The National Defense Party (NDP; Arabic: حزب الدفاع الوطني Ḥizb al-Difāʿ al-Waṭanī) was founded by Raghib al-Nashashibi in the British Mandate of Palestine in December 1934.
The party was represented on the first Arab Higher Committee, 26 April 1936,[citation needed] but withdrew in early July 1937.
[2] It managed to avoid being banned when all the other Palestinian Arab nationalist parties were suppressed by the authorities beginning in October 1937.
The party actively assisted the British during the Arab Revolt and were regarded as collaborators and subject to attacks and assassinations.
A compromise was reached and Raghib al-Nashashibi and a colleague joined the conference two days after its start.