Shattering the "Enemy of My Enemy" Narrative: The Ideological Reality of Pro-Nazi Sentiment in Arab Mandatory Palestine

When evaluating the historical alignment of the Palestinian national movement with Nazi Germany during World War II, a common revisionist defense is the "enemy of my enemy" framework. This narrative posits that pro-Axis sympathy was merely a reluctant, pragmatic calculation aimed at leveraging German power to expel British colonial rulers and block Zionist immigration - exclusively. However, primary archival records, intelligence reports, and firsthand accounts from prominent political insiders dismantle this defense, demonstrating that popular Palestinian alignment with Nazism was widespread, enthusiastic, and fundamentally driven by a shared anti-Jewish agenda.

1933 as a "preview"

The major Arab media at the time, the newspaper Falastin, May 1933, calls Hitler “noble”, justifies his persecution of the Jews, drags the infamous "Protocols" forgery.

"Noble (sic) Hitler" — Says "Falastin " — The Palestine Post 22 May 1933

"Falastin" considers the Jews to be quite in the wrong in their criticism of anti-Jewish acts in Germany. Hitler is "Innocent and Noble, strong and beloved by his people and has succeeded in sav- ing his country from the vile (sic) Jews."
The Elders of Zion are also dragged into "Falastin's" article. They rule the world and do not like Iliter and are doing all they can to overthrow him, writes the Jaffa paper.

But let's focus on the sweeping pro Nazi Arab Palestine
.

1. Why the OSS Report Transcends Geopolitics

The standard anti-colonial excuse completely collapses when confronted with the August 1942 U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) military intelligence report. The document explicitly noted that a majority of the Arab population in Palestine harbored fierce anti-Jewish sentiment and eagerly anticipated the arrival of Nazi General Erwin Rommel’s forces.

The Distinction: If the motivation were strictly a tactical alliance to achieve independence, the goal would have been confined to helping Germany dismantle the British military administration. However, the OSS documented that the local population anticipated Rommel’s arrival specifically as an opportunity to attack local Jewish civilian populations and plunder their property. Targeting, plundering, and seeking to eliminate a civilian population proves an active ideological synchronization with the exterminationist goals of Nazi antisemitism, rather than a detached piece of realpolitik.

2. Grassroots Testimony and the "Abu Ali" Phenomenon

Firsthand accounts from those who lived through the era strip away modern political euphemisms, demonstrating that hatred of Jews was the explicit, stated reason for supporting the Axis powers. In a televised interview in October 2019, Dr. Zaid Hamzeh, a prominent intellectual of Palestinian descent and former Jordanian government minister, recalled his childhood during the war and stated bluntly: “We Arabs supported Hitler during WWII because he hated the Jews.”

The Cultural Reality: Dr. Hamzeh detailed a popular street culture where school children actively participated in demonstrations cheering for Germany. The masses affectionately referred to Adolf Hitler by the localized Arabic moniker "Abu Ali." This grassroots emotional connection was not born out of sophisticated diplomatic maneuvering regarding the British Empire; it was driven by an overt ideological synchronization with Hitler's anti-Jewish agenda.

3. High-Level Confirmations from the PLO Leadership

The ideological convergence between Palestinian nationalism and Nazism is further confirmed by senior political leaders of the movement. In a December 2013 interview with Russia Today TV, Farouk Qaddoumi, the veteran former head of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) Political Bureau, explicitly corrected the notion that their alignment was passive or reluctant.

The Core Admission: When directly asked if the leadership was sympathetic to Nazi Germany, Qaddoumi responded: “I don't think it would be wrong to say that we were enthusiastic supporters of Germany.” When pushed further on whether they supported Hitler and his inner circle, he confirmed: “Germany, yes... This was common among the Palestinians, especially since our enemy was Zionism, and we saw that Zionism was hostile to Germany, and vice versa.”
Shared Hostility: Qaddoumi’s framing completely bypasses British colonialism, directly naming Zionism as the focal point of their alignment. He unreservedly admitted that the common bond between the Palestinian movement and Nazi Germany was mutual hostility toward the Jewish national movement.

The Cumulative Historical Weight

Historians who attempt to sanitize this era—such as radical propagandist Gilbert Achcar (who glorified the racist-Arab Islamofascistic genocidal Oct 7 attacks)—face rigorous justifiable criticism because they downplay or ignore these raw records in favor of defensive political frameworks. When stacked together, the five core pieces of historical data converge on an undeniable reality:

The Sakakini Poll (February 1941): An informal survey conducted by Sari al-Sakakini at the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem revealed that an overwhelming 88% majority of local Arabs actively rooted for a German victory.
The OSS Intelligence Report (August 1942): Documented that popular anticipation of Rommel's arrival was inextricably tied to a desire to attack local Jewish populations and seize their property. Their assessment of Palestine was even more sober: "The majority of the Arabs in Palestine are fiercely anti-Jewish.. While the moderates agree that the present is hardly the time to quarrel over the Jewish question, the radicals, who form a majority, see in the approach of General Rommel an ideal opportunity to murder all Jews and seize their property. Tales are current throughout Palestine of the planned division of Jewish property.” Herf, J. (2009). Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World. Ukraine: Yale University Press, p.139
Ahmad Shukeiri's Memoirs (1969): The first chairman of the PLO wrote explicitly of the wartime atmosphere: “Our sympathies were with the Axis countries... with our sympathies, our prayers were for victory for Germany.” Kedourie, E. (2012). Arabic Political Memoirs and Other Studies. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, p.189
And if you still any doubts in Shukairy's meaning (about that era). Right after the Holocaust, he and Jamal Husseini justified it: B'nai B'rith Messenger. 12 July, 1946, p.6: Achmed Shukeiri, chief of the Arab office, who restituted in his conversation the words of Goebbels, justified the murder of six million Jews of Europe "because Hitler could not be all wrong." I met Jamal el Husseini; he issued the same warning as Shukeiri (he being Shukeiri's chief) ... and reiterated his justification of the mass murder of six million Jews "for Hitler couldn't be all wrong . . .
Dr. Zaid Hamzeh's Testimony (2019): Confirmed at a grassroots level that support for Hitler was direct, popular, and explicitly based on his hatred of the Jews. Former Jordanian Health Minister Dr. Zaid Hamzeh: We Arabs Supported Hitler during WWII Because He Hated the Jews | MEMRI (10.9.19) (Of "Palestinian" origin)
Farouk Qaddoumi's Admission (2013): Formalized that the Palestinian national movement comprised "enthusiastic supporters" bound to Nazism through a shared animosity toward Zionism and the Jewish people. PLO Leader Admits Support for Nazis, Says They Saw Zionism as Common Enemy (VIDEO). 12.18.13)

The historical record demonstrates that the "enemy of my enemy" narrative is a revisionist construct. The primary archival documentation and firsthand admissions from the generation that lived through the era show that popular Palestinian alignment with Nazi Germany was widespread, enthusiastic, and fundamentally anchored in a shared anti-Jewish agenda.

WIW PAR35. What a wonderful pro nazi line...

Most sarcastic phrasing I've ever heard. The Nazis wanted all the Jews out and the greedy Germans got money from Zionists who wanted to save the Jews into the holyland.

SO WHY DID GERMAN JEWS, SUDDENLY SEEK TO ESCAPE GERMANY???

The Nuremberg Race Laws.
The Nuremberg Race Laws defined Jews in racial terms. The laws proclaimed that Jews could not be citizens and restricted who Jews could marry.

[antisemitism, Nazi rise to power, anti-Jewish legislation, racism, Nuremberg, Holocaust]

What were the Nuremberg Race Laws?
On September 15, 1935, the Nazi regime announced two new laws related to race:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nuremberg-race-laws

Right wing zionists objected the Transsfer agreement. But It did save some 65,000 Jews

No. The Jews did NOT work "with" the Nazis

5,000,000, Semitics In Europe Being Tortured To Point Where Only Death or Flight Remain.
Reading Eagle · ‎Oct 23, 1938 – Page 6

ONLY DEATH OR FLIGHT...1938

50-Mile-Long Barbed Wire Barrier Erected on Northern Frontier of Palestine to Bar Arabs.
Reading Eagle · ‎Oct 30, 1938 – Page 5

Northern Palestine Frontier, Oct. 29, (INS)-Jews are fare game of the anti-semite killers in great sections of Europe, mere is not even a game law to protect them, but in Palestine with their handicaps, they have at least some of the pieces of self-defence. They have today completed the greatest piece of fortification the Jews have ever constructed for Jews since they put up the wall around Jerusalem two thousand years ago.

Hitler, (before the confirmed Jan-1942 The Wannsee Conference "Final Solution" | Holocaust Encyclopedia "Final Solution" decision, when the immediate urge by Nazis was to expell the Jews from Germany and since some of the Zionists were in contact - sought to save them into Israel Mandatory-Palestine [Haavara, while right-wing zionists opposed], Hitler took advantage for his ethnic cleansing goal.

(The Transfer Agreement VS the Boycott Movement a dilemma link)

Refugees.
Between the Nazi rise to power in 1933 and Nazi Germany's surrender in 1945, more than 340,000 Jews emigrated from Germany and Austria. Tragically, nearly 100,000 of them found refuge in countries subsequently conquered by Germany. German authorities would deport and kill the vast majority of them. The search for refuge frames both the years before the Holocaust and its aftermath.

Key Facts
1
From 1933 to fall 1941 Nazi Germany pursued an aggressive policy of forced emigration for the Reich's Jews.

2
More than 340,000 Jews emigrated from Germany and Austria. Of these, about 100,000 who fled to other European countries subsequently were killed in the Holocaust.

3
Refugees faced enormous obstacles in finding safe havens during the Great Depression and World War II

[...]
Palestine.
Over 60,000 German Jews immigrated to Palestine during the 1930s, most under the terms of the Haavara (Transfer) Agreement. This agreement between Germany and the Jewish authorities in Palestine facilitated Jewish emigration to Palestine.
Refugees | Holocaust Encyclopedia

From Author and historian Rizkallah Boutros, presenting Nazi documents in his book "The Arab World in Secret German Documents 1937-1941," Or "Arab World in Foreign Office - German Documentary," published in 2006 (ISBN 13: 9781900700214, in Arabic):

In a report on the talks with King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the author of the report said that he held several long talks in Jeddah "with King Ibn Saud and his advisor Sheikh Yusuf Yassin regarding Saudi Arabia's international position, especially its relations with England and Italy. The main topic of the talks was the king's desire for close political and economic cooperation with Germany..."

He added, "As a result of the talks that took place with me, it was concluded that Saudi Arabia and Germany have one common enemy: the Jews."

From German foreign correspondence, Nazi Germany was vehemently opposed to the idea of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. It did not want German Jewish colonies to have a unified administration, but should remain separate as municipalities without forming a separate state. As such a state would be, it said, an exceptional impetus for so-called "political Judaism[sic]," which was unacceptable to Nazis. Documents reveal that while Nazi Germany 'allowed' German Jews to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine, it still continued to monitor them and opposed the integration of German Jewish colonies into the then planned Zionist State. Moreso, even if Britain were to declare the establishment of the State of Israel, German Jews in Mandatory Palestine would not be allowed --by Germany-- nor would their colonies, to join the Zionist state.

Baron Russell of Liverpool, E. F. L. R. (1962). The Trial of Adolf Eichmann. United Kingdom: Heinemann, p.39:
The Nazis made the following declaration to the palestinazi Mufti on 2 November 1943:

"that the destruction of the so-called Jewish National Home in Palestine is an immutable part of the policy of the greater German Reich."

1.5 Million Jews fought the Nazis.
Yad vaShem

And Ben Gurion/Weitzmann Efforts for A 'JEWISH ARMY' FIGHTING NAZISM

Racing Against History: The 1940 Campaign for a Jewish Army to Fight Hitler. By Rick Richman.

Herf, J. (2022). Israel's Moment: International Support for and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945-1949. India: Cambridge University Press, p.28:

... Those Jews who were fortunate enough to be in Palestine have made and are making a glorious contribution to the Allied cause.

Already on Sep 16, 1919, Hitler declared his desire of annihilation: "ultimate goal must definitely be the removal of the Jews altogether.”
link

Palestine Post. Sep. 16, 1945.
Nazis admit murdering 6 Million Jews in Europe. Not enough to satisfy Himmler.

Friday, May 2, 2025. featuring the work of Katharina Friedla, Thomas Weber.
Hitler's Extermination Order: Rare Conversations with Senior Nazis Released Online.

Over 800 rare recordings of conversations with senior Nazis have been released to the public. In these recordings, high-ranking officials can be heard openly discussing Hitler's extermination order and Holocaust atrocities. The recordings and additional rare materials are available to the public.
Tranche of 800+ Audio Tapes, Including Conversations with Nazis, Digitized and Available for Research at Hoover.
In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender in May 1945, the Hoover Institution Library & Archives has released more than 800 digitized audio recordings and transcripts of conversations relating to 20th century conflict – most notably, undercover conversations with high-ranking Nazis who had fled to South America.

Herf, J. (2022). Israel's Moment: International Support for and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945-1949. India: Cambridge University Press, p.29:

Robert F Wagner... He made clear that the White Paper was of a piece with the mentality of appeasement, first of Hitler, then of Arab rejectionists. For Wagner, support for the Zionist project was at one with the purposes for which the Allies, also known then as “the united nations,” were fighting against the Nazis.

Hitler's contempt for Zionism / Zionists

The Satanic wrote in his infamous 1925 book:

"The Jew’s domination in the state seems so assured that now not only can he call himself a Jew again, but he ruthlessly admits his ultimate national and political designs. A section of his race openly owns itself to be a foreign people, yet even here they lie. For while the Zionists try to make the rest of the world believe that the national consciousness of the Jew finds its satisfaction in the creation of a Palestinian state, the Jews again[SIC] slyly[SIC] dupe the dumb Go#im. It doesn’t even enter their heads to build up a Jewish state in Palestine for the purpose of living there..."

What did Hitler write in Mein Kampf about a potential state Israel created in Mandatory Palestine?
https://x.com/i/grok/share/xRXxkgTMBlwVGMMLJgynv3RM2 archived

Arming Arab terrorists since 1936...

Nazis 'shipped arms to Palestinians'. Ynetnews. May 7, 2006 —
Nazis 'shipped arms to Palestinians'. British National Archives unveil presence of Nazi S.S. agents in Mandatory Palestine, working closely with Palestinian leaders
Yaakov Lappin|05.07.06 | Historical documents in Britain’s National Archives in London show that Nazi Germany attempted to ship arms to Palestinian forces in the 1930s.

NAZIS SAID TO ARM PALESTINE ARABS; Agents Also Inflame Moslems for War Against British, ...
By Telephone To the New York Times. May 29, 1941
https://www.nytimes.com/1941/05/29/archives/nazis-said-to-arm-palestine-arabs-agents-also-inflame-moslems-for.html

While HITLER supported Arab "Palestinians" as in Sep/1938 speech: "Arabs Hail Hitler As Racial Friend"

Prescott Evening Courier, Sep 13. 1938. p. 1.
JERUSALEM, Sept. 13.— AP— Jubilant Arab reaction today to Adolf Hitler's references to Palestine foreshadowed increased resistance to government in this troubled British mandate. "Now we are not without friends in Europe," an Arab spokesman said.

Our ultimate success as a nation lies with Hitler and Mussolini. And not in Britain and France." Photographic Evidence Shows Palestinian Leader Amin al-Husseini at a Nazi Concentration Camp
An analysis of photographs sold at a Jerusalem auction house offers new insight into the role of foreign accomplices in Hitler’s Final Solution
by Wolfgang G. Schwanitz April 07, 2021

Page 185 — Figure 21.
On page 126 of his memoirs, al-Husaini reveals Himmler’s remarks at their meeting in Zhitomir on the Jews and the Final Solution. “Every time I heard of his deep hatred of the Jews. He accused them of being offenders who allege that they are ill-treated. He said they are igniters of the fire of war.
In doing so, they are selfish, as shown by the scope of harm done to Germany in the past war. They always stoke the fire of war and use it for their material interests though without injuring themselves a bit. Therefore, we have decided in this war to make them suffer and to pay attention to their activities in advance. Thus, up to now we have liquidated about three million of them
(this conversation was in the summer of 1943).”

Arabs Hail Hitler As Racial Friend.
Prescott Evening Courier, Sep 13, 1938

And from:

Inside Asia, John Gunther, Harper & Brothers, 1939 - Asia, p.528

The greatest contemporary Arab hero --- Adolf Hitler .

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