correspondent in Palestine during World War II and after that returned to England, where he was appointed head of the Arab Department at the BBC. He was the editor of "The Arab Listener" published by the BBC.
During the Algerian independence movement, Barbour helped in securing the transfer of media reporters from the Tunisian border to the combat units of the interior. In particular he worked with Djelloul Khatib.[2]
In April 1945, Barbour was one of three Christians (the others being Col. Newcombe and Ralph Beaumont MP) and three Jews (Albert Montefiore Hyamson and Jewish Fellowship members Emile Marmorstein and Rabbi Dr Israel Mattuck) as well as three Muslims to draw up A Constitution for Palestine. This was, according to Newcombe, a 'logical and moderate plea written in a matter of fact and convincing way' that attempted to show a non-Zionist solution to the Palestine problem composed by Christians, Jews and Muslims. The document broadly reiterated the Hyamson-Newcombe proposal, where an independent Palestinian state would be characterised by control of their own municipal authorities.[3]
- ^ Peregrine Fellowes (1973) Obituary: Appreciation; Nevill Barbour, Asian Affairs, 4:1, 86-87, DOI: 10.1080/03068377308729656
- ^ Barbour, Nevill (1921–1963). "Nevill Barbour Collection. St Antony's College. University of Oxford" (PDF). www.sant.ox.ac.uk/research-centres/middle-east-centre. Middle East Centre, St Antony's College, Oxford. OX2 6JF.
- ^ Miller, Rory Divided Against Zion: Anti-Zionist Opposition to the Creation of a Jewish State in Palestine, 1945–1948, Routledge, 2013, p.160-161