the Nazi hatred of the Jew had been incorporated into the existing Muslim narrative that the Jews were untrustworthy and rejected by God himself. The spurious Jew-hating Hadith were being blended with
The Protocols
, and Muslims were picking up the nastiest strains of Christian anti-Semitism from the scores of Muslim-Christian associations that had sprouted up to counter the Jews.
As early as 1933, there are records of the mufti visiting the German consul in Jerusalem and assuring him, “The Muslims inside and outside Palestine welcomed the new regime of Germany.” 11 In return, Germany helped out the mufti with funds.
In September 1937, Adolf Eichmann and two SS officers carried out a mission to the Middle East accompanied by the head of the Hitler Youth, Baldur von Schirach, who later funded an “Arab Club” in Damascus where German Nazis trained recruits for the mufti’s growing army of insurgents. In his seminal study on the mufti, Klaus Gensicke writes, “The Mufti himself acknowledged that at that time it was only due to German funds he received that it had been possible to carry through the uprising in Palestine. From the outset, he made high financial demands which the Nazis to a great extent met.” 12
In the 1930s, about two decades after the Balfour Declaration, there was growing evidence of a convergence of German and Arab enmities that allowed for Nazi-style anti-Semitism to penetrate the Arab world. Although technically the Arabs were also Semites, the Arab hatred for the British and the French was good reason for the Nazis to accommodate them. Soon, a covenant between anti-Zionist Arab leaders and the Nazis began to emerge. Leaders on both sides chose to either finesse or ignore the implications of the kind of anti-Semitism featured in Hitler’s
Mein Kampf
. An article in the Nazi Party newspaper in 1937 explained that Arabs had been at least partly “Aryanized” through mixing with Armenians and Circassians, while some Nazis went on to suggest that
Mein Kampf
be amended to clarify that only Jews, and not Arabs, were meant as objects of Hitler’s rage and disdain. 13
The Nazis also used radio propaganda in the Arab world, where attacks on their common enemy, the Jews, were a major feature of broadcasts. Murderous anti-Jewish riots in Iraq in 1941 and in Egypt, Syria, and Libya in 1945, and massacres in Aleppo and Aden in 1947 demonstrated how the anti-Semitic propaganda of the Nazis, the activism of the mufti, and increasing tension over the emergence of a Jewish state in Palestine combined to completely erase the distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. New forms of Arab nationalism also left less room for tolerance of minority groups than had existed in the Ottoman Empire.
In addition, the odd relationship that had developed between the Nazis and some Arab countries continued after the war. Egypt, for one, became a refuge for runaway Nazis. Nazi war criminal Johann von Leers, an expert in anti-Semitic literature, was one of a number of Nazis welcomed by Egypt for their “expertise in Jewish affairs.” Von Leers was warmly received by none other than Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husayni. In his welcome speech the mufti remarked, “We thank you forventuring to take up the battle with the powers of darkness that have become incarnate in world Jewry.” 14
The much talked about Arab Revolt in Palestine between 1936 and 1939 was multifaceted and was triggered by a growing frustration among the Palestinians about their future. The immediate trigger for the revolt was the killing of two Arabs near Petah Tivka on April 15, 1936, in retaliation for an ambush by Palestinians on a Jewish convoy in which two Jews had died.
As time passed, the British asked their allies in the Arab world to intervene, seeking help from the leaders of Transjordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia to help end the strikes that had paralyzed the economy. Notwithstanding the harsh measures taken by the British authorities, the
The Protocols
, and Muslims were picking up the nastiest strains of Christian anti-Semitism from the scores of Muslim-Christian associations that had sprouted up to counter the Jews.
As early as 1933, there are records of the mufti visiting the German consul in Jerusalem and assuring him, “The Muslims inside and outside Palestine welcomed the new regime of Germany.” 11 In return, Germany helped out the mufti with funds.
In September 1937, Adolf Eichmann and two SS officers carried out a mission to the Middle East accompanied by the head of the Hitler Youth, Baldur von Schirach, who later funded an “Arab Club” in Damascus where German Nazis trained recruits for the mufti’s growing army of insurgents. In his seminal study on the mufti, Klaus Gensicke writes, “The Mufti himself acknowledged that at that time it was only due to German funds he received that it had been possible to carry through the uprising in Palestine. From the outset, he made high financial demands which the Nazis to a great extent met.” 12
In the 1930s, about two decades after the Balfour Declaration, there was growing evidence of a convergence of German and Arab enmities that allowed for Nazi-style anti-Semitism to penetrate the Arab world. Although technically the Arabs were also Semites, the Arab hatred for the British and the French was good reason for the Nazis to accommodate them. Soon, a covenant between anti-Zionist Arab leaders and the Nazis began to emerge. Leaders on both sides chose to either finesse or ignore the implications of the kind of anti-Semitism featured in Hitler’s
Mein Kampf
. An article in the Nazi Party newspaper in 1937 explained that Arabs had been at least partly “Aryanized” through mixing with Armenians and Circassians, while some Nazis went on to suggest that
Mein Kampf
be amended to clarify that only Jews, and not Arabs, were meant as objects of Hitler’s rage and disdain. 13
The Nazis also used radio propaganda in the Arab world, where attacks on their common enemy, the Jews, were a major feature of broadcasts. Murderous anti-Jewish riots in Iraq in 1941 and in Egypt, Syria, and Libya in 1945, and massacres in Aleppo and Aden in 1947 demonstrated how the anti-Semitic propaganda of the Nazis, the activism of the mufti, and increasing tension over the emergence of a Jewish state in Palestine combined to completely erase the distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. New forms of Arab nationalism also left less room for tolerance of minority groups than had existed in the Ottoman Empire.
In addition, the odd relationship that had developed between the Nazis and some Arab countries continued after the war. Egypt, for one, became a refuge for runaway Nazis. Nazi war criminal Johann von Leers, an expert in anti-Semitic literature, was one of a number of Nazis welcomed by Egypt for their “expertise in Jewish affairs.” Von Leers was warmly received by none other than Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husayni. In his welcome speech the mufti remarked, “We thank you forventuring to take up the battle with the powers of darkness that have become incarnate in world Jewry.” 14
The much talked about Arab Revolt in Palestine between 1936 and 1939 was multifaceted and was triggered by a growing frustration among the Palestinians about their future. The immediate trigger for the revolt was the killing of two Arabs near Petah Tivka on April 15, 1936, in retaliation for an ambush by Palestinians on a Jewish convoy in which two Jews had died.
As time passed, the British asked their allies in the Arab world to intervene, seeking help from the leaders of Transjordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia to help end the strikes that had paralyzed the economy. Notwithstanding the harsh measures taken by the British authorities, the
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