Falastin

Falastin, sometimes transliterated Filastin, (Arabic: فلسطين‎) periodical (1911-1967) was an Arabic-language newspaper. Founded in 1911 in Jaffa, then called Palestine. 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. Such was the case with Nazism admirer Michel Aflaq 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).

It worked with and was mouthpiece for Mufti al-Husseini. Especially 1920s-1930s.

1914: racism

In 1914-15, periodical 'Falastin' was banned for its anti-Jewish racism, hatred by Ottoman authorities.

1920s: violence

Overview:

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. It caused great anxiety. It was weeks before the May-1921 riots.

Historian Kedourie:

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. Most of those victims were non-Zionist ultra-orthodox pious Jews.

1930s & fascism

As early as 1932:

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:

The newspaper'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 other newspapers.

A comprehensive study of the mood of the Palestinians has not yet been conducted, 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 steadfastness of Nazi Germany's achievements. The Haifa (based) newspaper editor, el-Karmel summed up the first months of the German dictator's rule and read: "Will an Arab Hitler emerge among us to awaken, unite and lead us to fight and defend our rights?"

He kept a regular correspondent in Berlin who persisted in sending sympathetic articles about the achievements of the Nazi regime. The newspaper'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 other newspapers.

French magazine in 1938:

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.

1960s

In the 1960s (located under Jordanian rule) it published anti-Jewish pieces including libels.

References

"The Mufti.. concocted a new kind of antisemitism that combined traditional Muslim antisemitism, like the anti-Jewish verses you find in the Koran, with the Nazi antisemitism that demonised Jews... His whole ideology was antisemitic and from the very beginning he targeted Jews, not Zionists."

The difference between lies and reality is sometimes just a color on a map

Lord Peel to W. Ormsby-Gore as he was preparing the royal commission report, "Though I knew there was ill-feeling between Jews and Arabs, I had not realized the depth and intensity of the hatred with which the Jews are held by the Arabs..."

"It is not Israel's settlement blocks but rather the Palestinian ideological blockade that constitutes the biggest barrier to peaceful arrangements . The Jew-hatred in this region must no longer be played down as a kind of local custom ..."

The only tweet (July 2014) on the Twitter account of the late American Elan Ganeles - murdered by Arab-Islamist "Palestinian" on Feb 27, 2023 hy"d: "I think you're always going to have tension in the Middle East, when there's [are] people who want to kill Jews, and the Jews don't want to be killed, and neither side is willing to compromise."