NAZI ROOTS OF PALESTINIAN NATIONALISM

Nazi Roots of Palestinian Nationalism 

By David Storobin

"Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world. I asked Hitler for an explicit undertaking to allow us to solve the Jewish problem in a manner befitting our national and racial aspirations and according to the scientific methods innovated by Germany in the handling of its Jews. The answer I got was: The Jews are yours."

Former Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini in his post-World War II memoirs. [1]

"The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan... He was one of Eichmann's best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures."

Adolf Eichmann`s deputy Dieter Wisliceny in his Nuremberg Trials testimony. [2]

Within weeks of Adolf Hitler`s ascendance to power, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, contacted the German counsel-general in Palestine. With the exception of funding some anti-Semitic riots, Germans rejected the Arab`s overtures until 1937, when Adolf Eichmann and Herbert Hagen were sent to Palestine to establish a framework to provide Husseini with military and financial aid by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. [3]

By then, the Mufti had already proven his anti-Jewish credentials to the Germans by organizing a three-year-long series of riots and massacres.

By that time, however, another member of the al-Husseini clan was planning terror. Around the same time that the All-Palestine government was disbanded, a man by the name of Muhammad Abd al-Rahman ar-Rauf al-Qudwah al-Husaini - better known as Yasir Arafat - was busy organizing Fatah, which would go on to become the main faction of the PLO.

Support for Nazism was not limited to the former Mufti. "We admired the Nazis. We were immersed in reading Nazi literature and books . . . . We were the first who thought of a translation of Mein Kampf. Anyone who lived in Damascus at that time was witness to the Arab inclination toward Nazism," recalled Sami al-Joundi, one of the founders of Syria's ruling Ba'ath Party. [23] Indeed, a popular WWII song was heard in the Middle East featuring words: Bissama Allah, oria alard Hitler - in heaven Allah, on earth Hitler. Picking up the theme of the book, posters were put up in Arab markets and elsewhere proclaiming, "In heaven Allah is thy ruler; on earth Adolph Hitler." John Gunther of Inside Asia reported: "The greatest contemporary Arab hero is probably Hitler." [24]

In October 1933, pro-Axis Young Egypt Party was founded. Styling itself of its German ideal, the new party built a storm-trooper unit, marching with torches under the slogan "One folk, One party, One Leader." Among the members of the violently anti-Semitic party was the young Gamal Abdel Nasser. [25] Nasser's brother, Nassiri, was the translator of Hitler's Mein Kampf into Arabic, describing the Fascist despot in glowing terms. After the "Free Officers" came to power in the 1950's, President Nasser used Joachim Daumling, the former Gestapo chief in Dusseldorf, to build the Egyptian secret service. The Gestapo chief of Warsaw organized the Egyptian security police. [26]

Another future Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat, was imprisoned during World War II for cooperating with Adolf Hitler's regime. Towards the end of World War II, Sadat wrote to the Fuhrer: "My dear Hitler, I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart. Even if you appear to have been defeated, in reality you are the victor. You succeeded in creating dissensions between Churchill, the old man, and his allies, the Sons of Satan. Germany will win because her existence is necessary to preserve the world balance. Germany will be reborn in spite of the Western and Eastern powers. There will be no peace unless Germany once again becomes what she was." [27]

Jewish New Jersey Times