Falastin, sometimes transliterated Filastin, (Arabic: فلسطين) periodical (1911-1967) was an Arabic-language newspaper. Founded in 1911 in Jaffa, then called Palestine, moved to area under Jordanian control in 1948.
Falastin began as a weekly publication, evolving into one of the most influential dailies in Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine.
Founded by the Arab cousins El-Issa in 1911. (Though the principle two cousins founders two were Arab Christians, yet, it's important to bear in mind, many Arabs were heavily influenced by the surrounding [dominant] Islamic culture. For example, in 1937, Arab-Christians joined the Arab-Muslims in celebrating, Muhammad's birthday by displaying pictures of Hitler & Mussolini. [1] Such was the case with Nazism admirer Michel Aflaq[2] one of the founders of the Ba'ath. In addition, the masses the Falastin catered to were more of the Islamic faith, being Palestine's overall most prominent newspaper moreso in the 1920s. It followed the line by Islamic figure the Mufti al-Husseini and propagated for him).
It was mouthpiece for Mufti al-Husseini. Especially 1920s-1930s.[3][4] And even controlled by him. At least in 1929, this Supreme Muslim Council offered journalist inducements, including women, if he would take the Mufti’s side and color the news according to his personal views and ambitions.[5]
1914: racism
In 1914-15, periodical 'Falastin' was banned for its anti-Jewish racism, hatred by Ottoman authorities.[6][7]
1920s: violence
Overview:[6]
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem
In 1914, the periodical Falastin – with its extremist Arab nationalist slant - was abolished by the Ottoman authorities because of its racist hate propaganda. The periodical had agitated against the immigration of Jewish refugees from Russia.
In the Twenties, the publication reappeared and led campaigns against Jewish immigration.
As a result of anti-Jewish propaganda and terror, the British government took measures between the Twenties and the Forties to restrict Jewish immigration to Palestine.
In 1921, an extremist, pan-Arab nationalist, Haji Amin al-Huseini, was appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a religious leader.
Three weeks after his appointment, he led a pogrom in which forty-three Jews were murdered.
From the beginning of the Second World War the Mufti led a rebellion of Iraqis, Syrians and Lebanese with support from Nazi Germany against the Allied Forces.
In April 1921, the British gave permission for the periodical to be reinstrated.[6] It caused great anxiety. It was weeks before the May-1921 riots.
Historian Kedourie:[7]
Two other incidents in April added to Yishuv anxiety. In Jaffa, citrus-owner. Samuel Tolkowsky complained that Government permission for the reappearance of Falastin, which had been closed down by the Turks for incitement to race-hatred in April 1914, could only be a source of discouragement to 'moderate' Arabs and an official invitation to 'extremists'.
Highlighted violent Arab anti-Jewish attacks incited by Haj Amin al-Husseini were 1920-21, and the 1929 Hebron massacre.[8] Most of those victims were non-Zionist ultra-orthodox pious Jews.[9][10]
1930s: fascism & Hitler
As early as 1932:[11]
In February 1932 the newspaper Falastin published an extensive article about Adolf Hitler; The thrilled writer enthusiastically and admiringly described the personality of Hitler, whom he called one of the greats of the New World or the "Iron Man of Germany."
Historian Erlich:[12]
...But Falastin also reflected the overall view of fascism as a national and organizational prescription, for example the writer the physician and communist (and who was close to the 'Husseini' camp) Khalil al-Budeiri in Falastin, January 5, 1936:
It is very easy to explain our youth's sympathy for the fascist idea. All the news passed on to us about this movement illustrates it as a new human revival that promises hope and prosperity. We, too, who are at the beginning of our national revival, should strive to achieve similar goals and communicate with the movements that aspire to them, this and more, adolescence tends to admire power and heroism ...
No comprehensive research has yet been conducted on the mood of the Palestinians, but the journalism of the time (the same study by the historian Dr. Mustafa Kabha) shows a great deal of admiration for the power and solidity of Nazi Germany's achievements. May 14, 1933 The first months of the reign of the German dictator and exclaimed: "Will an Arab Hitler appear among us to awaken, unite and lead us to lead us to fight and defend our rights?"
Al-Dafa's newspaper had long published translated excerpts from Hitler's Mein Kampf's book. He kept a regular correspondent in Berlin who persisted in sending sympathetic articles about the achievements of the Nazi regime. The paper's editor, Ibrahim al-Shanti, called on Arab youth (in an article from June 1, 1934) to "learn from Hitler's actions and imitate them in order to achieve similar national achievements." The Jaffa-based Falastin, which criticized Mussolini, supported Hitler, as did almost all the other newspapers ...
The first page of the Jaffa-based Falastin issue dated April 29, 1939. The headline announces "Hitler's historic speech," in which he rejects the Roosevelt letter, the cancellation of the naval agreement with Britain and the cancellation of the nonaggression pact on Poland. In the center of the page, around the image of the brazened face of the Nazi ruler.. the body of the report, the subtitle summarizes other parts of Hitler's speech...
This speech of Hitler was accepted by many in the world as an act of a madman who consciously degenerates humanity into the abyss. In this way, for example, even the leader of the "Young Egypt", Ahmed Hussein, responded to these words, but the Jaffa-based 'Falastin' does not hide its sympathy. The title he chose is a quote from the Fuhrer "I have built in peaceful [ways] what others have destroyed by force."
French magazine in 1938:[13][8]
Arab journals Falastin and Al Difa'a publish every week articles with a racial tendency and frequently reproduce large portraits of various leaders of the Third Reich. They do not even try to conceal the fact that they have become pupils of the Ministry of Propaganda in Berlin.
Pro evacuation of Arabs from Palestine around 1948 war
Author reminds about the reasons for Arab Palestinian flight in 1948:[14] 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.
1960s
In the 1960s it published anti-Jewish pieces including libels.[15]
References
- ↑ All Arabs Celebrate prophet's Birthday. The New York Times, May 23, 1937.
Palestine Arabs outdid themselves today in celebrating Mouled el Nebi, the birthday of the Prophet 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. - ↑ Adel Soheil (2018). "The Iraqi Ba'th Regime's Atrocities Against the Faylee Kurds Nation-State Formation Distorted."p. 55.
- ↑ [1] The Palestine Bulletin, 16 February 1931 "Falastin and the Mufti."
- ↑ [2] The Palestine Post, 21 April 1935
- ↑ Jerusalem Grand Mufti Makes Sensational Attack on American Press, JTA, October 17, 1929.
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. - ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Janrense Boonstra, "Antisemitism, a History Portrayed", SDU, Anne Frank Foundation,' 1989, p. 101.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Elie Kedourie, Sylvia G. Haim: 'Zionism and Arabism in Palestine and Israel' (RLE Israel and Palestine), Taylor & Francis, 2015. p. 8 [3]
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Hitler's war against Jews continues in 'Palestine' Richard Mather, JPost, March 16, 2015. In 1929, Husseini distributed pamphlets saying: “O Arabs, do not forget that the Jew is your worst enemy and has been the enemy of your forefathers.” He also announced that the Jews had “violated the honour of Islam.” This led to a pogrom in Jerusalem and a massacre in Hebron, where 60 Jews were killed and the town ethnically cleansed. The British attributed the attacks to “racial animosity on the part of the Arabs.”
- ↑ Michael J Cohen: "Britain's Moment in Palestine: Retrospect and Perspectives, 1917-1948", (Routledge, Feb 24, 2014), p. 216. 'In 1929, as in 1920, the historical community of Orthodox, non-Zionist Jews bore the brunt of Arab attacks – this time in the towns of Hebron'.
- ↑ Ritchie Ovendale: "The Origins of the Arab Israeli Wars" (Routledge, 2015), p. 71. 'In Hebron a community of non-Zionist Jews was wiped out'.
- ↑ Zmanim. (1998). Israel: Zemorah, Bitan, Modan. p. 2
- ↑ Haggai Erlich, The Middle East Between the World Wars, The Open University Press, Tel Aviv, 2002, p. 81
- ↑ Excerpts from an article in the (1930-40 noted) French magazine Marianne, 1938. Quoted in Joseph B. Schechtman, The Mufti and the Fuehrer: The Rise and Fall of Haj Amin el-Husseini (New York: Yoseloff, 1965), p. 84; qtd by J. Jacoby of the Boston Globe May 12, 2019
- ↑ Bertina, B. J. (1970). zaal loopt leeg [The hall is empty]. Netherlands: Stichting IVIO. p.23.
To cite just one example: In the period from 1920-1940 I miss 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. - ↑ "Facts," Vol. 16, 1965. Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, pp. 337, 343-4