Akram Zuaiter

A statement to the effect that the arrest of a number of young Arabs in Gaza has greatly excited the Arab population there and that it indicates that the government is provoking riots by its actions, was published yesterday by a group of Arab young men headed by Ahmed Shukeiri, the son of the prominent sheik of Acre.

The statement warns the government that if it does not stop its present policy, a revolt is inevitable. In the meantime, the Arab paper "Meraat Al Schark," published in Jerusalem, and edited by Ichram Saitar, leader of the Arab youth group, announces that the "faithful Arab youth have organized a defence army in order to tour the villages and towns to awaken a national feeling, to encourage the Arabs to retain their lands and to support Arab products."

The British consul in Damascus reported on the establishment of "'Usbat al-Amal al-Qawmi" on 30.9.33:

The young Syrians, who organized themselves in a party called the National Action League ('Usbat al-Amal al-Qawmi ), gathered towards the end of August in the village of Karnil in Lebanon.

The conference was attended by representatives from Palestine, led by Akram Zuaitar, and Iraq, led by Naji Maruf. Representatives did participate ... the organization carries the seeds of a Syrian fascist party, seeds that may germinate and blossom if the current government fails in negotiations with the Mandatory Power.

Akram Zuaiter protests

Akram Zuaiter, the extreme nationalist known for the anti-Jewish propaganda he conducted while he was a teacher in Baghdad, published a scathing op-ed in the Arab newspaper a declaration in which he condemns the Arab leaders who rejected the strike announcement as "slaves who only care about their honor and their private affairs." Akram Zuaiter calls on the national youth to shake off the decisions of the leaders, and to conquer the field of nationalism for themselves without considering the obstacles that the "slaves" (ie: the leaders) will put in their way. אכרם זועיתר מוחה

אכרם זעיתר, הלאומי הקיצוני הידוע בתעמולה האנטי־יהודית שניהל בשעה שהיה מורה בבגדד, פרסם בעתונית הערבית קול־קורא חריף שבו היא מגנה את המנהיגים הערבים שדחו את הכרזת השביתה כ"עבדים הדואגים רק לכבודם ולעניניהם הפרטיים". אכרם זועיתר קורא לנוער הלאומי שינער את חצנו מהחלטות המנהיגים, ושיכבוש לעצמו את שדה הלאומיות מבלי התחשב במכשולים ש"העבדים" (קרי: המנהיגים) ישימו על דרכו.

(11.5) המופתי ואכרם זועיתר מלהיבים

May 11, The Mufti and Akram Zuaiter inflame.

In the year 5696 (c. 1936), the riots broke out in the Land of Israel. Every minor agitation and every exaggerated news that reached Iraq by the Arab newspapers from the Land of Israel made wings to the detriment of the Jews there. From the day the riots began in Israel, Iraqi Jews avoided walking in the streets in the evening, even in the Jewish neighborhoods. Every Jewish institution and Jewish club was seen by the Arabs as "Zionist" and therefore it was permissible to burn and destroy it. The war against Zionism was officially waged. Systematically and persistently, the Ministry of Education in Iraq filled the government schools with national Arab teachers from Israel, who incited the Arab youth to hate Israel and Zionism by all the means at their disposal - orally, in writing, and in the study books they authored. The mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini; the radio, the newspaper and the book in Iraq - they were all directed against the Jews and Zionism alike.

In the years 5696-7 (1936-7), ten Jews were murdered in Baghdad and Basra. There were many cases of robbery and looting by the Muslim mob. Bombs were dropped on Jewish clubs. The Jewish community closed for two days in 1937 to protest this inhumane treatment; and while the head of the community ("rayiys altaayifa"), Sasson Kaduri, appealed to the authorities to punish the rioters, we were asked to officially declare that the Jews of Iraq have nothing to do with their brothers in E.Y. [Palestine].

In Cheshvan 5697 (October 1936) there was a military revolution in Iraq under the leadership of General Bakr Sidqi al-Askari [بكر صدقي العسكري] The roots of the coup were rooted in the religious, racial and political differences that left their mark on the country from the day it was founded. All the previous ministers were dismissed and left the country.

Yasin (Faha) al-Hashimi [ياسين الهاشمي], the previous prime minister (who at the time worked out extensive plans to undermine the existence of the Jews in Iraq and even prepared to go to Israel and catarize the Jews before the Peel Commission), also fled and found his death in Syria.

The members of the new cabinet headed by Hikmat Sulayman did not show an overly negative attitude towards the Jews, although they did not show sympathy for them either. The revolution brought in its wake a change that was in favor of the Jews for a very short period of time. It distracted them from the Jews for a while and they were more interested in the results of the revolution and the new power relations.

Bakr Sidqi, the initiator of the coup, was inclined to fascism. He carried out the massacre of the Assyrians and was called by the people of Iraq the "Conqueror of the Assyrians". At the time he married a Nazi German woman. A considerable number of Nazi girls were deliberately sent from Germany to Iraq for espionage and propaganda purposes and would socialize with the high-ranking army officers and some members of the government. In Baghdad, an Arab Nazi association was created under the name "Al-Muthanna" [نادي المثنى], headed by the Arab Nazi Dr. Saib Shawkat [صائب شوكت], director of the government hospital in Baghdad. This party had a special club whose members were among the educated and the officers, and where all the conspiracies against the Jews were hatched.

The Jews, pressed between a rock and a hard place, did everything in their power to show their loyalty to the government of their country. The Jews donated tens of thousands of pounds to various national causes, to aviation and the Iraqi Red Crescent, while the government spared no opportunity to extort additional funds from them.

Haj Amin Al Husseini, who was the mufti of Jerusalem, and some of his assistants from the Arabs of Eretz Israel ["Palestinians"] (such as: Akram Zuaiter [أكرم زعيتر] and Darwish Miqdadi [درويش مقدادي]) organized the anti-Jewish propaganda. With threats of death and by vile means, they extorted money from the Jews of Iraq for the terrorist fund that managed the disturbances in Palestine.

The Jews of Babylon who never harmed their government and Iraqi nationalism in any way, bore their suffering and insult in silence and worried about their fate and their future. They put on the "sidara" (Iraqi national hat) on their heads and sent their sons to serve in the Iraqi army. Hundreds of young men served in this army and gave themselves up for their country. Instead of the Hebrew songs they used to sing in the previous years - they now started singing national Iraqi Arab songs. All this was of no use when the days of disturbances came.

Shavuot Riots 1941 (June 1-2, 1941)

Self-government in Iraq has never been stable. Between the years 1932-1950 it was ruled by three kings, 31 governments (compared to 14 in the years of the British mandate in 1921-1932); 9 houses of parliament (compared to 3 during the mandate period), of which only two (the one elected in 1939 and the last one) completed During their four years in office, there were also six coups, starting with the Bakr Sidki coup until the coup of 1941. The Second World War broke out on September 3, 1939, when the government in Iraq was in the hands of Nuri al-Said, known as pro-British.

He fulfilled the terms of the 1930 treaty with Britain and severed Iraq's diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany and German subjects were imprisoned in Habaniah. His actions infuriated the pro-Nazis who were looking for an opportunity to overthrow the existing government. On October 16, 1939, the Jerusalem mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini arrived in Iraq (Masuria). Magnificent receptions were held in his honor, which were used for propaganda against both the Jews and the British. He established a special bureau for the war against the Jews and the British. And in this he was helped by some of the Palestinian exiles who were with him: his relative Jamal al-Husseini, Musa al-Alami, Akram Zuaiter, Emil Ghori, Darwish al-Miqdadi, Kaukaji, Amin Ruiha and others. On January 31, 1941, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani [al-Kilani] resigned as the head of the Iraqi government as a protest against the pro-British policy of Foreign Minister Nouri al-Said and the Iraqi curfew. Two months later, he managed to carry out a military rebellion and establish a military dictatorship in the country.

The curfew, Nouri al-Said and their supporters fled towards Jordan and from there to Palestine. Iraq betrayed England, only because of which it gained independence, and gave its hand to Nazi Germany. Among those who voted for rape in the Iraqi parliament in favor of Rashid Ali were also the Jewish deputies. All British subjects found in Iraq were placed in detention camps. The British army that landed in Basra at the beginning of the rebellion started marching towards Baghdad. A pro-Nazi Iraqi army was sent to hold up the advance.

The Iraqi government at the time had less than fifty obsolete model aircraft.

Rashid Ali turned to Hitler for help, German planes appeared in the skies of Iraq, and the war between Great Britain and Little Iraq began. Ostensibly it was a huge war in Nance, a war of a great power against a small powerless power, but in fact it was not like that. England, which at that time was able to return the situation to normal for several hours, acted with great slowness and great patience. The British army that organized in the Land of Israel an invasion force for Iraq arrived in Baghdad only after a few weeks.

This slowness was in the minds and souls of the Jews.

Immediately after the rise of Rashid Ali, the Iraqi Jews realized that their fate was sealed. The Muslims awaited for a day of "revenge" and divided among themselves the property of the Jews: the house of so-and-so to so-and-so, so-and-so's daughter and so-and-so's wife to so-and-so. They threatened the Jews that they would leave no survivor.

The investigation proved that already at the beginning of May, with the outbreak of the rebellion, feverish preparations were made for a wild attack on the Jews. At the head of the mob was Younis A-Sabawi - a member of the Ministry and the leader of the national organization "Youth Squad" [Futuwwa]. The abominable propaganda was carried out in public meetings, in newspapers and on radio broadcasts day and night. He distributed weapons to the "youth squad", gathered the entire mob around him and put them in a "ready" state to carry out his plan.

With the escape of Rashid Ali to Berlin, a provisional government was established in Baghdad.

One of the representatives of the provisional government spoke on the radio on Shabbat, the eve of Shavuot, and announced that the next day (Sunday, 6 Sivan 5701) a legal government would be established and the blackout in the city would be abolished. The Jews believed in these promises and breathed a sigh of relief. The masses who were preparing to plunder and rob the Jews were disappointed by this news, regretted the fall of Rashid Ali and were angry with the Jews who were looking forward with joy to the pro-British rule of the curate Abd al-Ila. Many Iraqi soldiers and officers, who fled the battlefield, walked the streets disgruntled and hungry with weapons in hand. The curfew entered the palace of Sad al-Karrah, which is located a few kilometers from Baghdad, at noon on May 30. On that day, Younis A-Sabawi declared himself the military governor of the country. A special security committee headed by Mayor Arshad Al-Omari and the Chief of Police signed a cease-fire agreement on May 31. Yunis A. Sabawi invited the head of the Jewish community in Baghdad to him and demanded that he tell the Jews not to leave their homes for the three days: Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which are the two days of Shavuot. That morning, Yunis sent a call to the masses through the broadcasting service, to carry out a massacre of the Jews; However, this call was delayed by the head of the security committee, who was able to ban Yunis A. Sabaowi and transport him across the border.

On Sunday 6 Sivan, the curfew arrived at the Baghdad airport (about two kilometers from the city).

The wild massacre began on Shavuot, Sunday and Monday, 6-7 in Sivan 5701 (June 1-2, 1941).

On the first day before noon, the Jewish dignitaries went together with the other "dignitaries" to welcome the curfew. The uplifted mood of the Jews was not pleasant for the soldiers and civilian policemen; And on their return, together with the Muslim mob, they attacked the Jews in the main streets and massacred them.

Jews sitting in cars and buses were taken out by force, beaten to death, slaughtered with swords and daggers in front of everyone. The bus drivers trampled over the bodies of the dead without any sense of morality. The mob was immediately joined by Muslim "respectables", school students, government officials, a large part of the civil and military police, policemen and officers. They divided the city into areas and began robbery and murder, from which they equipped themselves with rifles and pistols, and from which they killed with swords, daggers, knives, hatchets, bayonets and all destructive tools.

The mass slaughter surrounded all the Jewish neighborhoods and especially the main streets of Baghdad, Al Rashid Street and Ghazi Street, which are inhabited by many Jews, and the Abu Sifan neighborhood.

The rioters were not satisfied with only murder, they also resorted to severe torture. With great cruelty and savagery that cannot be described with a human pen. They abused, tortured and murdered every Jew who came near them: man and woman, old man and child; toddlers and suckling babies were murdered in the arms of their parents. They also attacked girls and women and raped them in front of the men and then abused them, cut them to pieces and spread their organs all over.

On the second day, an order was given to the mob to go to the police headquarters and take weapons from there. The rioters also used machine guns.

Along with the murder, robbery and looting began in the city. Most of the houses and shops of the Jews were destroyed.

The Jewish shops were marked with a red sign even earlier and because of that no non-Jewish shops were broken into. At the head of the robbers marched military and police personnel and they encouraged the mob to their heinous acts. Senior police officers brought trucks and loaded them with the property they looted from Jewish homes and shops. In several cases, the robbers opened the taps and filled the Jewish homes with water. The Muslim women took off the clothes of the dead bodies and put them on on themselves.

In the places close to the river and in the houses where wells were found - they threw the children and babies into the waters in front of their parents. The rioters also ran amok in the synagogues of the Jews and desecrated them. The 'Farha' synagogue was completely looted. The Torah scrolls were thrown out, the bags that were coated with silver and gold - were robbed.

There is some truth to the widespread rumor that all the patients who were transferred to the government hospital under the management of Israel's torturer Dr. Saib Shawkat - were killed by poison.

The Jews could not defend themselves against the wild crowd equipped with weapons. In individual houses, one Jew who possessed a weapon managed to save their lives. Other Jews, they used cold weapons to kill and be killed. The rest of the Jews got on the roofs of the houses and started running from one house roof to another.

In the morning of the second day, while riots were raging outside Baghdad, the curfew was busy assembling the new government, and Jamil al-Madfai was appointed prime minister. At the same time at 10:45 a curfew order was broadcast on the radio. Around noon, a new Iraqi army entered the city from the north, which had vowed curfew training and was mostly made up of Kurds. This army was ordered to disperse the rioters. After a few shots the mob dispersed. Dozens of rioters were killed. In the afternoon there was silence in the killing town.

⁨Threatens to appeal to USSR.

Baghdad 18, (S.E.). The sub-committee of the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry heard various testimonies here. The last witness, delegate Salman Sheikh Daoud, from the Arab Press Association, said that from now on the Arabs would not allow a single Zionist to enter the Land of Israel [Palestine]. He compared the claims of the Jews based on the Balfour Declaration to the claims of Shylock, he claims that Iraq has done more in terms of construction than the Jews did in the Land of Israel.

Baghdad, 18 (United France). Suleiman Sheikh Daoud said that it is better for the united Arab world to be subjected to 500 years of Russian rule than to come to terms with a Zionist majority in Palestine, which would split Arab unity. He threatened bloodshed throughout the Middle East and the cancellation of the friendship of the Arabs with the Western democracies. Journalists were not present at the testimony, but Sheikh Daoud told the United Press representatives that the Arabs "would rather ask for the help of the Russians and even risk the occupation by the Soviets than put up with Zionist rule in the Land of Israel [Palestine], since the occupation by the Soviet will only be temporary and the united Arabs will eventually overcome it, while the Zionist settlement may drive a wedge between the Arab countries that will go on and on."

The testimony of the - Nablus guy - servant of the 'Axis'

Akram Zuaiter from Nablus, who cooperated with the "Axis" before the war and during the war, said in his enthusiastic testimony that he was one of those who emigrated from the country thanks to the Zionist policy, the exiles, led by the Mufti, are scattered throughout the countries. He talked about the "disasters that befell the Arabs" because of the Balfour Declaration and the double promises given to the Jews and the Arabs. It is most responsible for the "Arab tragedy" by supporting the Aliyah demands, whenever it sees that England is leaning towards them as a solution to the Land of Israel [Palestine] question. He then emphasized the "soft attitude" towards Jewish .. as opposed to the "strong hand" towards the Arab terrorists in the 1936/9 riots and announced that the Arab youth will not be quiet or rest until they disperse the Zionist dreams, because it is not a question of absorption capacity or the possibility of economic development, but the question of a nation's independence and freedom[sic]..

WORKING FOR CONFLICT

On June 14th., the English 'Tribune' published a few inte resting items. They dealt with the position in Palestine, as at the time of the "escape" of the Mufti. The. following precis presents a side of the case never shown by the daily press here. Ed.

'THE MUFTI AGAIN'

It was a foregone conclusion that the ex-Mufti would disappear from France.

For almost a month beforehand important newspaper correspondents in -Paris were ad vised by London and New York offices to watch closely for the event of the Mufti's disappearance. He had received exceptionally lenient treatment from both Britain and France.

The Palestine Government had a warrant out for his arrest in connection with the murder of the British District Commissioner of Nablus in 1937. Later he was associated with the Nazi rising in Iraq, for this his colleague Rashid Ali, was sentenced to death by the Iraq Government.

Then the Mufti went to Berlin and from there broadcast for the Nazis and travelled in the Moslem areas of Yugoslavia to recruit Moslems for the S.S. The most important implication of his escape is not his past re cord but his connection with a fairly extensive Nazi terrorist organisation operating in the Middle East, "which has come to the notice of the British Security Authorities."

'THE NAZI LEGACY'

For some time now British co unter-intelligence has suspected the existence of a Nazi under ground system in the Middle East set up during the war an^ operat ing with a number of Arab colla borationists.

A group of Germans and Arabs trained at the Nazi sabotage school at Athens was parachuted into Palestine and Iraq as late as October 1944, with in structions not directly concerned with the outcome of the war but with longer-term policy. A few were caught, but the leaders with the bulk of substantial fimds, es caped and disappeared.

Some weeks ago British security officials again picked up the trail which led them to Acre, where a prominent Nazi was ar rested.

At the same time they uncovered, in conjunction with the Egyptian police, the organisation responsible last January for the murder of the pro-British Wafd leader, Amin Osman Pasha & for many recent bomb outrages in Cairo and Alexandria (we have heard very little here of these out rages in Egypt prior to June, Ed.)

The organisation, it was found, had been financed and run by Nazis and pro-Axis Egyptians. Its leader was an officer in the Egyptian Army.

THE 'TRAINER' OF ARABS

Our daily press a few days ago itemised a reference to the newly organised training of the Arabs by a former lawyer.

The 'Tribune' in June carried the following item:

"Attention has also been directed to an organisation which ostensibly trains volunteers to help the Palestine Arabs and which has set up a training camp in Syria.

The officer in charge of training is Mamdauh el Meidani, who escaped from Prance with Rashid Ali, the leader of the Iraq Rebellion, and with him sought refuge in Mecca. During the war he acted as intermediary between pro-Nazi Arabs and Germans.

His chief assistant is Akram Zeitar, head of the Arab Section of the Nazi sabotage school in Athens during the war and res ponsible for briefing Nazi para troops dropped in the Middle East.

At present 150 volunteers are being trained at this camp, which has been visited by the Syrian Minister of Defence, Nabih el Amzeh, who was interned by the Allies as one of the leaders of the pro-Nazi party in Syria and a close friend of the Hitler Youth leader, Baldur von Schirach."

All the forgoing indicates how vitally important to the Jewish community in Palestine is the ex istence of its own defense organi sation— Haganah. Ed.

This is how they prepare the testimony of the Jews of the Arab countries ... An Arab from Palestine, a Nazi agent - teaches Syrian Jews what to say to the committee They are commanded to declare that they are happy under Arab rule and that only Zionism is interfering with their happiness Damascus ... By order of the Syrian government, Akram Zu'aitar, an Arab from Palestine, of Nazi agents, who had recently returned from exile in Turkey, invited the leaders of the Jewish community in Damascus. Zua'itar ordered them to visit the members of the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry when they come to Damascus next week and declare to them that they were happy under Arab rule, but that Zionism was interfering with their happiness and could lead to a disaster. He was also strictly forbidding them to reveal that he had approached them with this demand. כך מכינים את עדותם של יהודי הארצות הערביות‭...‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ ערבי מארץ־ישראל סוכן נאצי - מלמד יהודי סוריה מה לומר לועדה - מצווה עליהם להודיע כי הם מאושרים תחת שלטון ערבי וכי רק הציונות מפריע לאשרם

דמשק 13 (פאלקור) לפי הוראת הממשלה הסורית הזמין אליו אכרם זועיתר, ערבי ארצישראלי מסוכני הנאצים שחזר לא מכבר מגלות תורכיה, את ראשי העדה היהודית בדמשק. זועיתר ציוה עליהם לבקר אצל חברי ועדת החקירה האנגלו־אמריקאית לכשיבואו לדמשק בשבוע הבא ולהצהיר בפניהם שהם מאושרים תחת השלטון הערבי ואך הציונות מפריעה לאשרם ועלולה להמיט עליהם שואה. כן אסר איסור חמור לגלות כי פנה אליהם בדרישה זו.

Before the coming of the committee, the Syrian government invited the representatives of Syrian Jewry, and in the presence of Akram Zu'aitar, one of the leaders of the Arabs of Palestine, it was decided for them what they would testify. In their testimony, which lasted no more than one minute, the members of the delegation said that Syrian Jews are loyal to their homeland, they have nothing to complain about and that they are absolutely opposed to Zionism..

... In 1944, the Arab League started planning a propaganda offensive in Western countries to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. The League’s focus of attention was the United States, where, members believed, Palestine’s future would eventually be decided and where they deemed it imperative to counter the Zionist campaign. In 1945 and 1946, it opened offices in Washington, D.C. and New York. The efficiency of these offices in undermining support for Zionism in the US was, however, hampered by infighting between Musa Alami, head of the Arab Offices, and the leader of the Palestinian national movement Amin al-Husseini. When the British relegated the Palestine Question to the UN, the Arab League and the Arab Higher Committee (AHC) were therefore ill-prepared to meet the challenge. Omar Haliq, a member of the anti-Zionist Institute of Arab-American Affairs (IAAA), devised a strategy to mobilize Catholic anti-Semitism in Latin America and Europe for their cause. As a result of these recommendations, in April 1947, the AHC sent a team of senior members, many of them experienced in the field of propaganda, to the US. Moreover, a special committee staffed by the Arab representatives at the UN and functionaries of the AHC was set up to organize a propaganda campaign focusing on South America. The strategy, however, was not successful. Most of Latin America and Catholic Europe voted for UN resolution 181 on November 29, 1947, at the UN session in Lake Success... The Arab special committee had set aside $25,000 for its campaign in South America. To this purpose, it produced material in the local languages and established an Arab Office in Rio de Janeiro. Issa Nakhla and Akram Zuaiter acted as roving ambassadors in North and South America in 1947. Nakhla had already gathered experience in public diplomacy during his student years in London prior to WWII, where he worked at the Arab propaganda office under Izzat Tannous. Zuaiter was a committed nationalist and militant who had joined the Arab Revolt (1936-39). After fleeing Palestine, he allegedly worked as a liaison for the Mufti with the Germans and was involved in the 1941 pro-Nazi coup of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani in Iraq. The special committee also dispatched two delegations to Latin America, one chaired by Akram Zuaiter and the other by Mustafa Khalidi, a professor at the American University in Beirut. In Brazil, Zuaiter’s delegation attended the Pan-American Conference and met with notable members. They also held a rally for the Arab community in Brazil, where they promised to conserve the Arab character of Palestine.

... And it influenced the situation of other Arab countries, so we came out to the conclusion that Arabism, in its federal sense that aims at the establishment of a single Arab state, is suffering a lot today in Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Egypt, and that the independence of those countries began to crystallize in its fragmented conditions, in a very dangerous way. 4/1/1956 Mr. Issa Nakhla visited me, and told me about the efforts he is making in South America, and about the expatriates’ inaction and negligence.

"Islam and the Jews" - the Mufti's essay - The hatred [sic] of the Jews towards the [sic] Arabs and Islam is ancient, which has taken root in the souls of the Jews since the beginning of Muhammad, the blessing of Allah... in the call to Islam. Enmity between the two peoples Haj Amin al-Husseini: "Some people may also think that if the Palestinian problem is solved in a way that satisfies the Arabs, and the Jews leave the Arab lands, then there will be no more reason for hostility between the two peoples - the Islamic Arab and the Jew. This is a misconception." From 1937, a small Arabic booklet called "Islam and Judaism" began to appear in the Middle East, written by the Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini. As noted in "The Nazi Palestine," the pamphlet appeared without mentioning a company name. A year later, the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo published an identical pamphlet stating that it had been written by a cleric and a great sage from Palestine. The pamphlet was translated into German and Croatian during World War II and distributed to the Bosnian Muslim SS soldiers - the SS Division. The 13th mountain "Handschar".

This is a clearly anti-Semitic racist booklet, full of anti-Jewish expressions - the Arab Maine-Kampf. Mufti Amin al-Husseini presents the Jews in this pamphlet as [sic] enemies of Islam, as an irreparable race and as responsible not only for the killing of the Prophet Muhammad, but for all the troubles that befell the Muslims from the beginning of Islam to the present day.

Islamic antisemitism did not develop spontaneously but was invented and used as a means to an end. This process began about 80 years ago in the context of Arab attempts to stop the Zionist immigration to Palestine which considerably increased in the 1930s. The first text that propagated sheer Jew-hatred in an Islamic context by mixing selected anti-Jewish episodes of Mohammed’s life with the so-called wickedness [sic] of Jews in the 20th century was a 31-page brochure in the Arabic language with the title Islam and Jewry, published on August 18, 1937 in Cairo. In September 1937, this pamphlet achieved significance through its distribution at the “National Arab Congress” in Bludan, a health resort in Syria, 30 miles (50 kilometres) northwest of Damascus... While historians have still to answer important questions about Islam and Jewry and Bludan, the political context which facilitated the emergence of Islamic antisemitism is quite clear....

The brochure itself culminates in the following call: “Do not tolerate the partition plan, for Palestine has been an Arab country for centuries and shall remain Arabic forever.”

Bludan Congress Against Partition Ahmed Shukeiri of Acre. The Mufti's Message Palestine Arabic have newspapers published the full text of the Mufti of Jerusalem's lengthy message to the Bludan Congress, in which he portrayed the danger to Arab countries of the Zionist-Jewish movement, which he described as a European Crusade against Islam, and declared that the Arab people would rise and fight world Jewry... Lebanese Attitude According to the Beirut correspondent of "Al Islamia," a rift has arisen between the Lebanese Premier and the Minister of Interior over the latter's desire, following a visit by Mouin el Maadi , the Mufti of Jerusalem's to envoy, to secure Lebanese Government support for the Palestine Arab question. L'Orient , of Beirut , regarded as the unofficial organ of the Lebanese Government , has indicated in a leading article that there can be no other attitude than that of friendly relations with the population of Palestine , no matter whether they were Arabs or Jews. Lebanon's best policy was one of complete neutrality , it was affirmed. "Nothing advantageous would have emerged from Lebanon's official participation in the Bludan Congress, and . on the other hand, Lebanon would have lost an important asset—the extensive summer traffic in its mountain resorts in which Jewish visitors have an important share."

Friday's issue of "Ad Difa'a" was severely critical of the Lebanese authorities.

… "A 90-minute meeting with Hitler is not a trivial matter," says Oholy. "It promised that the only German interest in the Middle East would be the extermination of Jews. The Mufti wrote in his diary in Arabic that Hitler had told him that he was fighting Jews uncompromisingly and without respite. He added, 'I decided to find a solution to the Jewish problem in stages and without a break. I will direct the necessary and appropriate reading to all the peoples of Europe, and then to the countries outside Europe.' In other words, there is in fact justice in Netanyahu's claim, at least in that one of the first secret partners in the extermination plan was the Mufti. " ... the Mufti wrote on May 6, 1943 to the Bulgarian Foreign Minister, in a letter requesting that Jews be sent to rescue: "And there will be a good deed of gratitude to the Arab people." ... Canaan was not just a journalist. "A trusted professional and impartial historian in his pioneering research, he was personally a great authority on Nazi-Palestinian activity in Palestine, as he was in charge of the issue as a senior officer in the British police and was involved in the entire investigation."... Bureau 06, the police unit that prepared the evidence file for the Eichmann trial, found a very strong connection between the Mufti and Eichmann. " It is very easy to find evidence of Eichmann and the Mufti's connections. Bureau 06 found, for example, a record of the Mufti in his personal diary on a page dated November 9, 1944, "And the good (or the faithful) in the Arab friends Eichmann." This is not only a random proof of the connection between the Mufti and Eichmann, but of the Mufti's involvement in the final solution, and of the Mufti's scale of values, according to which the extermination of the Jewish people is an act of friendship for the Arab cause. Herf attaches importance to the fact that al-Husseini was a Nazi-style extremist Jew-hater even before he arrived in Berlin. In his article, he quotes a speech delivered by the Mufti in 1937, before the outbreak of World War II and the Holocaust. The speech was delivered in Syria and when I read it I was amazed to find that it had been translated into German by the Nazi leadership at the time, published in a Nazi - controlled press and that all Nazi leaders knew it as early as 1938. At the same conference in Syria, Husseini was elected by the 400 deputies as the honorary president of the pan-Arab organization. After World War II, Haj Amin was accepted as a hero in Egypt and Palestine. In 1946, Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, called Husseini "a hero who challenged the empire and Zionism with the help of Hitler and Germany. Germany and Hitler are no more, but Amin al-Husseini will continue the struggle." A similar attitude of admiration was shown by the Arab Supreme Council and the Palestinian People's Party, which elected him their leader in 1945. In 1948, Amin al-Husseini was the commander of the Palestinian forces during the War of Independence, whose goal was to occupy and destroy the Jewish community. Prof. Meir Litvak, who co-authored the book "Empathy for Denial, Arab Reactions to the Holocaust," explains that al-Husseini's status among Palestinians is not excited today. "Mainly because they see him as primarily responsible for their defeat in the War of Independence," explains Prof. Litvak. "Some see him as responsible for the failure of Palestinian society to build political infrastructure and institutions as the Zionist movement did. Most writers on his activities in Germany try to downplay his actions, trying to justify his move to Germany by the British leaving him no choice, which is not true. "The Arab, and no one wants to be identified with her, despite the attempt to downplay the significance of the Holocaust. The Palestinian encyclopedia, for example, skips the years during which the Mufti stayed in Germany with the value written about him."

To a large extent, the PLO developed the lie of Zionist-Nazi cooperation in the extermination of the Jews, in order to counter the Mufti's real cooperation with the Nazis, Prof. Litvak claims. "Hamas and Islamic circles in Palestinian society, on the other hand, take a different approach," it praises the Mufti for his uncompromising stance in his struggle against Zionism, praising him for understanding the centrality of religion in the struggle against Zionism and the need to harness Islam for the war against the Jews. They have no problem with being in Nazi Germany. According to them, he did what was necessary to help the Palestinian cause. For them, the British and Americans were no better than the Germans. It would have been convenient for the Palestinians if the Germans had won the war...