Falastin

Palestine Arabs outdid themselves today in celebrating Mouled el Nebi, the birthday of the .. Mohammed. Never before have there been such elaborate festivities, decorations and processions as throughout the country today…

Several days prior to the festival all buildings in Arab quarters were elaborately decorated, and pictures of Hitler, Mussolini and Fawzi el Kaoukgi, an Iraqian who came to Palestine during the disturbances last Summer to organize an “Arab revolt” were displayed. The government immediately ordered the removal of Fawzi el Kaoukgi’s picture.

At Jaffa, the swastika was hoisted by Arabs over several building.

An excerpt from Falastin, an extremist pro-Mufti newspaper, in English translation, 13.11.1928, S25/2977, CZA.

Pierre Van Paassen was in Palestine and provides a graphic account of the 1929 pogrom against the Jews of Hebron in his book Days of Our Years, from which the following comes. Van Paasen shows that the Mufti of Jerusalem was behind the riots and slaughter and accuses the British administration of aiding and abetting the Mufti.

Falsified photographs showing the Omar mosque of Jerusalem in ruins, with an inscription that the edifice had been bombed by the Zionists, were handed out to the Arabs of Hebron as they were leaving their place of worship on Friday evening, August the twenty-third. A Jew passing by on his way to the synagogue was stabbed to death. When he heard of the murder, Rabbi Slonim, a man born and bred in the city and a friend of the Arab notables, notified the British police commander that the Arabs seemed to be strangely excited. He was told to mind his own business. An hour later the synagogue was attacked by a mob, and the Jews at prayer were slaughtered. On the Saturday morning following, the Yeshiva...was put to the sack, and the students were slain. A delegation of Jewish citizens thereupon set out to visit the police station, but was met by the lynchers. The Jews returned and took refuge in the house of Rabbi Slonim where they remained until evening, when the mob appeared before the door. Unable to batter it down, the Arabs climbed up the trees at the rear of the house and, dropping onto the balcony, entered through the windows on the first floor.

Mounted police--Arab troopers in the service of the government-- had appeared outside by this time, and some of the Jews ran down the stairs of Slonim's house and out into the roadway. They implored the policemen to dismount and protect their friends and relatives inside the house and clung around the necks of the horses. From the upper windows came the terrifying screams of the old people, but the police galloped off, leaving the boys in the road to be cut down by Arabs arriving from all sides for the orgy of blood.

What occurred in the upper chambers of Slonim's house could be seen when we found the twelve-foot-high ceiling splashed with blood. The rooms looked like a slaughterhouse. When I visited the place in the company of Captain Marek Schwartz, a former Austrian artillery officer, Mr. Abraham Goldberg of New York, and Mr. Ernst Davies, correspondent of the old Berliner Tageblatt, the blood stood in a huge pool on the slightly sagging stone floor of the house. Clocks, crockery, tables and windows had been smashed to smithereens. Of the unlooted articles, not a single item had been left intact except a large black-and-white photograph of Dr. Theodore Herzl, the founder of political Zionism. Around the picture's frame the murderers had draped the blood-drenched underwear of a woman.

We stood silently contemplating the scene of slaughter when the door was flung open by a British solder with fixed bayonet. In strolled Mr. Keith-Roach, governor of the Jaffa district, followed by a colonel of the Green Howards battalion of the King's African Rifles. They took a hasty glance around that awful room, and Mr. Roach remarked to his companion, "Shall we have lunch now or drive to Jerusalem first?"

In Jerusalem the Government published a refutation of the rumors that the dead Jews of Hebron had been tortured before they had their throats slit. This made me rush back to that city accompanied by two medical men, Dr. Dantziger and Dr. Ticho. I intended to gather up the severed sexual organs and the cut-off women's breasts we had seen lying scattered over the floor and in the beds. But when we came to Hebron a telephone call from Jerusalem had ordered our access barred to the Slonim house. A heavy guard had been placed before the door. Only then did I recall that I had inadvertently told a fellow newspaperman in Jerusalem about our gruesome discoveries.

On the same day of the Hebron massacre, the Arabs had rioted in Jerusalem, crying: "Death to the Jews! The government is with us!" The fact that the attacks on Jewish communities in different parts of the country had occurred simultaneously was interpreted by the Mufti's newspaper Falastin as irrefutable evidence of the spontaneity of the outburst of Arab indignation. The Acting High Commissioner, Mr. H.C. Luke, had informed newspapermen that the government had been completely taken unawares. Yet a full ten days earlier it was he who had ordered the various hospitals, and especially the Rothschild clinic of which Dr. Dantziger was chief surgeon, to have a large number of beds in readiness in view of the government's expectation of a riotous outbreak.

The Arab newspaper “Felestin,” controlled by the Jerusalem Grand Mufti, made a sensational onslaught on American newspapers yesterday, singling out the “New York Times.” ...

The Mufti denied interviews with Joseph Levy, “New York Times” correspondent, Ketchum of the “London Daily Express,” and Pierre Van Paassen, representative of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency...

Mr. Van Paassen stated before his departure that when he called on the Mufti for the interview, the head of the Moslem Supreme Council offered him inducements, including women, if he would take the Mufti’s side and color the news according to his personal views and ambitions.

Falastin's answer to the "Davar"

The only newspaper that felt like "commenting" on T.'s article. A. Speaking of the terrorist gang ("killers" in the name of Allah," published in yesterday's issue) is the .."Falestin". The shriveled summary of the article (which, as usual, is somewhat switched) is crowned with two headlines: an example of perversion of justice and crime by their newspapers, a provocation to separate Muslims from Christians (in the Davar article "It is emphasized that no Christian is included" at members of the gang and that the spirit of the gang is hatred for everything that is not Muslim (in a long main article "Isn't it time for the criminal[sic] newspapers to shut up? The Arabs prefer death to this life" - Falastin attacks ... and now in the matter of the terrorist gangs. The article is full of seething enmity and harsh libels. In the style of "Falestin" from the early days when he sees the need to highlight his passionate nationalism and be "more papal than the Pope."

It is interesting that this time "Falestin" interpreted the name of the author of the article and he is Abdel Elgani Albarami, the Muslim who works in the editorial department of this newspaper...(the articles in 'Falestin' are [usually] written by the editor, Yousef Hana).

The Arab case against Zionism during the late Ottoman period was tainted by an anti-Jewishness that had become part of the "daily bread in Palestine," to quote one prescient observer. In November 1913,

a prominent leader of the Palestinian anti-Zionist campaign, Sheikh Sulayman al-Taji from Acre, published a poem entitled "The Zionist Danger" in Filastin. It related to Jews as [supposedly] "the weakest [sic. al-Taji] of all peoples and the least of them" who were constantly haggling with Arabs to obtain their land.

In 1913 the influential Jaffa daily Filastin published a poem by a local Palestinian leader that included the lines ...

'SEMITIC BROTHERS'

If British plans ever materialize, Palestine will eventually come under Arab domination, presumably as part of the great Arab Confederacy. The fate of the Jews in this eventuality becomes an interesting conjecture. There is a pleasant fiction, implicitly believed by many Jews, that Israel has been well-treated by the followers of Mohammed ; that some sort of modus vivendi was established in the dim days of antiquity, so that the two groups got along famously together.

This fantasy grew out of the liaison between the Jews of Spain and their racial kinsmen, the invading Berbers, who were largely of direct Jewish and Phoenician descent...

Lloyd George states that "in science and art the superiority of the early Moslem is attributable to the Jews." Lecky tells us that "Jewish learning and Jewish genius contributed very largely to that bright . . . civilization which radiated from Toledo and Cordova." And H. G. Wells declares that it is "difficult to say . . . when the Jew ends and the Arab begins, so important and essential were its Jewish factors."

As the invading tribes began to be suffocated by mass conversions and the holding of innumerable concubines, whatever bond of attraction might have existed between the two peoples completely disappeared. Soon thereafter, to continue to this day, Moslem rulers placed a penalty of death on apostasy to Judaism. Jews were forbidden to ride on horses and were marked with special clothes. Politically they were consigned to the same second-rate citizenship which Nazi Germany is now introducing. In this cruel condition they remain, considered in the same light as dogs, creatures the true Believer utterly despises. The Arabic culture known to history was a modification of the several ancient civilizations absorbed bodily by the barbaric Arab tribes in their swift march of conquest. It never touched the Arabs of Arabia, the peninsular Arab. These, writes Bertram Thomas, "remained inviolate by their poverty, their remoteness, their unwillingness to change. . . An intolerance survives which is almost without parallel in the world today and explains why so few European explorers have penetrated deep into the peninsula — scarcely twenty throughout the ages."

As early as Roman times, when the Hebrews with their backs to the wall were struggling for their very existence, Tacitus in- forms us that "a considerable body of Arabs . . . took the field as avowed enemies of the Jewish nation."

Wherever the Arab has seized control since, a critical situation has risen for the Jews.

A modern instance is the revolt of Palestine Arabs in 1834 against the exactions of the Caliphate. Mobs converged on Jerusalem from all over the country, and for several weeks held the city. Venting their ugly passions on the horror-stricken Jews, they gave themselves over to a mad orgy of rapine, murder and pillage, until the Egyptian general Ibrahim, with equal barbarism and ferocity, annihilated them.

If one may judge from the tone of the Arab press, the lot of the Jew under the coming 'National Government' will be anything but pleasant. El Jamiyah Arabiyah snarls that "the English can stand the pride and impudence of the Jews, but the Arabs know what kind of vermin[sic] the J.. are and will know how to silence them." Another ready example is the editorial in Islamia on October 4, 1936, appealing to foreign Arabs not to confine themselves to mere boycott of Jews but to drink their blood. It may be seen again in the inflammatory circulars systematically scattered in Jerusalem, reading: "Kill the J..s until not one of them remains. Gird yourselves and satiate your souls that thirst for blood, souls that cannot be sated but with the blood of the . . . alien and loathsome J.."

Farago found that "Arab agitators visit the peasants and promise them that at the end of the struggle the land and wives of the Jews will be distributed amongst them. With this expectation the peasant digs up his money and buys rifles and ammunition from wandering gunrunners."

Like many other informed men, Duff gave blunt warning that "as soon as the Palestinian leaders understood that Great Britain had really left them to their own devices ... a general massacre of the Jews and the destruction of their colonies would occur." It need occasion no surprise that the words 'Heil Hi#ler' proved a magic password during the recent rebellion, protecting Europeans against attack.

In every Moslem country the situation of Israel is tragic and frightful. When the French came into Arab North Africa on a frank war of imperial conquest, the Jews were overjoyed. Their position had been so terrible that the invading French were looked on as if they had been the troops of Messiah. Even after European intervention, characteristic pogroms have flared up like a windswept flame. The fiendish attack on the Jewish quarter in Constantine, Algiers, in 1934, was a particularly atrocious event. When French troops finally arrived, they found a bloodcurdling scene of ruin and horror. Over a hundred Jews had been slaughtered. Whole families had been locked in their homes and burned to death. Houses were sacked, women vio- lated and children hacked to pieces. Among the countless injured were young girls with their breasts cut off, creatures mutilated beyond recognition but somehow alive.

In as dire misery are the one hundred and twenty thousand Jews in French Morocco.

In Tunis, Tripoli and Spanish Mo- rocco the picture is as wretched. Only the protection of European soldiers saved the North African Jews from an orgy of torture and merciful annihilation ; and some day, the Socialists promise, these troops will be withdrawn.

In Iraq the one hundred and ten thousand Jews live under a sanguinary reign of terror, not much different from that taking place in Germany. They are mercilessly boycotted. Savage beatings, murders and robberies are a daily occurrence. Jewish girls are forcibly seized and dragged into harems. Yusuf Malek assures us that "in Iraq a Moslem finds it more easy to kill a Jew than to kill a chicken."

In Syria Jews face famine and gradual extinction. Since they are completely Arabicized, their fate gives an abrupt answer to Arab claims that the tension in Palestine springs solely from a conflict of national aims. The Jewish population of Damascus has collapsed from twenty thousand after the War to less than four thousand in 1935. In the last five years, ten thousand Jews have emigrated from Damascus and Aleppo alone. In every city and village they are systematically terrorized and boycotted. In the streets and mosques they are openly threatened with the same fate as befell the unfortunate Assyrians in Iraq, just as soon as Syria obtains its independence.

The French Mandatory Authorities show little concern for Jews and are either vague or frankly indifferent. Nevertheless, the Jew views the day when a native government will be installed, with horror. The sudden move of .. Socialist ministry to make good on its theories by granting independence to Syria, threw all Syrian Jewry into a panic. To a man, they are trying to leave the country before the French-Syrian Treaty goes into effect. The only redeeming spot on the Syrian map is the autonomous Christian district of Lebanon. These people are the only friends the Jews have in Western Asia. Centuries of bloody persecu- tion have taught the Syrian Christian a lesson he has not forgot- ten. The Lebanon is completely and whole-souledly pro- Zionist. It wants the Jews for neighbors by the south, to lessen its isolation in this forever-menacing Moslem sea. When pan- Arab congresses held their anti-Jewish sessions, the Lebanese papers roundly denounced them.

The Government of the Lebanon Republic has even proclaimed the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, as an official holiday. Arabia Felix, that immense curtained mystery, is a graveyard in which lie buried the many strong Jewish tribes who once graced this area with their intelligence and learning. In this vast stronghold of the fanatic Ishmaelites no Jew may enter and live.

In Yemen, at the south end of the Peninsula, Jews are locked into ghettos as in the Middle Ages, reduced to conditions of economic desperation even worse, if that be possible, than the Jews of the pogrom areas of Europe. Their women are at the constant mercy of every wandering desperado who takes it into his mind to invade the ghetto. Jews must wear a distinctive dress. They must keep in the shadows. They are prohibited from riding on horseback. Their children, by edict of December 1928, must embrace Moslemism on the death of their parents.

Those who believe the assurances of the English have only to read the gory history of the Christian Assyrians in Iraq, after Britain terminated its Mandate there in 1932, to gain a picture of what is impending in Palestine. Just as the English made an arrangement with the Zionists, so they had made a similar one with the Assyrians, inviting them to rise against the Turks and promising them independence and protection if they would do so. Moved by these pledges, the Assyrians were the only people in what is now Iraq who took up the Allied cause and fought loyally for the British Empire.

Their territory was later placed under Arab rule because London was anxious to include the Mosul Oil District within Iraqian frontiers...

Danger of Incitement... During the Nebi Moussa festivals, the crowd shouted, "Palestine is ours and the Zionists are our dogs; we have weapons enough; slaughter don't be afraid!" No one was arrested. Falastin praised the behavior of the crowd.

One of the most prominent Arabs involved in "re-establishing friendly relations" was none other than Abdullah Dajani, ostensibly one of Jaffa's leading nationalist figures, who only days later wrote to Dizengoff (?) warning him that the government had given Issa el-Issa permission to start Falastin again, which Dajani felt would lead to a return of "anti-Jewish agitation and would spoil all oir joint efforts to establish harmony between Jews and Arabs."

Ninety-five years ago, bloody anti-Jewish riots took place in Jaffa, then one of Mandatory Palestine’s most important cities and home to large Jewish and Arab populations. The Jaffa “events,” as they euphemistically became known, constituted one of the opening sallies of the Arab-Israeli conflict... In 1921, the Arab journalist Issa al-Issa returned to Jaffa. Issa, before leaving for several years to Damascus, had edited the newspaper Falastin in Jaffa until 1914. Under his direction, the paper published such sharp incitement against the Jews that even the Ottoman authorities banned the publication. Upon his return, the British gave him permission to renew the publication of his paper.

Abdullah Dajani, one of Jaffa’s Arab leaders, was terrified of the danger inherent in granting official permission to distribute Issa's words of hatred. With his friend, the Jewish agronomist Shmuel Tolkowski, Dajani tried to get the approval rescinded, but to no avail. Jaffa’s residents interpreted this move as governmental support for the paper’s anti-Semitism.

Palestine Arabs should not join lodges of the Masonic order, according to a warning published in the Arab papers, Falastin and Rakib Sion. The papers caution their Arab readers against joining Masonic lodges, because they are dominated by Jews. As evidence they refer to the infamous falsification, "Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

This appeal is a result of the recent formation of a ire Mason Lodge in Palestine, which invited Jews, Moslems and Christians to join for the purpose of fostering fraternity in the country.

'Without Prejudice'

THE BLOOD LIBEL

Davar writes: The Hebrew press of Palestine has given no dublicity to the infamous and disgusting libel which Falastin has attempted to spread. It was the immediate action of the Government which delivered us from the necessity of sounding an alarm against the snares which our enemies have prepared for the Jews of Palestine.

The fact remains, however, that here, in the country of the Jewish National Home, a shameful attempt has been made to revive the blood libel, the symbol of human meanness of blind, religious fanaticism, of blood-thirsty instigation against the Jew. If we are in need of a proof, after what has happened to us of late, to detect the presumptions wickedness of a certain type among our enemies, this is proof enough.

Moreover, it shows us just who are attempting to creat at the Arab National Movement. There were some who tried to justify the Arabs' actions in the August riots by claiming that the Arabs were reacting unfavourably to what they called the Zionist "stealing"[sic] policy, and Jewish "dominationo[sic]!" We retorted that the excuse was flimsy; that the August riots were not a spontaneous uprising but a carefully guarded flame fanned by an infamous religious libel. He who doubted our argument can see for him-self Falastin's latest attempt. It shows that it is not the MacDonald letter which has roused the Arabs, but clearly enough, nefarious instigation and the instigators feel that nothing less than a religious libel, would bring about the recurrence of the bloody events of August 1929. _

Al Iqdam did not, as reported in the Palestine Bulletin, carry the, blood libel story above referred to. On the contrary, it contained a reasoned criticism of the lie and denied that there was any basis for it.

Action Against Falastin

It is believed that the Government, which has already suspended Falastin, will bring criminal action against the editor and the publishers for the publication of the Blood Libel story.

THE BLOOD LIBEL STORY

El Carmel has published the full text together with the exact headings, which was printed by Falastin last Sunday and for which ot was suspended. El Carmel complains against the suspension and begs the Government to consider the paper's situation in comparison with the policy which she is perusing in this country.

Meraat al Sherk expects that the Government should show more patience with a paper such as Falastin which serves Palestine honestly.

A third Arab has been arrested on suspicion of having been concerned in the shooting outrage during Passover in which three members of the Jewish Labour settlement of Yadjur were killed. He, like the others, is an Arab belonging to the village of Aassasi, near Safed, and is named Saleh Shubani.

[September 26 , 1931]. Yadjur and Public Security

But for the ghastly crime near Yadjur in April when two young halutzot and one halutz were killed, and the mysterious disappearance toward the end of the year of a halutz and halutza who started out on an innocent excursion and appear to have been swallowed up..

There were occasional attacks upon Jews , the most sensational being that which occurred on April 5, near the Arab village of Yadjur, in which three Jews were killed and four seriously injured.

The Yadjur shooting outrage, which occurred on the Haifa Road last April, when a group of Jewish labourers returning to the Yadjur Labour settlement from the Nesher Cement Factory were ambushed by a band of Arabs, has to-day claimed another victim in Breina Halperin, one of the girls in the party, who was injured at the time. She had only just come to Palestine from Poland in order to be married, when the outrage occurred, and she never recovered from the shock. She was continually since then suffering from a fit of melancholy, and this morning she threw herself under a train. The funeral took place at Haifa this afternoon. She had been married only a fortnight ago.

Three of the members of the Party, Hinda Fishman, Samuel Dishnel and Jacob Zamir, were killed outright in the attack. Although about seven months have elapsed, the police have not yet been able to trace the murderers.

The Two Who Fell in Yagur

Ester Fidel (Meshek Yagur)

Eleven young men and women, members of Meshek Yagur and the United Kibbutz Movement, and one from Kfar Chasidim, returned in the evening on Sunday, 19 Nisan 1931, from the Nesher neighborhood to Meshek Yagur, a 15-minute wagon ride. As they neared the farm, 100 meters along the road to Kfar Chasidim, they saw a few Arabs standing by the road. The Arabs allowed the wagon to pass, and once it had passed, they opened fire with a volley of shots. The first shots came from the left, and the first injured were those sitting on the left side of the wagon: Shmuel Dishel was killed immediately with a bullet to the heart and fell in the wagon, and the wagon driver, Yakov Zamir, a member of Meshek Yagur, was severely injured, fell from the wagon, and died several hours later. The donkeys panicked and ran toward the farm, and the shots that hit the wagon during its escape came from the right side. A member of the Movement, Hinde Fishman, who was sitting on the right side, was killed by a bullet through the heart, and she fell out of the wagon.

The three fatalities and the four wounded had previously been members of Kibbutz Klosova.

(Davar newspaper, April 7, 1931)

Hinde Fishman

She came from the Dubna suburb. Hinde did her pioneer training in the kibbutz known as Klosova in Poland. She immigrated in 1929 with the first wave of the Fifth Immigration, and she was sent near the farming kibbutz in Petach Tikvah. Quiet, nice to all creatures, and kindhearted, Hinde dedicated herself with love and purpose to labor. She worked in the orchards of Petach Tikvah and at the farm. After two years of training, she decided to make her permanent home in Meshek Yagur. There was already a group from Klosova there, and Mount Carmel reminded her of the hills of Kremenets, where she had spent her childhood.

In 1931, before Passover, Hinde came to Yagur. She was only with us for one week, because on the evening of Sunday, 18 Nisan 1931, a large group of us, mostly from Kremenets, traveled in the wagon to nearby Nesher (there were still no automobiles at the kibbutz). It was a very dark night, and as we returned, terrorists ambushed us. I will never forget how happy and satisfied Hinde was that evening, as if she suddenly and all at once felt the happiness she had not yet had in her short life. Poverty and an unhappy childhood did not give her much joy during her life, but that night she was very happy. Near her new home, full of dreams and hopes for working and creating her own homeland, she was cut down by an enemy bullet.

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The horses were bewildered by the shooting and reared up, and Hinde, who was gravely wounded, fell from the wagon onto the road. We could hear her final screams of pain and protest at the attackers' unfairness and cruelty. This refugee screamed and then became quiet forever, at the young age of 26. When group members went to search for her, she was dead. Three were killed and five were wounded in the attack. One of the victims was another Kremenets native, Shmuel Dishel, who was killed by a bullet straight through his heart, and he fell without uttering a sound. They found him dead in the wagon. These three martyrs were laid to rest in a common grave underneath a massive stone expertly inscribed with sheaves blowing in the wind. They move (in the wind) but are not broken.

Nor were we broken. Our group of Kremenets natives, a sizable group at our farm, together with the other members, took the yoke of action on our young shoulders, and thereby we fulfill Hinde's aspirations.

Rest in peace, Hinde! You could not fulfill your life's dreams, but we will faithfully and happily continue to serve the homeland. We turned desolate land to fruitfulness, we did our part to create a refuge for our people, and we have built a home – about which you dreamed so eagerly – on behalf of those who wish to serve the people and the homeland.

Rest in peace, dearest one!

Shmuel Dishel

From Davar, May 5, 1931

Age 22. Native of Kremenets. Completed Jewish Primary School and immediately went on to work and pioneer activities. He joined Young Pioneer and learned the tailoring trade. After a while he became an active member – a member of the council – of the tailors' union in Kremenets. He was the only wage earner in his household, but his desire to immigrate prevailed. After two years in the Pioneer organization, he went to a training kibbutz. He spent one and a half years working in the factories of Klosova. He immigrated within a year, joined the Yagur group, and went to work in the factories in Atlit on behalf of the group.

From the time he left his student's desk, he never stopped working and toiling, and when he came home to the kibbutz to rest during the holiday, he fell at the hands of the oppressor.

Dishel's hands paved the road on which he was killed.

The Funeral

From Davar, April 7, 1931

From the Haifa Workers' Council and Meshek Yagur, announcements were put up in Haifa inviting people to attend the funeral, and masses of people streamed to Hadassah Hospital. The funeral procession left there at 3:00 p.m., and at its head was a group of motorcycle riders from The Worker and an honor guard of British “foot-policemen” on horseback and in automobiles, led by Commander Flyer and then Deputy Petroz. After passing through the Technion courtyard, the procession turned to HeChalutz Street and stopped next to the Workers' House. From its balcony, Duvid Ben-Gurion eulogized the victims on behalf of the General Council of the Zionist Organization. From the factory, the procession went to Herzl Street, and next to the Central Synagogue, the cantor sang “God, Full of Compassion.” Next to the Wadi Rushmie Bridge, across from the communal houses, the coffins were placed in hearses, and dozens of cars filled with passengers escorted them to Yagur.

[Translator's Note: The Worker in Hebrew is HaPoel, an Israeli labor organization. “God, Full of Compassion” (El Male Rachamim) is a prayer for the dead recited at a funeral.]

Next to the Nesher factory, inhabitants of the area and of Kfar Hasidim joined the funeral procession. The crowd at the cemetery in Yagur numbered 2,000. Members of the group, the farm, and Nesher placed wreaths on the coffins. At the graveside, Nachum Benari gave a short speech on behalf of the United Kibbutz.

Yegur's old cemetery

The old cemetery of Yegur lays as mentioned in the heart of the kibbutz close to the houses of residents. This is a small cemetery with about 100 graves, (counting) the founders of Yegur, children and the parents of the members are buried there. The cemetery was opened in Nissan 1929. Until then, Yagur's dead were buried in Haifa. Many of those who died during this period died of mosquito fever caused by the undrained swamps of the area. Buried here in a mass grave are the "Three" - the three members of Yagur who were murdered in April 1931 in the Yagur estuaries while they were returning in a wagon from the nearby Nesher, by a group of rioters from the Ezz-e-Din e-Kasem gang. The event stirred up the Jewish settlement in the country at the time. The three: the wagoner Jacob Zamir (23), Hinda Fishman (27), Shmuel Dishel (23). A monument was erected on their graves A large tombstone that was designed by Israel's Prize-winning sculptor, Batia Lishansky. On a large slab, Lishansky created a huge relief of Shivols bowing their heads to the ground and on it are engraved the names of the three murdered and below them the words "...murdered from the ambush" and the date of the murder.

Though blood libel accusations have declined in recent decades, bloodletting in the form of terrorist attacks against Jews was an all-too-frequent occurrence on Passover. In 1931, three members of the Yadjur settlement were murdered on Passover by Arab assailants.

The Arabs, whether Moslem or Christian, are our brothers, and when I speak of enemies I mean also those Jews who are trying to make us quarrel, in the same way as the “Felestin” is doing, Mr. Mayer Dizengoff, the Mayor of Tel Aviv, writes in a reply to a warning issued to the Arab population by the Palestine Arab Executive, to take no part in the celebrations now being held in honour of Mr. Dizengoff’s 70th. birthday. The Zionists will exploit any Arab participation in the celebrations for propaganda purposes, the Palestine Arab Executive said, in its statement. Mr. Dizengoff’s reference to “enemies” is intended to correct the impression created by the “Felestin”, which, in reporting his speech welcoming Dr. Weizmann to Tel Aviv, made him say that the Arabs were enemies.

"Noble Hitler" — Says "Falastin"

"Falastin" considers the Jews to be quite in the wrong in their criticism of anti-Jewish acts in Germany. Hitler is [sic[ Innocent and Noble, strong and beloved by his people and has succeeded in saving [sic] his country from the vile (sic) Jews."

The Elders of Zion are also dragged into Falastin's article . They rule the world and do not like Hitler and are doing all they can to overthrow him, writes the Jaffa paper

"פלשתין" להגנת היטלר.

'פלשתין' נתקנא כנראה ב"אל אסלמייה" וב"אל ג'אמעה", שפרסמו מאמרים נגד תהלוכת העדלידע בתל־אביב. ופרסם מאמר, שבו הוא מפנה את תשומת " לב הממשלה לתמונות הקריקטוריות שהיו בתהלוכת העדלידע...

Falastin in Defense of Hitler.

'Falastin' was apparently jealous of Al-Islamiyah and Al-Jama'ah, which published articles against the Adloyada procession in Tel Aviv. And published an article, in which he draws the government's attention to the cartoonish images that were in the Adloyada procession...

Haifa based Al-Karmil (al-Karmal, El-carmel الكرمل, El-carmel, Jarīdat al-Karmal) asks in its issue of May 24, 1933:

"Will there rise among us an Arab Hitler who will awaken the Arabs, gather their dispersed, and lead them so that they will do what is necessary ...?"

A reader wrote in the July 1, 1934 issue of Falastin: "Hitler was liked by the Arabs, the Orientals, because that is the way of the world: the enemy of my enemies is my friend and ally."

On the great and growing influence of the Nazi ideology among the Arabs of the land in droves, because they conform to the anti-Jewish mindsets prevalent among them ...

There were soon growing signs of sympathy in the Arab street for Hitler and Nazism.

The swastika is seen more and more on Arab houses, on Arab cars, and even shoe polishers near the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem adorned crates in this painting.

Arab Press On Legislative Council Debates

Jerusalem. April 8th.

The paper goes on to express its regrets that the Arabs have not taken the slightest trouble to get in touch with Sir Oswald Mosley, who, as leader of the British Fascists attacks the Jews and their influence on British politics. The newspaper concludes by appealing to Arabs to start a campaign for joining hands with the British Fascists and get their support.

[An Editorial... Though we realize that the crushing of the terrorists is no light task,] we feel that the government did not take sufficiently stringent measures at the right time in order to weaken their influence. Had the government expended the time, energy and money that it devotes to tracking down a few "illegal" Jewish immigrants, to discovering the identities of those "legal" residents who endanger the peace of the whole country through their criminal assaults, the situation would now be less serious. But the government displayed no special vigor in this regard. It tolerated incendiary propaganda in the Arab press. It permitted demonstrations in Nablus which shouted the slogan "Long live Al-Kassam's spirit" (Al-Kassam was one of the terrorist murderers slain by the police, who has now been canonized by Arab leaders as a national hero.) After the debate in the English parliament concerning the Legislative Council—a debate which—showed a sympathetic and understanding attitude toward Zionist aspirations, the government permitted the Mufti's journal, "A Liva", to create the impression that all elements friendly to Zionism in England were in the pay of Jews. "The old Empire bows its head before Jews, because Jews [sic] have [sic] money," or further the Mandate is only apparently in English hands because Jews have purchased it long ago." Another Arab paper "Falastin" agitated openly for an alliance between the nationalist movement and Sir Oswald Mosley. The government seemed incapable of understanding that though it might be possible to treat fascist agitation humorously in London, amusement was out of place in Jaffa. The entire German population of Palestine numbers barely three thousand. Assuming that every one of them is a Nazi, they are still unable to publish a daily newspaper without assistance. The fact that a Nazi paper began to appear in Jerusalem, was in itself evidence enough that well-financed Hitler agents were in the country striving to establish contact with the Arab population. The government saw fit to ignore this.

Now it need not be surprised that the words "Heil Hitler" should be a magic pass-word, protecting the speaker from Arab attack.

In terms of the external form, the Arab movement approached the glistening world of Fascism... 

In April 1934, the Husseinis' "Al Jamia Al Arabia" (on the occasion of the opening of the Bari broadcast) wrote that Italy was the only power that had only economic and cultural trends and sought to move closer to the East.

In the same newspaper (35.4.4) Shakib Arslan wrote that Mussolini is a huge personality. The leader of European policy and that the Arabs should not be moved by the Abyssinian government that persecutes Muslims. During the Abyssinian War, the Husseinist newspapers in Italy and the opposition newspapers supported the Abyssinians.

(In 1937, "Falastin" also became pro-Italian in propaganda).

Along the Italian side, Nazi Germany also began to raise its profile among the Arabs and succeeded in doing so, especially during the days of the events.

May 22, 1937, a holiday. Large Nazi flags fluttered in Jaffa.  The front of the workers' association's house was adorned with swastikas. In many houses swastikas and pictures of the Fuhrer, the Douce and the leaders of the revolt were seen.  In 1938, one hundred Palestine Arabs visited the Nazi party conference in Nuremberg.  Needless to say, how great was the effect of the German victories, in the first period of the war, on the Arabs of the country, and how difficult was then the impression of their defeat: an Egyptian, who visited the country in the days after the conquest of Berlin wrote: "The people cry in the morning and sob in the evening. And blow to their cheek between morning and evening." [מבחינת הצורה החיצונית התקרבה התנועה הערבית לעולם־המליצות של הפאשיזם...

באפריל 1934 כתב "אל ג'אמיעה אל-ערביה" של החוסיינים (בהזדמנות פתיחת שידור בארי), שאיטליה היא המעצמה היחידה שיש לה מגמות כלכליות ותרבותיות בלבד והשואפת להתקרב אל המזרח.

באותו עתון כתב (35.4.4) שכיב ארסלאן, שמוסוליני הוא אישיות עצומה. מנהיג המדיניות האירופית ושאין הערבים צריכים לרגוש מחמת הממשלה החבשית הרודפת את המוסלמים. בימי מלחמת-חבש תמכו עתוני החוסיינים באיטליה, ועתוני האופוזיציה בחבשים.

(בשנת 1937 הפך גם "פאלשתין" פרו - איטלקי). 

בצד איטליה התחילה גם גרמניה הנאצית להרים את קרנה בין הערבים והצליחה בכך, ביחוד בימי המאורעות.

ביום 22 במאי 1937, יום חג. התנפנפו דגלים נאציים גדולים ביפו. חזית הבית של אגודת הפועלים היתה מקושטת צלבי קרס. בבתים רבים נראו צלבי קרס ותמונות הפיהרר, הדוצ'ה ומנהיגי המרד. בשנת 1938 ביקרו מאה ערבים ארצישראליים בוועידת המפלגה הנאצית בנירנברג. אין  צורך לתאר, מה גדולה היתה השפעת הנצחונות הגרמניים, בתקופה הראשונה של המלחמה, על ערביי הארץ, ומה קשה היה אחר כך רושם מפלתם: מצרי, שביקר בארץ בימים שלאחר כיבוש ברלין כתב: "העם בוכה בבוקר ומתייפח בערב. ומכה על לחיו בין בוקר וערב."]

Like many other informed men, Duff gave blunt warning that "as soon as the Palestinian leaders understood that Great Britain had really left them to their own devices... a general massacre of the Jews and the destruction of their colonies would occur." It need occasion no surprise that the words 'Heil Hitler' proved a magic pass- word during the recent rebellion, protecting Europeans against attack... All over Palestine groups of brown-clad storm troops were marching, shouting 'Heil Hitler.' At Nablus, boldly operating in the open, was a military training school for the Arab Scouts, prime leaders in the disturbances. Late in March a meeting of influential Arabs, practically all of them Government employees, was held at Safed to plan the uprising... On April 17, 1936 the funeral of a murdered Jew was made the occasion of a protest demonstration. In an ugly mood, the police fired into the crowd, wounding thirty persons. Immediately after, steelhelmeted officers invaded Tel Aviv, dragging out householders on suspicion of having been connected with the protest. Bearers of black-bordered Zionist flags of mourning were beaten into unconsciousness. Sullen, angry apprehension once more made the air of the Holy Land a tinder box. It was in the midst of this charged condition that the explosion was touched off. The actual lighting of the fuse took place on the nineteenth of April when a blood-curdling tale was circulated in Jaffa that four Arab men and women had been beheaded by Jews in Tel Aviv. Instead of counteracting these wild rumors, the Government added fuel to the fire by dispatching enlarged police units to Tel Aviv, obviously to protect Arabs from Jewish attack. The outbreaks were swiftly and shrewdly plotted. On the scheduled day not a single Arab was to be seen in Tel Aviv though they generally offer their vegetables for sale as early as five in the morning. Jews visiting Jaffa were irritably told by the Chief Officer there that he "really did not understand why they had come . . . since everybody had already known yesterday that anti-Jewish attacks were to take place." Not a finger was lifted by the Authorities. On the entire road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem only one policeman was posted though the roads were almost bursting with armed and threatening men. Jaffa burst into flames with the familiar cry "the Government is with us" urging the demented horde on. By midday the streets were running with Jewish blood. Many were slaughtered and mutilated past identification, right under the eyes of the police who made no effort to interfere. The contagion spread to all parts of the country like wildfire. Little boys of six carried automatics, shooting them off on the streets of Jerusalem as if they were toy pistols. Unhindered, the Arab press beat a loud tattoo for murder and revolt. Gramophone records made their appearance in the shops, calling on the Arabs to annihilate the Jews. Nazi flags and pictures of Hitler were prominently displayed in store windows. Booklets explaining Nazi methods of forcing Jews from the Reich were distributed freely... Far more potent than any interference by Italian or Papist has been the German intervention, which the English studiously ignore. It has been shown that agitators now active in the Near East have been trained in a special school in the Brown House in Munich; that pamphlets in Arabic are printed in Berlin and Hamburg for distribution in Palestine. On October 22, 1933, it was announced that Eissael Bendek, member of the Arab Executive's Administrative Bureau, would direct a propaganda campaign in the interests of the Nazi Party. On June 8, 1934 the Jerusalem Arab daily, Mukkattam, reported the formation of an Arab Nazi Youth Organization. The French Weekly, Marianne, reported in 1937 that a great part of the arms employed in the rebellion were supplied by the Suhl and Erfurter Gewehrfabrik of Germany, which sent, in particular, many rifles and machine-guns.

The Arab journals Falastin and Al Difa[h] published regularly articles of a racial nature, together with large portraits of the various leaders of the Third Reich. They did not even attempt to conceal the fact that they had become tools of the Ministry of Propaganda in Berlin. The shout of 'Heil Hitler' became a catchword which rang insolently over all Palestine.

A prominent feature of the newspaper were the cartoons published in it ... His headlines were drafted and formatted in flashy language ... and he sometimes published unconfirmed news. The cartoons were used for a propaganda campaign against the Jews, Zionism and the British Mandate. The Jews were described in them as having negative qualities ... identified with the figure of the serpent. The Crocodile and the Dog ... The English translation is intended for readers of the English language in general and British rule in particular. And was sometimes less blatant because of the cultural context, but also because of a practical fear of reaction and censorship. In 1936, Falestin was closed for six weeks by censorship order, following articles of incitement and cartoons used to slam Jewish society and British government ...

The cartoons did convey antisemitic messages to the masses, aimed at revolting and widening the buffer between the two peoples. But through them the messengers found a way to ridicule the British Mandate rule and negative revelations, in their opinion, in the position of the Arabs in the Land of Israel (Palestine).

Elsewhere, the Mirror and the Coglu have received congratulations on several occasions over the past six months, long reproductions and sympathetic mentions in "La Libre parole" in Paris; the Encyclopedia of Menton, France; "Der Hammer", Leipzig; "Nationalistul", Jassy, Romania; "The Fascist," London; "The Patriot", London; "Falastin", national organ of the Arabs, Jaffa, Palestine; "The American Guard", Brookline, Mass.; "Volkischer Beobachter" (Adolph Hitler's diary), Munich; "Der Sturmer", Nürnberg; "The New Journal...

Le Miroir, ‎Jul 10, 17, 1932; Le Goglu, Nov 4, 1932.

By Jewish Telegraphic Agency CAIRO —Franz von Berk, aide to Reich Propaganda Minister Goebbels, arrived here last week and was met by the editors of two Palestine Arab papers, Falastin and Adifaa. Dr. Goebbels is scheduled to visit Cairo next month.

It is not clear whether Falastin received assistance from Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy during the period under review. According to the newspaper's positive attitude towards these two countries, it is likely that it did indeed benefit from both or one of them.

The Arabs got hooked at Nazi racism and Aryan supremacy and especially by the principle of language as a unifying nationalist factor, such as the Arabic language that unites the Arab world.

This admiration of the Arab world was expressed, among other things, in political bodies that tried to emulate Nazi or fascist organizations, such as Al-Futuwwah and Al-Najjada in Palestine, the Misr al-Fatah in Egypt, or the Syrian National Party. The Palestinian nationalists, including the Husseinis, showed great sympathy for the Nazis. The Husseinis saw the Nazis as natural allies in their struggle against the Jews. This is also evidenced by the Mufti's personal connections..

The position of the Falastin newspaper towards the two camps - the dictatorships and the democracies - in the period reviewed until the outbreak of the war, will be examined in two areas: The formal position of the paper, as expressed in the main articles; The position of the newspaper as expressed in the manner in which the information was provided current events in Europe.

p. 261

The formal position in the main articles ...

In general, it can be noted that during the years 1939-1938, there was a constant drift in the position of the newspaper and in the position of the Arab world in general towards democracies. This process stemmed from the aggravation of the global crisis and the prominence of Nazi Germany as the most powerful power, as well as the intensification of the struggle in the country.

The first half of 1938: During this period the paper tried to be "balanced" between the two camps, but in fact tended more towards the Axis countries. In general, the newspaper raised allegations against the democratic nature of Western regimes and implicitly implied some sympathy for the dictatorial regimes. "There is not a single person who understands the spirit of the time who would agree that Italian fascism or German Hitlerism would take over Europe or the whole world, after the real English democracy had disappeared. But what man is not inclined to sympathize with this fascism or this Hitlerism, if there is in this sympathy to help the hundreds of millions remove from their hearts the bitterness for the sake of saving the world from a war that could lead to the end of human culture?" Following this line and the hidden sympathy for Germany ...

p. 266

At the same time, in order not to completely burn the bridges with the English, the editor tried to 'balance' these sharp articles in major articles that also criticized the dictatorial countries, though not on issues directly related to the Arabs but on issues related to Europe and tensions in the international arena. Due to the nature of this review. Its influence on Palestinian public opinion was minimal. The Palestinians were only slightly interested in what was happening in Europe, and most of their attention was focused on what was happening in Palestine and the struggle against the Jewish community and against Britain. This 'balance' did not, therefore, harm the positive image of the Axis powers, which prevailed in Arab public opinion at the time. Moreover, in the publication of the current information on what is happening in Europe, as will be seen later, the clear and sharp tendency to side with Germany stood...

p. 267

Censorship and the penalties imposed on the newspaper required its editors to use an elusive technique in publishing the news, which on the one hand would not give a reason to the mandate or censorship authorities to punish it and on the other hand would allow the newspaper to express its views against Britain and the West. This method of publication makes it difficult for the researcher and requires him to decipher it in order to recreate the true position of the newspaper. Understanding the method of publication will undoubtedly help to understand the trends of the newspaper in the period under review. It is possible to summarize in this way the measures taken by Palestine to overcome the obstacles of censorship and the position of the Mandatory authorities when it comes to expressing its positions by providing the information:

A. The dominant method that stands out in reading the newspaper is a quote from a foreign press including the British, French, German and Italian press. In most cases the paper used to quote a British press. He frequently quoted from it news items, commentaries, and articles that included criticism of the administration and its policies and especially articles of sympathy for the Axis powers and articles that demonstrated tendencies toward conciliation toward them. In this context, the newspaper published commentaries and articles from the German or Italian press which criticized the West or tended to the position of the Arabs.

B. Falastin contented itself with mentioning the cities of London, Rome, Paris or Berlin as the source of its information and refrained from mentioning the news agency that sent them. In sensitive news, the city of London has often been mentioned as a clear source that such a score was intended to train the news in the eyes of the censor, especially when the news is based on a quote from a British newspaper.

C. An interesting phenomenon that I encountered a lot in the newspaper: a certain article, which London is excellent as a source, starts with giving details related to the headline, but then the newspaper moves to other news under subheadings unrelated to the headline and still continues to be based on the same source. This gives the impression that London is the source of further knowledge.

p. 270

"An important speech that Hitler is about to deliver with very important statements on German foreign policy.'" - He did not do so with Chamberlain's speeches. It should be emphasized that it is not the news itself that is important here, but the proportions in delivering and emphasizing the news from Germany compared to similar news from the evening that were very few.

p. 271

About Hitler comparing him to Napoleon. Similarly to his treatment of Mussolini in early 1938, Falastin (March, April and May 1939) published extensively information about Hitler's actions and his character and influence. These reports were the mainstay of the foreign news page of the paper and may even be said to be more central than the reports on Mussolini in early 1938. Although the descriptions were factual, the headlines given to them were positive in tone or so-called neutral and attention-grabbing.

In presenting Germany's positive stance on the Arab issue, the Islamic-religious element was also overemphasized, in order to highlight Hitler's sympathy for Islam and the Muslim world. Hitler is also interested in following Mussolini and getting the title of Muslim defender.

Characteristically, Hitler's reference to the Palestinian problem was emphasized in his April 1, 1939, speech. The role of Palestine and the Arabs in the Fuhrer speech; We will not interfere in the affairs of others and we do not want them to interfere in our affairs: we have never asked the British about the affairs of Palestine and what is happening in it and what they want. '

The shift towards a pro-German orientation was expressed in a broader report on Germany and in the emphasis on Germany's aggressive, rigid and 'bold' position in Europe ...

The Spanish Civil War and its reflection in the press

Another issue that received press coverage and attention in the Arab press during the strike was the Spanish Civil War. The newspaper that did much more than any other newspaper was Falastin. It was also the newspaper that took a clear stance of hostility towards the government forces that Russia supported. He justified his attacks on this camp by the fact that [sic] many Jews are fighting alongside it. He knew how to frequently report on the many "crimes" allegedly committed by the fighters of that camp, who murder, loot and rape 'any woman who gets in their way.

Ormsby Gore's Victory.

Falastin has published a letter from its correspondent in London, Eissa Eft. Nahleh, who declared that there was a difference of opinion within the Cabinet over the Partition plan ... Conditions of Cooperation.

Eissa Nahleh suggested that, when the Commission came to Palestine, the Arabs should refuse to negotiate with them until . the exiled leaders had been repatriated. When this was done, and the Arabs appeared before the Commission, they should voice their unswerving opposition to Partition in form.

FALASTIN DEFINES DICTATORSHIP PAPER DOUBTS HITLER'S SINCERE CONCERN Writing in its Tuesday's issue, Falastin devoted a leading article to the theory that Palestine was in the forefront of world affairs, and that the position in Palestine had become more grave in view of Herr Hitler's speech at Nuremberg. The paper expressed doubts as to whether the German Fuehrer was really and sincerely concerned with Arab rights or merely championed them in order to annoy the Democracies. The reference to Palestine in Herr Hitler's speech showed, the paper added, how parlous the situation here really was.

'Falastin' then explained that a dictatorship was really a State which had freed [sic] itself of Jewish [sic] influence [sic], while democracies were countries which still bore that onus.

Falastin, commenting on Hitler's speech at Nuremburg, declared that a Dictatorship was really a state which had freed [sic] itself from Jewish [sic] influence [sic], while democracies countries which still bore that onus.

Notwithstanding Abbasi’s claim to have based his research on a variety of primary and secondary sources, he seems to have chosen his sources selectively, presumably to service the theory of a significant degree of Palestinian Arab resistance to the Nazis. Neither the quantitative nor the qualitative aspect of this theory is supported by the evidence.

Gen. Archibald Wavell, commander of the British forces in the Middle East, opposed the formation of a Jewish regiment in the British army. According to historian Marcel Roubicek, the British High Commissioner for Palestine also feared that Jewish enlistment would inflame Arab anger. To solve that problem, he made it a condition that Jews wishing to join up find an equivalent number of Palestinian Arab volunteers to join up as well.

To accomplish this, the Jews of the Yishuv offered financial compensation to Palestinian Arabs to enlist. They ultimately succeeded in raising enough manpower from both communities to permit the formation of a Jewish regiment.

The opportunity for Palestinian Arabs to join the ranks of the British Army was thus a direct outcome of the Jewish desire to render its utmost assistance to Britain in every sphere of war activity, a point Abbasi ignores.

He is similarly fuzzy on Palestinian Arab motivation. He states, “Most of the [Palestinian Arab] volunteers were villagers and of the urban lower class, and…the economic motive played a central role in volunteering,” noting that these “motives…differed from [that of] their Jewish friends, who enlisted in the army mainly because of opposition to Nazi Germany and its racial policy toward their people, besides other motives such as the revival of a Jewish army, and the serious employment situation in the country at the beginning of the war.”

Compensation as the prevailing motivation for Palestinian Arab enlistment is supported by the evidence, but Abbasi claims their motives were in fact manifold and varied. Some Palestinian Arabs, he states, enlisted for ideological reasons, to express their opposition to Nazi ideology and loyalty to the British and their values. This motive was especially true of the urban elite and the intellectuals, he alleges, who were highly influenced by British education and culture. He does not substantiate this point sufficiently and ignores available evidence documenting contemporary Palestinian contempt for the British Army (see, for example, Prof. Kimberly Katz’s A Young Palestinian’s Diary 1941-1945, The Life of Sami Amr).

Abbasi laments that “there is hardly any reference to the thousands of Palestinian volunteers, some of whom fell in battle, while others are still listed as missing in action, and no commemoration of the fallen can be found anywhere.” He suggests this “evil” is explained by “what the Palestinian people experienced during the Nakba and its aftermath, the destruction of archives and records in addition to the loss of personal documents, and the fact that no organization was established to commemorate the volunteers and their deeds.” He thus accuses Israel of covering up the Palestinian Arab role in defeating the Nazis.

It should be noted that Abbasi persistently uses the term “Palestinians” rather than “Palestinian Arabs” in his article, starting with the title. This manipulation services the popular narrative denying any linkage between the Jewish People and Palestine. In her book World War II – The Story of a Jewish Soldier, Jewish Women of Mandatory Palestine Serving in the British Army, Esther Herlitz (later an Israeli diplomat and politician who served as a member of the Knesset) wrote, “As far as the British were concerned, we from the Jewish Yishuv, and some Arabs, were Palestinians.”

Trumped-Up Propaganda Arab Paper's Story of "Jews' Enemy No 2"

An instance of trumped-up political propaganda and a refusal on the part of the offending Arabic paper to publish a full correction of its invented statements has just come to light. In its issue of Tuesday, February 5, Falastin published an article headed "King Ghazi L, the Jews Public Enemy No . 2 ." It stated that, after Hitler, the King of Iraq is the most hated by the Jews, particularly of Palestine. The Ophir Cinema, in Tel Aviv, showed a film of the opening by King Ghazi of the Iraq petroleum pipeline at Kirkuk. When King Ghazi was shown the Jewish audience, the paper reported, created an uproar and drowned out the singing of the Iraqi national anthem, protesting against the exhibition of a film of this sort in Zionist Tel Aviv. A protest was made to the Jewish national institutions, declares Falastin, and the cinema proprietors were asked to withdraw the film showing "the Jews' Enemy No . 2". The second part of the film was consequently cut .

Firm Denial

The cinema managemen adressed to Falastin a letter, in which it expressed surprise at the false item concerning alleged uproars during the showing of the film featuring King Ghazi, vehemently denied that there had been any intervention by Jewish national institutions in this matter and contradicted the allegation that any part of the film had been cut. The management went on to say that the film would be shown intact, with the part showing the King Ghazi, until the end of the week.

The cinema proprietors requested the publication of their denial put in an early issue in order to remove a reflection upon Jewish cinema-goers and the cinema itself.

Before the statement was pubished, the cinema authorities assert, it was the duty of the newspaper to verify it . It was now up to them to ascertain who it was that had furnished them with this false report and to demand a full explanation.

Abbreviated

The denial did not appear for two days, and it was only when the editor of Falastin was approached by the cinema manager , a short note — an abbreviated version of the repudiation — was published in the issue of February 9, in approximately the following terms : —

"We have received from the Ophir Management a letter denying a local correspondent s report in connection with a Jewish rop test at the showing of a film depicting King Ghazi opening the Iraq pipeline and that Jewish institutions asked for the film to be withdrawn. The management assures us that the film was shown throughout the week, no one asked for its withdrawal, and there was no disturbance at its exhibition!."

Arabs Split on New Outbreak of Crime.

Dissatisfaction with the state of Arab political affairs in Jerusalem is fast growing and a correspondent in "A 'Difaa" has pointed out that there are two National Committees in existence. One is controlled by the Husseini faction and has 22 members; the other, known as the National Society, consists of leaders of the Nashashibi party.

The latter contend that the original National Committee was really an offshoot of the Mufti of Jerusalem's organization.

The Police at Jaffa are reported to have arrested a man found with 30 leafets calling for attacks on Christian Arabs and signed by "Moslem Youth."

No More Riots

Alleged exaggeration by the English and Hebrew press in Palestine of the possibility of further disturbances was criticised in yesterday's Falastin, which declared that the present wave of crime could not be regarded as political. The paper denied that Fawzi el Kaukji had any intention of taking further measures in regard to Palestine or that the Arabs were raising £500,000 to drive the Jews into the sea. Declaring that the recent revolt in Palestine served as the dividing line between an epoch of compromise and an epoch of militant national activity.

"A 'Difaa" on the other hand pointed out that the spirit of rebellion was still rife in the country.

The Arabs had been led into their present position, the paper said, after trying vainly for 20 years to reach a compromise with the British Governmentand this had, grown insupportable. Every Arab old and young rich and poor must now volunteer for the front-line, for they must know that there is no peace for them, so long as they are under a regime from which Syria, Iraq, and Trans-Jordan have already freed themselves.

Scarlet Pimpernel Of East Urges Holy War To Drive British Out of Arab Lands Baghdad, Jan 23 (B.U.P.) [...] At the height of the trouble in Palestine last year, the elusive Fauzl ed-Din Kaukji appeared on tho scene, styled himself ...

Now he established himself in Iraq. He is reported to be carrying on his incendiary propaganda. In inflammatory speeches and personal negotiations he is calling for an army to drive tho British out of Arab lands and into the sea.

Syrian Leader Blasts Jews With French 75s By Robert Conway

Jerusalem, April 5. -- Fawzi Bey El Kaukji, field commander of Syrian troops in Palestine, today blasted the Jewish colony of Mishmar Haemek with French 75s.

Apparently it had abandoned the idea of storming the defenders who have withstood five ways of Arab attacks in 24 hours... Fawzi Bey's attacking force at Mishmar Haemek is estimated at from 1,500 to 2,000 crack troops from his command of 6,000 to 7,000 Syrians, Iraqi and Lebanese troops, which the British admit have illegally taken possession of Samaria in northern Palestine... Jewish Haganah forces early this morning attacked Arab military headquarters near Tel Aviv killing 25... The attack on Mishmar Haemek began yesterday at 5. P.M. yesterday when Fawzi Bey personally led a large force on his initial big action to "drive the Jews into the sea."

The assault achieved initial surprise on the colony which normally has about 700 inhabitants, mostly young men and women students...

A campaign against 'everything American' was proclaimed today by Falastin, Palestine's principal Arab daily, in protest against support of the Jewish homeland by the United States. The paper said editorially that Arabs throughout the Near East would boycott All Americans institutions.

The Jewish National Council and the Jewish Security Committee proclaimed next Monday as Palestine Aid Day, to be featured by a complete work stoppage and a demonstration of unity with world Jewry in the struggle against anti-Semitism. The day will also be made the occasion for an intensified campaign to raise an additional $1,000,000 for the Kofer Hayashi, Palestine defense and redemption fund. It was announced that volunteers in the defense corps now total 1,300 and are posted at 95 points throughout the country.

British troops demolished four Arab houses at Rantieh village as a punitive measure for the wounding of three British soldiers and a Jewish Ghaffir in a land mine explosion yesterday near Far Sirkin. Two Arabs trying to break through a cordon thrown around the village were shot and killed. The Ghaffir, Zen Nadler, died of his wounds today. Another Jew, Zelig Gamer, 30, a Polish immigrant, was killed today in an attack while motorcycling from Beth Moved to Ness Zions.

Arab chieftains ordered all Moslems who have embraced the Protestant religion to abstain from attending religious services in American churches.

Meanwhile, British troops and police pressed a search for the Arab terrorists who yesterday shot and seriously wounded Zama El Khadi, Jewish mayor of Tiberias. The mayor, who is 43 years old, was in a critical condition following an operation for removal of three bullets.

President Isaac Ben Avi of the Jewish National Council, it was revealed today, was among the eyewitnesses to the shooting. He was on the balcony of a hotel on peace street, awaiting arrival of the plane that was to take him to London for conferences on the Palestine situation, when the mayor was shot down from behind. El Khadi is a native of Palestine, member of a prominent, long-established Sephardic family. He is married, has three children and has been mayor of Tiberias for 11 years.

The Palestinian Press During the Second World War.

When the Palestinian revolt subsided and ended in the early months of the Second World War, which broke out in early September 1939, all activities of the Palestinian National Movement and its various Palestine branches were suspended. One reason was the absence of the senior leadership, whose members were either under arrest or in forced exile (by the British) or had joined Mufti Haj Amin in his wanderings among Baghdad , Rome and Berlin. Another reason was the developing economic reliance of the Palestinian bourgeoisie on the British market: the financial circumstances of significant parts of the bourgeoisie depended on their engagement in supplying the needs of the British army and its war efforts in the East, leading to compromising and conciliatory views towards Britain and its allies. Those who refused to compromise felt the wrath of the British censor: the authorities often used newsprint quotas and restrictions of other technical services in order to punish newspapers voicing criticism and to reward more compromising news-papers (interview with Fawzi al-Shanti, Jerusalem, 5 June 1995). During the Second World War eighteen new newspapers appeared, of them three dailies, six weeklies, six monthlies and three that appeared erratically (Mawsou'a 1994, Volume 4 , pp.448-9). Two of the most prominent, al-Muntada, 'Discussion Forum', and Huna al-Quds, 'Here is Jerusalem', were published by British authorities, with the aim of influencing Palestinian public opinion in favour of Britain and its allies. These two newspapers were virtually the only available sources of information on the fighting on the different fronts, even for other newspapers, although the news they presented was probably censored and edited at the discretion of the authorities. Two other newspapers, al-Ittihad and al-Ghad, 'The Tomorrow', were leftist-oriented and expressed the increasing influence of popular elements and labour unions which began to assemble at the time, challenging the senior political leadership, many of whose members were absent...

Falastin Defends Nazism.

Spirited defence of the Nazi leaders to be tried at Nuremberg shortly, and condemnation of those preparing to prosecute Nazism which is -- as much a way of life as democracy and -- socialism, were contained yesterday in a leading article in the, Falastin.. Arab daily of Jaffa. The trial prepared by the Allies was at the least a very contradiction of humane justice and religious ethics, the paper stated. War criminals, it went on, was a new term devised by a belligerent power for the vanquished side, whereas the responsibility for war crimes devolved upon both. Falastin could understand the trial of Gestapo men who organized political and racial murders, which had no justification on military and security grounds, but asked why the Nazi leaders responsible for disseminating the fundamentals of Nazism, should be brought to trial and where the justice was of trying European quislings? The trial of the founders of the Nazi syste, (Falastin considers) is in effect a blow at the most elementary right: freedom of thought and belief" in which the 20th century excels over the Dark Ages.

"No one is entitled to judge war criminals," says Falastin. "If the Germans had won the war they would not have acted thus. All is fair in war." The Nazi leaders were "men of vision," according to the paper which sees Nazism as a way of living like any other," suiting millions and chosen freely by them.

Allied endeavors to root out Nazism are criminal, undemocratic...

[....] Formed in March 1945, the Arab League—consisting of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen—made its international debut at the UNO conference in San Francisco soon after, and went on to open offices in London and Washington in October. The object of these offices was officially stated to be to supply information on aspects of modem Arab life, but the Washington office registered with the State Department as a foreign propaganda office, and Mr. Ahmed Shukairy, its head, declared that he was here to counteract Zionist propaganda... Perhaps the most important motive for "playing to the gallery" is the widespread social unrest in the Middle East. The ruling groups, absorbed by political strife during the inter-war years, "forgot" the needs of the people and the social structure of Ottoman times remain unchanged. Because of the inflation and other economic developments during this war "the rich got richer while the poor got poorer." Contrasts between the classes have become sharper, and have led to the demand for social reforms. The League, representing the ruling groups, will need to divert attention from social to political issues. And the techniques to be employed need not be invented. As a matter of fact, techniques taken over from Hitler and the Nazis are already in use. We have seen the method of putting up a show, threatening the use of non-existent strength and might, resorting to nonsense for propaganda purposes and repeating this nonsense with such vigorous certainty that it becomes accepted as truth. The "unity” ideal, in its "exclusivist" aspect, can be exploited for fascist purposes and the "unity" drive of the Arab League seems to be approaching that pan-Arab trend which Professor H. A. R. Gibb, of Oxford University, a friend of the Arabs, termed a few years ago "an ignorant, intolerant, explosive force; it substitutes wishing for thinking, fiercely resents not only Christian domination but anything that savors of Christian practice and ideas, dreams of driving European and Jew into the ocean and restoring the glorious empire of the caliphate."

We have already seen efforts to camouflage the movement's own weakness by sowing hatred, inciting to murder and pogroms, and assailing as enemies all those who are not on the League's side. We have seen anti-Jewish riots in Egypt and Libya, the murder of statesmen, student riots against Great Britain and the Egyptian government, the slurring attack of the Arab press in Palestine on President Truman. It is now only a short step to acknowledging Nazi and fascist theories openly: the Palestine Arabic newspaper Falastin, for instance, attacked the Nuremberg trials, asserting that the Allies had no right to try nazis and nazism since this was a political ideology just as democracy and socialism are.

In comparison to the Egyptian press, the Palestinian press provided little coverage of Nazi policies against the Jews, although it is clear that it was aware of them. Filastin reported a story on the conference of the victorious Allied leaders in Potsdam in May 1945, citing a report criticizing the mistreatment in the displaced-persons camps of Jews who had suffered "torture, hunger and dis­ ease," in Hitler’s "detention camps."

Al-Difa' another major Palestinian paper of the time, cited on 23 December 1945 a letter by Anwar Nusayba, a member of the Arab Office in London, that blamed the Jewish Agency for the deaths of 5,700,000 Jews during the war. Another story commending the status of the Jews in Bulgaria noted that "they were not exterminated" during the war. Hence, it appears that al-Difa was aware of the extermination of Jews during the war. [Filastin, 23 May 1945; al-Difa' 3, 22 July, 8 November, 23 December 1945, 13 May, 25 June 1946.].

Revelations on the Holocaust from the Nuremberg Trials

The coverage of the Nuremberg trials of the leaders of the Nazi regime between October 1945 and November 1946 sheds additional light on the representation of the Holocaust in the Arab world, even though "the Holocaust was by no means at the [trials'] center of attention."

The murder of Jews was not discussed as a distinct subject, but was included in the more comprehensive category of war crimes and crimes against humanity. [Marrus, "The Holocaust," p. 6.]

The murder of Jews was not discussed as a distinct subject, but was included in the more comprehensive category of war crimes and crimes against humanity. These were new terms, coined during the course of the trials, and are considered, in a broader historical perspective, among their major achievements. Although the extermination of the Jews was not a distinct category in the indictment, the fate of the Jews did hold “a crucial place” in the trials and was mentioned in each of the indictments’ clauses.

Thus, the indictment and the trials were, in Marrus's words, a turning point in the inculcation of Holocaust consciousness in the western world. For the first time, spokesmen of the Allies outlined to a non-Jewish forum the Nazi anti-Jewish policy, backed by comprehensive documentation and ample evidence.

[Ibid.; According to some estimates, over 800 Nazi documents and the testimonies of 33 witnesses dealt with the Jewish tragedy; Jacob Robinson and Henry Sachs (eds.), The Holocaust: 'The Nuremberg Evidence, Jerusalem: 1976, cited in Marrus, "The Holocaust," p. 41.]

There was a considerable difference in the coverage of the trials between the Palestinian dailies Filastin and al-Difa' and the Egyptian al-Ahram. In gen­eral, the coverage in al-Ahram was more comprehensive, in its discussion of the meaning of the trials, in reviewing the charges, and in reproducing the testimonies against and by the defendants. By contrast, we could not find editorials or opinion columns in the two Palestinian newspapers that dealt with the trials. No doubt, part of the difference was due to the fact that al-Ahram was a bigger paper and better established financially. Moreover, from reading the various newspapers one gets the impression that al-Ahram adopted a moral position visa-vis the defendants, both in style and in content, while the Palestinian dailies were more ambiguous. Whereas al-Ahram used the phrases "Nazi war crimi­nals," Filastin called them "criminals," or occasionally the more neutral "Nazi leaders" (zu'ama' al-naziyya). Al-Difa' was even less committal, naming them "Nazi chiefs" (aqtab al-naziyya). Even more revealing are the headlines given to the various stories: those in al-Ahram emphasized the charges against the Nazi leaders, as in "The accusations against Göring and Ribbentrop," "The charg­es against Frank and Streicher," or "Dönitz accused of waging an inhumane war." [Al-Ahram, 9, 11, 15 17 January 1946. Reichsmarshall Herman Göring was Hitler’s No. 2 man during most of the Nazi era and commander o f the German air force. Hans Frank was head of the General Government, the German government in Poland, where the largest Jewish community had lived and perished. Ribbentrop was the German foreign minister during 1936-45 . Karl Dönitz was commander of the German Navy and Hitler’s successor as Führer].

The headlines in al-Difa' and Filastin, by contrast, gave more emphasis to the testimonies of the defendants themselves, saying "Göring’s discussions of policy with poets and musicians"; "Kaitel seeks testimonies from Churchill and Field Marshall Alexander, while Goring asks for a testimony from Halifax and Cadogen for the Nuremberg Trial"; "Göring seeks to clear his colleagues by as­ suming full responsibility"; and so on. [Al-Difa' 4 November, 20 December 1945, 19 March, 2, 11, 24 April, 6 June 1946.].

As far as contents were concerned, al-Difa' used only news agency reports. It reviewed the charges raised against the Nazi leaders, but devoted more space to the defense arguments of the accused. Equally conspicuous was its emphasis on the conduct of the defendants rather than on the charges. Thus, it elaborated in depicting Göring’s cynical smiles and his ambition to be recognized as the most senior defendant, in describing Rudolf Hess's real or feigned mental illness and the total disregard that the defendants showed towards the testimonies against them. These anecdotal descriptions appeared also in the Egyptian papers, but these contained more substantial details on the prosecution.

Likewise, the coverage of the Jewish issue was much more extensive in al-Ahram than in the two Palestinian dailies. Thus, in a report from 3 January 1946 under the secondary headline "mass killing of Jews," al-Ahram cited in detail the testimony of the German engineer Herman Friedrich Grabe on the murder of thousands of Jews near the Dubno airport in Poland in October 1942. It also reviewed the charges raised against Ernst Kaltenbrunner, chief of the Reich Security Head Office (RSHA), including a testimony that Kaltenb­ runner was present during the gassing of prisoners (not necessarily Jewish) in Mauthausen. Filastin reported the charges against Kaltenbrunner briefly, noting that they referred to the murder of Jewish inmates. It also cited the testimony of a "German engineer" that described the execution of 1,000 Jews. The story in al-Difa' on the other hand, only mentioned the charges against Kaltenbrunner, and devoted much more space to describing the conduct of the defendants in court. On the following day, al-Ahram cited the testimony of Dieter Wisliceny, one of Adolf Eichmann’s senior deputies, that reviewed Nazi policy against the Jews and Himmler’s 1942 order on the extermination of the Jewish race, and recounted Wisliceny’s role in the deportation of Hungarian and Greek Jews to the "death camps" in Poland. In addition, al-Ahram reported the testimony by Otto Ohlendorf, commander of Einsatzgruppe D, who confessed that 90,000 Jews "were exterminated" (ubidu) under his command in Russia. The cover­ age in Filastin and al-Difa' was much more succinct. While Filastin mentioned Wisliceny’s testimony in one sentence, al-Difa' dedicated one sentence to Oh­lendorf's. Both papers omitted the testimony by the Auschwitz commandant, Rudolf Hoss, who appeared as a defense witness for Kaltenbrunner, but gave a detailed description of the extermination of the Jews in the camp. [Al-Ahram, Filastin, al-Difa' 3, 4 January. On Hoss’s testimony, see Marrus, "The Holo­caust," pp. 29 -30].

The same phenomenon was repeated in at least two other cases. Al-Ahram published an article containing the detailed testimony of a French underground activist about her deportation to Auschwitz. It included descriptions of the gas chambers, sterilization of women and operations conducted on babies born to Jewish mothers, without mentioning whether or not they were Jewish. Both Filastin and al-Difa' ignored the testimony altogether. [Al-Ahram, Filastin, al-Difa' 29 January 1946. See also the reference to the massacres of the Jews in Wilna, reported in al-Ahram on 1 March and ignored by the two Palestinian dailies].

Al-Difa' did report Göring’s admission of his instruction to Reinhard Heydrich, then commander of the RSHA, to carry out "all necessary measures" for the execution of the "final solution" of the Jewish question. It also mentioned the request by Alfred Rosenberg, chief ideologue of the Nazi party, to bring to the court anti-Semitic literature in order to explain his world-view, but both references were extremely concise. [Al-Difa' 3, 4 January, 4 March, 10, 17 April 1946.].

Al-Ahram devoted a story, albeit a short one, to Julius Streicher, edi­ tor of the extremely anti-Semitic daily Der Stürmer, whose title was "Enemy No. 1 of the Jews." It used this epithet until Streicher’s execution. Al-Ahram's distinct attitude was particularly glaring, during the trials' final days, when re­ porting the verdicts and the executions of the leading defendants. [Al-Ahram, 22 May, 22 October, 20, 24 November, 14 December 1945, 11 January, 2 October 1946. See also al-lhaqafa, 12 March 1946, p. 23, and al-Misri, 16 December 1945.].

Of particular interest in the Egyptian coverage of the trials was a series of arti­cles by an unnamed Egyptian correspondent in Germany, who sent eight stories during February 1946 based on interviews, in addition to his impressions from the Nuremberg trials and from visits to German cities and Nazi camps. Clearly, in these reports the writer allowed himself to express his personal views much more explicitly than in the regular news items. His second story focused on the Nazi leaders. He labeled Goring as "arch-criminal, a criminal of the brutal kind" (shaykh al-mujri in, mujrim min al-naw'al-qasi). Rudolf Hoss appeared to him as being in "total loss of consciousness as far as human heart and conscience are concerned." Alfred Rosenberg, "the philosopher of Nazism," he wrote, replied to a question on the reasons for the persecution of the Jews that he only wanted to do them good, since his "policy was intended to consolidate Jewish rights in Palestine." Rosenberg, he added, detested Muslims and sought to erect a border between the Germans and "these Asiatic barbarians" that would not be crossed "for a thousand years." He depicted Streicher as the "implacable enemy of the Jews and Judaism," adding that his genius was manifested in the boycott which he organized against Jewish stores and when he shifted from "boycott to a policy of uprooting" (qat' al-dabir). [Al-Ahram, 3 February 1946.].

In his account of his visit to Dachau, the "grave of the living" (maqbarat al-ahya'), he recounted how people doubted, during the war, the news coming from Switzerland on the atrocities taking place in that camp, attributed them to the Jews, or considered them as "figments of the imagination" (shubuhat). "I saw with my own eyes that the matter is neither Jewish lies (akadhib) nor AngloSaxon propaganda," as some people said, but rather "the most horrifying crimes that human beings had ever or will ever commit." [Al-Ahram, 7 February 1946.].

However, the correspondent described the trials as "a dangerous precedent and a revolution in the history of law." If the idea was to try the Nazis for what they had committed after August 1939, that is, "invasion of foreign lands with­ out warning, the destruction of cities and their civilian population, the destruction of countries, the extermination of populations, torturing people, killing of hostages, the theft of treasures and the expertise in methods of killings, then it is the duty of anyone who wishes future generations well." But it would be a "crippled ('arja') justice" if the goal was to punish them for annexing Austria and eliminating Czechoslovakia, without putting on the bench with them those who had enabled them to do so, "sang the praises of their good intentions," and promised to look the other way so long as they left the West and turned their forces eastward. [Al-Ahram, 4 February 1946.]. [...] The Palestinian newspapers' lack of interest in the Jewish question during the trials was not coincidental. The difference in interest between the Egyptian and the Palestinian dailies... None of the three papers published editorial comment on the verdicts and their implementation.

[Al-Ahram, al-Difa' Filastin, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 20 October 1946.].

ARABIC PRESS ON NAZI HANGINGS. Palestine Post Reporter. The Arabic press left its readers in no doubt of its opinion that the Nazis condemned at Nuremberg were men of great courage. Ad-Difaa's front page headline on Wednesday (the day of their execution) read "Nazi Leaders Await Death with Pride and Courage." Referring to Goering's suicide, yesterday's Al Wahda wrote: "Goering preferred the death his leader had chosen. He considered death by hanging a disgrace, chose his leader's and carried out his way, intention."

Falastin's comment was: "Another black page of history has been turned with the death of the Nazi leaders by hanging."

To cite just one example: In the period from 1920-1940 is missed Hadj Amin el-Husseini... Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the one who was the instigator of the riots of 1938 and the same who is immortalized in a photo with Hitler. Besides, nothing is said about the entire period from 1920 to 1945, except about the strike.

And it is precisely this period that is so important in history, because it can tell you a lot about the separation that then occurred between Jews and Arabs.

The last word has not yet been said about the reasons for the Palestinians' flight: the Lebanese newspaper Sada al-Janub has called for flights; the Jordanian Daily, Felastin, of 17.05.1955 describes how the evacuation of Akko of 17.05.1948 went according to plan; in the Felastin of 19.02.1949 and in the Cairo Daily people call for an evacuation.

All this while the Jews sometimes asked the Palestinians to stay (see e.g. the placard of the Haifa Worker's Council).

No, Dr. Wagtendonk, you have been misinformed a bit.

Also the disaster of Deir-Yassin would not have happened if the Arabs had not started firing after the 'white flag' had been raised. Moreover, the culprits were severely punished. I do not deny that the Palestinians have become victims.. but the history must be well described and then it is noticeable that the problem would not have arisen to the same extent if the Arab governments had not manipulated with the Arab Palestinians and that the vast majority of Arabs would have been absorbed into Israeli society.