Wikipedia sources: Gershoni's Colonial Propaganda Masquerading as "Evidence": more on the attempts to downplay widespread Nazi sympathies in Arab Palestine

Wiki facts ^ | 05.28.26

[Words Matter]

Israel Gershoni's Colonial Propaganda Masquerading as "Evidence."

More on the push by Achcar (who, outrageously, compared genocidal Palestinian Oct 7 onslaught to the 1943 Warsaw Uprising) and Gershoni attempts to downplay widespread Nazi sympathies in Arab Palestine.

Gershoni’s use of Arabic newspapers from the Second World War period as reliable evidence is methodologically worthless. These newspapers, during the WWII, did not operate under conditions of press freedom, but under a strict British wartime censorship regime that monitored, edited, suppressed, and directed political reporting in Mandatory Palestine. As British records show, and as laid out by Mustafa Kabha and David Sharfman, the wartime press functioned under extensive colonial supervision, where publication was conditioned by political control and security considerations rather than independent journalism.

Sharfman demonstrates that wartime censorship formed an integral part of British propaganda and internal security policy, while Kabha’s work likewise highlights the pressures, restrictions, and interventions imposed upon the Arabic press during the Mandate period. Under such conditions, newspapers cannot seriously be treated as transparent reflections of public opinion or political reality. To rely on them uncritically, while ignoring the coercive framework under which they were produced, strips the argument of historical credibility altogether.

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Sharfman, D. (2023). Jerusalem in the Second World War: Part 2. Living in wartime. 3. Civil defence, rationing, and press censorship. Taylor & Francis. https://books.google.com/books?id=B7_mEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT29

Censorship and the Jewish and Arab press - political issues.

The government's censorship policy was severely criticised by Trevor in a book published by the end of the Mandate. She claimed that: 'While the censorship thus accumulated the worst features of all the different systems known in other belligerent countries, it worked on certain principles peculiar to Palestine ... For example, the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem al-Husseini was taboo. In June 1939, the papers had been informed that as he was officially excluded from Palestine 'on account of his nefarious activities', any publication concerning him or his movements was likely to endanger the public peace and might lead to suspension of the paper. The authorities also suppressed any criticism of the administration: 'down to the slackness of post office clerks and the accents of radio announcers'. Another forbidden topic was Zionism, and any expression of sympathy for it in the outside world was to be kept from the knowledge of Arabs and Jews in Palestine: 'However theoretically or moderately phrased the plea, however high the standing of the pleader - be it Dr. Weizmann or Mr. Churchill himself - the axe fell'.

The censors banned articles or excerpts from them in almost every field....

Kabahā, M., Caspi, D. (2011). The Palestinian Arab In/outsiders: Media and Conflict in Israel. United Kingdom: Vallentine Mitchell, pp. 58-59.

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...

[Words Matter]

Click to enlarge

[Freeleesy]

Thanks. Another reason to doubt Wikipedia RS “reliable sources.”

[Brian Griffin]

In the late 1930s the British placed almost all adult male Palestinian Arabs in camps to break an Arab rebellion.

Those Arabs therefore supported the anti-British Germans in the early 1940s.

[Words Matter]

So why did the rest of the remaining Arabs in "Palestine" (after those instigators to riots were imprisoned) support Hitler - 88% such as in Sari Sakakini's poll in February 1941?

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In 1937, Mufti escaped to Lebanon, then to Iraq - assisting on Arab Nazi coup abd inciting to Farhoud pogrom, then to Italy, then to Germany meeting with Hitler.

[Milagros]

But Arab Nazi sympathies were BEFORE the events you described:

1932:

“Palestine Arabs Are with Hitler in His Enmity to Jews Says Grand Mufti’s Organ”
March 31, 1932.
[http://pdfs.jta.org/1932/1932-04-01_081.pdf]

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1934:

“TROUBLES IN GERMANY. The following paragraph is taken from the Arab Federation, a Jerusalem weekly in English, dated July 7. The people of Palestine have been watching the recent troubles in Germany with great interest and keen. They were astonished by the courageous quick actions of Hitler whom Arabs admire very much.”
https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/pls/1934/07/16/01/article/35/

[Milagros]

Remember, you are citing post April 15, 1936 events...

Here is more.

* 1933* - just weeks after Hitler is Chancellor.
The Mufti and Falastin’s Joseph Francis approached Nazi Germany in March then in April 1933.

A July 31, 1933 Foreign Office memorandum, distributed to German embassies in London, Cairo, Baghdad, Beirut, and Geneva, instructed diplomats to avoid Arab organizations, otherwise “members of the German Reich may otherwise come into suspicion of interfering in the political relationships of Palestine.”

With zero cooperation from the German government and no possibility of joining the Nazi Party, Arabs decided to form their own Fascist and Nazi parties. If they could not join them, they would imitate them. In April 1933, Joseph Francis, editor of Falastin and correspondent for three other Arab newspapers, approached German Consul Wolff in Jerusalem offering “the felicitations and admiration of the youth of Palestine.” Francis requested German “guidance on how to create a Fascist Party of Palestine with the goal of destroying the Jewish Communist movement which is devastating Palestine.” Consul Wolff avoided any specific response. Francis came back in June 1933 and insisted that his request obtain a copy of Nazi Party bylaws be forwarded to senior Reich officials. If he didn’t get a positive response, Francis suggested, he would contact Italian Fascists and use their bylaws - although he preferred the German bylaws.

Wolff again refused to comply. In a memo headlined “Planned Establishment of a National Socialist Arab Party,” Wolff told Berlin, “The slightest easily imaginable indiscretion could endanger or even lose me the necessary and requisite trust of the Mandate government.” He added, “Promoting the activist Nationalist Arab tendencies would be seen as directly counter to their [the Mandate’s] political objectives.” The German Foreign Ministry in Berlin supported Wolff’s refusal to cooperate. In a dispatch copied to several embassies, Berlin instructed, “All official German representatives will refrain from any foreign policy decisions behind the circles of acquaintance associated with Francis, for one because it is not clear what paths the planned movement intends to strike out upon.” The same enthusiastic approach and stony response played out in other Arab capitals. In August 1933, the German envoy in Baghdad was contacted by the publisher of the newspaper Istiqlal as well as some Arab legislators. They “have informed me that they have been contemplating forming a National Socialist Party emulating that of Germany. They have asked me to provide them materials about the German National Socialist Party, and in particular the party planks and if possible the bylaws in either English or French.”

Activist Arab editor Amir Arslan, who headed up La Nation Arabe, circulated both in Geneva and in Syria, was repeatedly rebuffed in his efforts to schedule a meeting with Hitler or secure any assistance.

Ultimately, Arabs did create numerous Nazi-style or Fascist parties without assistance.
https://books.google.com/books?id=f9LrEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT385#v=onepage&q&f=false

[Milagros]

Stav, A. (1999). Peace : the Arabian caricature : a study of anti-semitic imagery. Israel: Gefen Publishing House, p.118

https://books.google.com/books?id=vPcNAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Arab%20admiration%20for%20Nazism%22

Arab admiration for Nazism in the 1930s, after Hitler came to power, should be seen against the backdrop of such an identity of values. The explanation usually given for such admiration, namely, that a common antipathy toward France and Britain pushed the Arabs into Hitler’s arms, is only a partial explanation.
Furthermore, as a fundamental explanation, it is overly simplistic to the point of being a perversion of history.
Arab admiration for Hitler and his movement, which predated his accession to power by a decade, erupted with enthusiasm as soon as he came to power in 1933. Hitler’s first telegram of congratulations from abroad came the day after he was named Chancellor from the German consul in Jerusalem, Wolff. That was shortly followed by warm telegrams from throughout the Arab world.
While Hitler’s violation of the Versailles Treaty was a crude slap in the face of Britain and France, it came much later in 1936, with German rearmament, and in 1938, with the Anschluss of Austria.
From 1933 at least until the German attack on Poland in September 1939, there were no grounds for assuming that Hitler, an Anglophile who based his long-term strategy, as outlined in Mein Kampf, on Anglo-German cooperation, would be the one to save the Arabs from British colonialism. As the Middle East was mostly under the British sphere of influence, Hitler viewed it at the time of his accession largely as secondary to his overall plans; German attitudes then could be summed up by Bismarck’s aphorism, “The entire Eastern question is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier.”

Furthermore, while Jews were the victims of Nazi anti-Semitism, that anti-Semitism included all Semites, at least at the “anthropological” level. Nazi contempt for Arabs is amply reflected in expressions of racist revulsion toward them, and of the embarrassment engendered among the Nazi leadership by the courtship toward them by Haj Amin al-Husseini, at least prior to the outbreak of the Second World War.

[Milagros]

Here are excerpts with regards to the period before April 1936 (Arab revolt).

From:

Mallmann, K.-M., & Cüppers, M. (2010). Nazi Palestine: The plans for the extermination of the Jews in Palestine (Chapter 2, “Nazi sympathies: Middle East supporters of the Third Reich”). Enigma Books.

(Links: 1, 2)

In particular, Hitler the individual was held in great esteem in the Arab world, and in the Islamic world as a whole. After his ascent to power, he received praise, as in the following: “May Go_d preserve you. Every day I bring my prayers for you to Go_d. The news of Your Highness’s patriotism spreads the best fragrances in the whole world,” wrote a sheikh from Palestine. “I am ready at any time to serve your regime with 100 soldiers on horseback. I am waiting for Your Highness’s signal. [...] May you always remain my Lord.” 2
And from Jerusalem he received the following telegram: “The Arab youth of Palestine respectfully ask the only Führer of Germany to prevent the sale of the German Schneller School and its land to the Jews, so that this sale does not contribute to the Jewification of the Holy Land.”3
2. Rahal Scheiban to Hitler, July 18, 1933, BAB, R 43 II/1420. 3. AA memorandum, July 27, 1935, BAB, R 43 II/1420.



In Saudi Arabia, in turn, Ibn Saud declared in 1939 that the Mufti was his “personal friend,” offered the use of his territory as a staging ground for German weapons shipments to Palestine, and openly acknowledged his pro-Nazi affinities: “All Arabs and Mohammedans throughout the world have great respect for Germany, and this respect is increased by the battle that Germany is waging against the Jews, the archenemy of the Arabs.”40 ....
{40. Annex to report by DG Djidda, Feb. 18, 1939, ADAP, ser. D, vol. 5, p. 680.}

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It is not surprising that Muslim Palestine fit into this context perfectly. With regard to the 1932 German presidential election, a Palestinian newspaper commented: “But in terms of the position of the Arabs in Palestine [...] toward these elections [...], though we have no voting rights, we do have a wish and a hope. And perhaps, because the Jews are our adversaries [...], then our wish and our hope remains Hitler, naturally, [...] based on the rule: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”59

Many stood unreservedly behind the coercive measures of the Third Reich: “The Jew [... is] an international communist,” wrote another newspaper. “In my eyes, Germany is right to drive such people out of the fatherland, because they represent a danger to all the countries in which they live.”60

{59. Abbasi, p. 168f.}

This view studiously ignored the fact that it was because of these measures that the number of Jews in Palestine had increased; thus, Nazi Germany actually accelerated the “Jewification” of the country and explicitly promoted it through the Haavara Agreement, as discussed below. Stubborn silence prevailed with regard to this aspect of German anti-Semitism.61

“Who is the greater genius, the Jews or Hitler?” asked the Alam Arabi newspaper, and interpreted the facts in its own way: “Now when major Jewish capitalists leave Germany, they must spend their millions on German goods to bring into Palestine. In that way the German gain and the Jewish loss is doubled.”62

Evidently, the anti-Semitism that was being repeated was sometimes greater than the anti-Zionism. On March 31, 1933, the Mufti visited the German consul general, Heinrich Wolff, in Jerusalem and assured him that the Muslims “welcome the new German regime and anticipate the spread of fascist anti-democratic state leadership to other countries.” A German boycott, to target the wealth of the Jews, would find “enthusiastic support throughout the entire Mohammedan world.”63

Just three months later, he was able to report on the “intended establishment of an Arab National Socialist party.”64

The swastika was frequently seen on leaflets and walls during the October 1933 Arab strike protesting Jewish immigration.65 “Efforts to organize Nazi Associations have been revived,” reported the British police in the summer of 1934,66 and in the fall they saw constant Nazi propaganda in the Arab press.67 In Palestinian literature, Jews were portrayed as money-hungry, devious, and unscrupulous, and as cowards, “new Shylocks,” and “sons of clinking gold.”68

There were lyrics such as these: “Step on the Jews’ heads / to free Buraq and Haram. / You young men, close ranks; / attack them by the thousands. / O Go_d, how beautiful death is / in the freeing of Haram and Buraq.”69

Khalil as-Sakakini, an Arab .. teacher in Jerusalem, wrote in his journal that Hitler had opened the eyes of the world. Before he came to power, people feared the Jews and their boundless influence. But Hitler had shown the

{60. Ibid., p. 171. 61. Ibid., p. 175. 62. AA to RK, Nov. 12, 1934, BAB, R 43 II/1420. 63. DGK Jerusalem to AA, Mar. 31, 1933, PAAA, R 78325. 64. Ibid., June 27, 1933, PAAA, R 78325. 65. Jorda, Araber-Aufstand, p. 3. 66. Criminal Investigation Department Jerusalem, Periodical Appreciation Summary No. 9, June 15, 1934, NAK, FO 371/17878. 67. Ibid., No. 13, Sept. 20, 1934, NAK, FO 371/17878. 68. Altoma, p. 64ff.; Osta, pp. 21ff., 221ff. 69. Wild, “Judentum,” p. 278.}

world that they were really harmless. The Germans were the first to confront the Jews and had no fear of them. Hitler put them in their place, according to the accomplished conspiracy theorist as-Sakakini, and Mussolini, through the occupation of Ethiopia, dealt the British a blow. When news arrived in Jerusalem that on January 13, 1935, a majority of Saar residents had voted for reunification with Germany, as-Sakakini celebrated this development together with the victory of Husseini in the local elections in Jerusalem. For him, the two successes belonged together.70

The “Go_d-fearing freedom fighter” Hanaf Hassan wrote to the German consul in Haifa, the “representative of Hitler the Great”: “Go_d protect him and all Germany. [...] No Arab will forget the friendship of the Germans throughout the world for the help they granted in aid of the Arabs in Palestine. The land of Palestine does not belong to us Arabs alone, but also to the Germans, and I hope, Mr. Consul, that you will help us free the Holy Land from the Jews, and I hope that we are all brothers, God willing.”71

The Third Reich also enjoyed strong support among the students at a private secondary school in Bir Zeit, near Ramallah. When an English teacher gave her students a novel by Benjamin Disraeli to read, the class rebelled. “But he’s a Jew,” the students protested. The teacher then tried to steer the discussion to the question of what makes a man important. She suggested that this was someone who had influenced the spirit of his times and asked the class to compile a list of important men. Most of the students named Adolf Hitler first.72

According to the German consul in Jaffa, Timotheus Wurst, in late March 1936 the Muslim Palestinians were “deeply impressed by fascist, particularly National Socialist, teachings and views. National Socialism, with its anti-Jewish notions, has struck a chord among the Arabs of Palestine, who find themselves in a desperate and almost hopeless defensive battle against Zionism. Among the Arabs, fascism and National Socialism have in many cases become the standards against which all other political systems and teachings are measured, and, in the eyes of many Arabs, Adolf Hitler is without a doubt simply the most important man of the 20th century. Our Führer’s popularity is so great that there can hardly be a single Arab, even the lowliest peasant, who doesn’t know the name of Hitler.” Like the Boy Scouts, the Istiqlal Party in particular has “embraced the National Socialist theses to the greatest extent. The Istiqlal Party organ, The Defense, has a markedly National Socialist orientation.”73

{70. Segev, p. 450f. 71. Copy (undated), PAAA, R 104790. 72. Segev, p. 451f. 73. DK Jaffa to AA, Mar. 1, 1936, PAAA, R 78338.}

[Milagros]

Kabahā, M. (2007). The Palestinian Press as Shaper of Public Opinion 1929-39: Writing Up a Storm. United Kingdom: Vallentine Mitchell, pp.142-145. [*] - [*] - [*]

Reactions of the Palestinian press to the rising power of Fascism and Nazism.
[...]
Almost all the newspapers affiliated with the Husaynis and their opposition displayed sympathy and admiration towards the German regime and its leader...

Filastin expressed appreciation for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and compared him to Palestinian leaders, saying: Hitler, who has proven himself a remarkable leader striving to redeem his people, did not rely on personal or family influence or on social, scientific and economic status. He based his acts on the sincerity of his mission, while in Palestine the leaders are corrupt, liars, robbers, servants of the Mandate government, who prefer this government to the homeland and to the future of its sons . [April 4, 1933]

However, this sympathy for Hitler was voiced by Filastin a few months after the newspaper described him as 'builder of the Jewish National Home'. The newspaper believed that he facilitated this by deporting the Jews from German , the great majority of whom then came to Palestine.

Al-Difa' was more sympathetic than any other newspaper towards the Nazi regime. In July 1934 it published the platform of the Nazi party and called it 'the national pride programme'. The newspaper called upon young Arabs to read the programme and choose a new national course.' [Al-Difa', 9 July 1934].

The newspaper also published Hitler's call to young Arabs in which he said:

Germany was disgraced and in sacrificing ourselves for our country we erased its disgraceful shame. It was divided and shattered and we succeeded in reinstating the unity of the German people. It was easy prey for the Allies, the Jews and the Communists, and we turned it into a sacred place that is home only to pure German blood.
[Ibid., 1 June 1934]

The newspaper followed this appeal, which did not mention Arab countries or Arab youth, as claimed, by encouraging the young people to learn from Hitler and to emulate him so that they too would be able to create unity – Arab unity.

Al-Difa' had a reporter stationed in Berlin, and almost every day he sent articles describing what was happening in the German capital, viewed, inevitably from a sympathetic perspective and in rosy colours. For example, he described the German celebration of Hitler's birthday, saying: 'Germany celebrates the birthday of its redeemer from misery, poverty and shame.
[Ibid., 4 May 1934]

Al-Difa's increasing interest in Germany was apparently influenced by the financial support that the newspaper received from the Germans...

The links between al-Difa' and the Germans are undeniable. The newspaper received from the German consulate pictures that were not available to any other newspaper. German financial support enabled the newspaper to significantly improve the level of technical work with new machines bought with German aid.

The manager of the newspaper, Shawkat Hammad, opened a bank account in Tel-Aviv, into which the Germans transferred money. When curfews were imposed and during the 1936–39 revolt Hammad would call upon his friend from the newspaper Habokir, Gavriel Zifroni, and request his Characteristics and Modes of Action, 1932-36.
[...]
During the Abyssinian War, Italy was sharply criticized in particular in the Christian-owned newspapers, al-Karmil and Filastin, since Abyssinia had a Christian majority and special ties with Palestinian Christians. The impact of the fascist and Nazi ideas was conspicuously evident in their symbols. The newspapers wished that their leaders were more similar to the leaders of Germany, as al-Karmil asked:
'Will an Arab Hitler rise in our midst to arouse the Arabs, gather them, and lead them to fight and defend their rights and their homeland?'
[May 24, 1933]

They also wished to provide Palestinian youth with an education similar to that of German and Italian youth, as Emil al-Ghouri wrote in the first issue of his newspaper, al-Shabab:
'Oh Arab Youth! Awaken and see what the aggressive enemies have done to you. Exploited Palestine calls upon you to save it from the teeth of enslavement and exploitation... In every town, every village and every tent, you must found national youth companies as in Italy and Germany that will operate in favour of independence and Arab unity.
[June 11, 1934]

Filastin published the words of Najib al-Hakim, secretary of the al-Ghazi club in Haifa:
'Oh young Arabs, emulate Nazism, fascism and Kamilism, and to be precise national socialism.
There is no other way for the enslaved nations to achieve liberty ... power and order are the lifeblood of nations.'
[Nov 29, 1933]

[Words Matter]

Really? 440,000 were in camps???

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https://www.jta.org/archive/palestine-population-put-at-1401808-jews-28-2-per-cent-of-total

In 1936, the estimated Arab population in Mandatory Palestine was approximately 870,000, comprising both Muslims and Christians. Out of this total, there were around 440,000 Arab males of all ages.