In 1918, following the British defeat of the Ottoman army and their establishment of a Military Government in Palestine, a number of political clubs called Muslim-Christian Associations (Al-Jam'iah al-Islamiya al-Massihiya) were established in all the major towns. They soon formed a national body, the Palestine Arab Congress, which tried to influence the developing British policy in Palestine and counter the influence of the Zionist Commission which visited Palestine in April 1918. The main platform of these groups were:
The Muslim-Christian Associations are regarded as the first manifestations of a broad based Palestinian Nationalist movement. By the end of the 1920s they had ceased to be important. The membership was from the upper classes and they proved to be ineffective in halting the Zionist advances and failed to provide leadership for a public that was becoming increasingly concerned about the future.