Trudy Gold
The Curious Case of Haj Amin al-Husseini

Trudy Gold - The Curious Case of Haj Amin al-Husseini

- Why did I call it “The Curious Case of Haj Amin al-Husseini?” A few years ago, there was a new kind of tradition in history, the ifs and butts of history. Some historians were terribly against it, others thought it was an interesting idea. But what I’m going to say is this, Haj Amin, who becomes the leader of Palestinian Arabs, if it had been someone someone else, would the situation have been different? And I think he is such a pivotal figure in the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict that it’s important we look at his biography. So, and I’m presupposing when I give this presentation, that most of you know quite a lot of background to the Middle East. If you don’t, you’re going to have to let me know. I have lectured on that particular subject way back on lockdown. And I will be available with the website, won’t it, Judi? Anyway, can we see the first slide, please? Yeah, Haj Amin al-Husseini. He was born in Jerusalem. He was the son of the Mufti Tahir, who was already an opponent of, who was an early opponent of Zionism. He came from a wealthy land-owning family in Southern Palestine, around Jerusalem. In fact, 13 members of his family had already been mayors of Jerusalem. And his half-brother, Kamil had also been the Mufti. He studied at a Quran school in, which was an Ottoman government school, because of course at this stage, Palestine, and we shouldn’t really even call it Palestine, the Arabs called it Greater Syria. In fact, I’m going to bring up the issue of the word Palestine now, because it was first used by the Romans when to really, really humiliate the Jews, after the destruction of Judea, they renamed it Palestina for the enemies of the Jews, the Philistines.

It was used again in the Renaissance by Christian scholars, and it was used by some Arabs, who had been educated in France from the turn of the 19th century. But Arabs such as Haj Amin would’ve considered himself to be living in part of Greater Syria. And of course, all this area was at this stage under the control of the Ottoman Empire, which was very much known as the Sikh man of Europe. So, he studies at an Ottoman government school in Jerusalem. He then went to a Catholic secondary school, which was run by Greek missionaries. Why am I telling you all this? Because I think you need to know. He had a wide education. Then he went to an alliance school. Now, the alliance schools, of course, were set up through the alliance, Israeli University from Paris that had been created by Adolphe Cremeieux. Now in Albert Antebi was a fascinating man. And I’m going to give you a bit of his background, because these are the forces that shape an individual. He originally came from the Sephardi Jewish community in Damascus. Can we see his face please? Let’s have a look at Albert Antebi. Oh, before that, go on. Let’s have a look at the postcards of Jerusalem. Yeah, let’s have a look at those postcards. These are postcards of Jerusalem around the turn of the century. And of course the one with the Kaiser, it’s to commemorate his visit in 1898. And by the way, if you look closely, you will see holes in the, you’ll see holes in the mosque. The mosque was not central at this stage to Islam, but more about that later on. So this, can we see Albert Antebi now? Now, Albert Antebi, he, as I said, he comes from the Jewish community in Damascus. His grandfather had been a victim of the Damascus blood libel, which was the first blood libel in the Arab world.

And it was in fact an import by the French and the Austrian consoles. He himself studied in an alliance school in Paris. He studied engineering, because one of the purposes of the alliance was to teach crafts to Jews. And in 1896, he was given an appointment at the Alliance School until 1913. He was a passionate Francophile and he very much dreamt of Jewish emancipation under Turkish rule. He was a clever man, he had lots of languages. He was fluent in French, Hebrew, Arabic, and English. He was also the master of four different systems of law, the law of the Beth Din, Sharia law, French law, Ottoman Law. And he was an intermediary between the settlers and Arab notables and Rothchild, because of course, Edmond de Rothschild, Baron Edmond de Rothschild of the French branch was purchasing land for Jewish settlers where? In Palestine. He was held in very high regard by both the Husseini and the Nashashibi clans, who are the two most important dynasties in Jerusalem at the time, and also by the labour Zionists. And he was very much opposed to the political Zionist project as developed by Herzl. This is, he actually wrote down his philosophy. And some of these ideas are so sort of romantic that I want to bring them into the picture. “I desire to achieve the conquest of Zion through economic means, not politically. The Jerusalem I would cherish is the Jerusalem of spirit and history, not the modern temper of Jerusalem. I want to be a Jewish deputy in an Ottoman Parliament and not in the Jewish temple of Mount Mariah.

Ottoman Jews have the same rights responsibilities as the Jews of England, France, and Germany. I wish to create powerful Jewish in our economic centres, embedded in universal democracies. I do not wish to be a subject of Judean autocracy.” So, he feels very strongly that to be a Jew is religious and he wants to be a citizen of the country. Unfortunately, he died young. He died of typhus in in 1919. And he actually, in his testament, he said that he hoped Palestine would develop along a Swiss cantorial system under inter-allied protection. Because of course, by this stage, the Ottoman Empire has been destroyed. So, let’s go back. Can we go on to the next slide? And I’m going to go back to the, I’m going to go back to the Mufti. So, he is educated under this man. He also then, then he studies under, he studies law briefly at Cairo University, does Haj Amin. And then he comes under the spell of a Salafi intellectual called Rashid Rida, who would remain his mentor. In fact, he only, the Mufti, only dons a religious turban when he actually becomes Moth Mufti. In World War I, Haj Amin is commissioned into the Ottoman Army as an artillery officer. Remember, it’s part of Ottoman Turkey. He is an aristocrat living in Jerusalem. He’s stationed in [Indistinct] He then is disabled for three months, returns to Jerusalem. And when he is, he’s recovering when the British take the city. And can we go onto the next slide please? Now this is the Emir Faisal. And now I’m going to have to give you a certain round of history. And I’m going to hope that many of you will know about it. Because what happens is this, of course the Ottoman Empire is on, is against Britain and France. And Britain and France already both have aspirations over the Middle East.

And what happens is it’s actually a British army, under al-Anbiya, which conquers Palestine, let’s call it Palestine to make it easy. Although there are no geographical borders at this stage. And the Arabs referred to it as Greater Syria. What happens is al-Anibya forces, they take Be'er Sheva, they then march onto Jerusalem and then finally they stop at the gates of Damascus. Now, who is the Emir Faisal? The Emir Faisal is the son of the most important man in the Arab world, the Emir Hussein, who is Sharif of Mecca, a descendant of the prophet. The 37th generation of descendants from the prophets. And this is one of his sons, the Emir Faisal. Now, what had happened in the first World War, as far as this area is concerned, is that the British made lots of promises to a lot of people. There is a fascinating foreign office memo at the end of 1914, which, and it should have been shredded because it says, “In any future war, our best interests are served in stopping French and Russian empire building. All right, bear this in mind. They’re fighting the Turks, but the French and the Russians are their allies. In 1915, in order to try and get support from the Arabs against the Turks, the British don’t quite know who to deal with. There are various contenders, but in the end they go to the Emir Hussein, Sharif of Mecca, guardian of the most important Islamic holy site. And they promise him land in the Middle East centred on Damascus, because Damascus was once the site of the greatest of the Arab empires. In return, he must revolt against the Turks, which he does. And its son, Emir, his son, Faisal leads the revolt along with the great British soldier, Lawrence of Arabia.

A promise is made. Then the world, the war isn’t going too well for the British, so they do a secret deal with the French. But once the war is over and the Ottomans are defeated, in your heads, draw a line north of Haifa, and take it all the way out. Everything to the south will be British. Everything to the north will be French, with an enclave around Haifa to be international, French, Russian, and British. The port. The Russians are soon out of it because of the revolution. A year and a half later, the British issued the Balfour Declaration, when they promised the Jews a homeland in Palestine. His Majesty’s government views with favour an establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national home for the Jewish people, care to be taken that it doesn’t infringe the rights of the existing population. The Balfour Declaration. Now you have a British army on the ground in Palestine and at Damascus, the British army is in Damascus. They hold back and the Emir Faisal enters Damascus at the head of a victorious army. Now, this is really to create facts on the ground, what the British are trying to do is to create the fact. "We put our army there. We don’t really want the French to have anymore say in the Middle East.” So it’s at this stage of course, that the war ends and what is going to happen from here? Faisal, with the permission of General Allenby, announces the establishment of an Arab constitutional government in Damascus and he leads the Arab delegation of the Paris Peace Conference supported by T.E. Lawrence and of course the fascinating Gertrude Bell. July the second, 1919, the Syrian Congress pronounced the formation of independent kingdom under Faisal and asked for American help to refute French claims.

You should know that on the 4th of January, 1919, Faisal and Weizmann had signed an agreement of Arab and Jewish cooperation. At this stage, Faisal actually writes, “We wish the Jews a hearty welcome home. There is room in Greater Syria for us both.” And Lawrence of Arabia also believed it would be a good idea, that Jewish know-how, you could make a real region in the Middle East. So at this stage, it wasn’t a possibility. Now, the French though, are determined that their claim is which they’ve made a deal with the British, and they demand at the Paris Peace Conference and the Sam Remo Conference that this beat adhered to. Now also, there were a few elite Arabs who were beginning to worry about the notion of a Jewish homeland. On the 20th of March, 1920, the Emir Faisal is proclaimed King of Iraq. Can we go on to the next slide, please? The French, the British give in to the French, the French go to war. General Gouraud, the day before the battle of Maysalun. Now, it’s a total route and Faisal’s forces are completely destroyed. Now, you’ve got to remember the Arab expectations had been declared by the, have been absolutely, the declaration of the Greater Syrian Independence had led to a real upswing of support for Arab nationalism. The Turkish empire is over, the Arabs have a great history. Once they had a, they had a dynasty that centred on Damascus. Later they had a dynasty that centred on Baghdad, the two rival centres. They have a great history.

Now, there were demonstrations in Palestine at the time of Nebi Musa, the Nebi Musa Riots. Now what had happened to Haj Amin al-Husseini, he had volunteered for the army, along with 500 other Arabs from Palestine. He’d been part of the Faisal entry into Damascus. And he was, he recruited men to serve Faisal. He was a fervent, at this stage, he’s a fervent Arab nationalist. At the Pan-Syrian Congress, he supported Faisal as King of Syria. The Syrian based Arab club was a very pro British club. It seemed that everything was going to be all right, however, when Faisal is finally evicted, that is when he rethinks. The Nebi Musa Riots, pace of 1920, are anti-Jewish riots in Palestine, because Weizmann has arrived in Palestine with a commission with Israel [Indistinct] as his secretary, and two, the Arabs, it appears that the Jews had won and they had lost. The notion of Greater Syria, so you have this terrible dream that is now squashed, really in my view, because of the French and the British playing very, very dirty. What emerges are French and British mandates, lines are drawn in the map. The French are given control of Syria, out of Syria, they themselves create Lebanon because to take care of minority groups. The British have Palestine and Iraq. And at this stage, the British mandate on Palestine is what is now Israel, what is now Jordan, what is now the West Bank, what is now the Golden Heights.

This is Palestine and a British mandate. Written into the terms of the mandate by the League of Nations is the Balfour Declaration, the Nebi Musa Riots. It’s also at this stage that Jabotinsky, who had created Allegiant to fight with the British, he is disillusioned by the British at the time of the Nebi Musa Riots, there aren’t enough British soldiers. People are being killed, property is being destroyed. And he creates the Haganah in Jerusalem. The Mufti is on the other side, very much egged on by some British army officers. And something else that’s happened. These British army officers, many of them had been fighting the whites with the whites against the communists in Russia. So, they come back to Palestine with the protocols of the elders of Zion in their nap sacks. And they begin to form Muslim-Christian associations. This is when the Mufti really goes on a completely different path. He is inciting the riots along with his uncle. Much in fact, Weizmann and some of the more pro-Zionist British officers believed that he was being incited by Allenby’s number two. But anyway, he starts making very anti-Jewish speeches. The riots, the situation is out of control. Both he and Jabotinsky are taken before British courts and they’re given 10 year sentences. The Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini escapes, Jabotinsky is sentenced, but there’s such an outcry around the world. This man who’d become a left tenant in the British army, who’d been the first Jew to cross the Jordan, a great hero of the Jews, had actually been imprisoned. So, he’s let out. But this is when there are great rifts in the Zionist movement, because from then on, Jabotinsky loses faith in the British, whereas Weizmann, who had many friends in British high circles and was now in Palestine, he believed that the British would come through.

So it’s in these years that many of the problems that are going to absolutely beset the situation actually come to fruition. So, what are the British going to do with Faisal? Well, what they do is, at the Cairo conference, they give him a country, they appoint him King of Iraq. He encouraged Pan-Arabism. Now, it’s very interesting. His dream, Faisal is now Emir of Iraq, King of Iraq, and his dream, because what is, what happens is after the Sam Remo Conference, mandates are awarded to the French and British, they’re not given colonies, because the Americans object to colonies. So, a mandate is a device by which a big power takes on a region, determined to bring the inhabitants to self-rule. And as I said, written into the British mandate is of course the Balfour Declaration. Now, so you have Faisal encouraging Pan-Arabism. Now his power base was Sunni, which was a minority in Iraq. Remember, he comes from what is today’s Saudi. It’s very confusing. Let me tell you that what happens is in the late ‘20s, the other dynasty in the Hijas, the Saudi Dynasty destroy the Hashemite Dynasty in the Hijas and it’s renamed Saudi Arabia. They are wahabis, they are very fanatical Muslims. So you, what is being encouraged is Pan-Arabism. Because if he can create an entity which includes Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, if they are incorporated, the majority would then be Sunnis. The Arab Shiites of Iraq looked to Persia for leadership. And the rallying cry of Pan Arabism was really to bring all groups together around Arab identity. So Arab nationalism is on the march, it is an late development to the dream of nationalism. So, but it’s very important. And it’s important to understand the difference between Arab nationalism and later on Palestinian nationalism. So, he encourages into Iraq, Faisal, influx of Syrian exiles and officers, seizing who are, they want to cultivate better relations between Iraq and Syria. Now can we go on, please, Jude?

Here you see the Nebi Musa Riots, the riots at the Damascus gate, Arab rioters in front of Jerusalem. And the riots are quelled, but already Jabotinsky and his brand of Zionism, later on he’s going to create the world revisionist Zionists. Because what happens next is Herbert Samuel, can we see the next slide please? He is appointed to head up the mandate in Palestine. And the Zionist believed that this would be a great victory for them because Sir Herbert Samuel was a Jew and a Zionist, but he’s also a British officer. He’s in control of the mandate and in control of the mandate, many of his duties were, for example, he had to decide who should become Mufti, very important religious office. And because he realised he had to keep the balance of power by, between the various families in Jerusalem, he decides to appoint Haj Amin al-Husseini to the post of Mufti. And the Mufti of Jerusalem is terribly important because it gives him access to all the holy places and therefore he can bring the people to Jihad, because already he has his dream of Arab nationalism, where is it? The Jews are victorious and he is turning violently against any Jewish settlement in Palestine. So, he has been completely disillusioned, as I said, many of the British Army officers, including Allenby’s number two, Colonel [Indistinct] Harry Walters Taylor. He, as I said to you, he was actually accused, not just by Weizmann, but also a very interesting British officer called [Indistinct] that he had actually, was behind the Mufti’s riots.

So until the late '20s, really the main Arab thrust of nationalism was the ideology of Greater Syria, with Palestine as a southern province of an Arab state, with Damascus the capital of Greater Syria. However, Winston Churchill is now the colonial secretary and he comes to Palestine, he is pro-Zionist. He comes to Palestine and he wants to try and sort things out. So what he does, he sees Arab leaders, he sees Jewish leaders, and he comes up with a compromise. He looks at the map. Faisal has a brother called Abdullah, who’d also fought the British. Are you all with me on this? It is complicated. But as I said, I have given this presentation before, but I thought I’d better go over it now, so that you better understand how the Mufti fits in. Anyway, what he does is, the younger brother has an army on the edge of the mandate, which veers with Saudi, what is now Saudi. Then the Hijas. What he does is he chops off two thirds of the mandate and renames it Trans Jordan, closes it to Jewish settlement and makes Abdullah Emir of Trans Jordan and later he becomes king and his family are still in power today. So you have at this stage, the father is still in the Hijas, later to be displaced by the Sauds. One son in Iraq, the other son in Syria. So Arab nationalism, there are conferences, there are congresses in Jerusalem, mainly put together by the Muslim-Christian Associations. And from his election as Mufti until the late twenties, the Mufti ran this secret society called al-Fiada. He was very into the sacrifice of Islam and they were going to later on play a very important role in anti-British and anti-Zionist activities.

So in 1922, the Muftis also elected President of the Supreme Muslim Council. He controls funds, he has a budget. He also controls the Islamic courts in Palestine, which gives him the power to approve the teachers and the preachers. He regards himself as the guardian of one of, he regards now that the one of the Haram Al Sharif is a noble sanctuary and he’s determined to, again, to make it one of the great sites of Islam because at this stage, and I’ve got footage and I must arrange to show it to you, there is weeds all over the [Indistinct] and there are holes in the roof. And he, it’s been neglected under the Ottomans, but it was once the place when Jerusalem was the direction to which Muslims prayed. So, basically he wants to make it important again. So, he is helped by some of the mandate powers and also a director of antiquities, a man called Ernest Tatum Richmond. Can we see his face please? Now Ernest Tatum Richmond was a, he’s an interesting character. He was the son of an artist and he first travelled to Egypt in 1895 to help with the antiquities, the architect of public works in Cairo under the British, in World War I, he was the War Graves Commissioner. He becomes very important in the British Civil Service. He is the consulting art architect of the Haram al Sharif in Jerusalem, and he’s the director of antiquities in Palestine. In 1926, he became a Roman Catholic. He’s an Arabic speaker. In fact, his son, Sir John Richmond, was one of the founders of [Indistinct] who campaigned on behalf of the Palestinians. He is very disenchanted with the Jews. He doesn’t think they have any right to Palestine. And he, this is what he wrote. “I could not believe that the British government, which should claim to be liberating the Arabs from Turkish misrule really intended to give the Palestinians a smaller say than they had enjoyed under the Turks.”

And he was also disillusioned with his superior, who he believed was a committed Zionist, because Wyndam Deeds believed in the big prophecies of the Hebrew Bible. So, what happens is that these various congresses are giving the Mufti more and more power, and then something happens. By this time, Jabotinsky has taken a very strong stand. He demands land both sides of the Jordan because he says one day the diaspora will have to empty. So he and Weizmann are completely polar opposites. Weitzmann, even though he does become quite disillusioned with Samuel, who is only High Commissioner to 1925, he does, but he’s got a lot of friends in Britain. He believes that Churchill is still a Zionist. He believes that in the end, the British will honour their promises. Now, what then happens is Ernest Tatum Richmond is, he works closely with the Mufti. And not only that, 1929, various things happen. Some of the followers of Jabotinksy, because what happens is Jabotinsky founds his own youth organisation called Betar. The [Indistinct] politics are moving ahead in Palestine. Ben-Gurian becomes the head of the HeHalutz. The Haganah is very much the arm of the of labour Zionists. When Jabotinksy, who was a brilliant orator, was on one of his tours in Poland, a group of his followers said, “Why don’t you create your own group?” And he creates Betar and followers of Betar, they have their own newspaper and they are asking for certain houses around the whaling wall to be demolished, to make easy access. And then one of the beagles of the synagogue actually sets up a [Indistinct] at the wall, which the Mufti says is a desecration of a holy site. And some of the Betaris go on marches. One of the group is a man called Abu Ahk Hamit, who I mentioned when I talked about Lazarov. He was a, he really was a fanatic. And a lot of trouble is brewing and it leads to terrible riots in 1929. And it spreads, people are murdered in Jerusalem.

It spreads to have where more Jews are murdered. It is a terrible, terrible time. It leads to Jabotinsky being exiled from Palestine. He’s no longer allowed back in, he becomes a nomad in Paris and in London or Eastern Europe. He is completely disillusioned by this time by the British, the British hold a commission. And they decide that the real problems in Jerusalem are, and in Palestine, are because too many Jews are coming in and there’s, after the Wall Street crash of '29, there’s unemployment and they say that they’re going to halt Jewish immigration while there are any unemployed Arabs. Of course the Mufti is delighted, but then there are forces back in London that are pro-Zionist and the British orator to economic absorptive capacity of the Yeshur. As long as the Jews can support themselves. But already the British are wavering and the situation exacerbates. The Mufti is becoming more and more alienated from any thoughts of British rule. And he begins, after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, he begins to court the Germans. At that stage, the Germans don’t take it very seriously. They don’t have much faith in the Arabs. And remember at this stage, they are hoping that Palestine might solve their Jewish problem for them, because of the Haavara agreement. So about 136,000 Jews come into Palestine between 1933 and 1935. For the Mufti, this signals another revolt. And in 1936, he proclaims a strike. There are riots and all hell breaks loose. The British are in a terrible situation, already out of the Haganah, a group of commanders have created the Irgun, who want to go more on the offensive. They realise there will not be an accommodation.

Weizmann is very much still in favour of the British will come through, Jabotinsky and his supporters are completely against it. And the Mufti is now creating mayhem for the British. A British army officer, a man called Orde Wingate, who is very pro-Zionist, does create the Palma, out of the Haganah. But that’s the situation. And the Arab riots, they, what happens is the British do, what the British always do, they create a commission. The appeal commission. The appeal commission comes to Palestine to look at the problem. And having investigated, and you’ll remember that last week I read you both Jabotinsky and Weizmann’s appeals. And what they decide to do is to partition Palestine, but only that one fifth that is left. So basically it will give the Jews a sliver of land based in the north about the size of Cornwall. Those who know England. Now, a small sliver. By this time, the situation is so bad that the Zionists reluctantly accept it. The Arabs don’t. The Mufti is becoming more and more militant. There are moderate voices amongst the Arabs, but the Mufti who is ruthless, he’s exiled from Palestine, but he’s still pulling all the strings and he is against any accommodation. He doesn’t want one Jew into Palestine. And he creates the Pan-Arab Congress. Now, by creating the Pan-Arab Congress in 1937 in Syria, this is incredibly important, because what it does is it takes the issue of the Jews of Palestine to the Arab world. From now on, this is the beginning of Arab involvement in the issue of Palestine. So the appeal commission, they report and they decide on partition. But the British decide that from now on, they are not going to appease the Jews in any way.

Remember the statement of Neville Chamberlain that I talked about last week? It all fits together, this jigsaw puzzle. You know, in any future war, the British had to watch their backs. The Mufti made it quite clear that if the British did not stop Jewish immigration, he would act in a way that was inimicable to their interests. Just as the British had stirred up the Arabs in the first World War, he would stir the Arabs up against the British if there was another war. And at this stage, the British took it seriously. So, they didn’t implement the partition agreement. And consequently, not only that, they began even more to restrict Jewish immigration to Palestine, culminating in 1939, the British White Paper. Now the Mufti of course, what happens when war breaks out? And can we go on with the slides, please? Here you see the Arab Riots of 1938. They went on the rampage against the British. They also went on the rampage against the Jews. Now can we go on please, Judi? This is the Pan-Arab Conference of 1937. And the Mufti also made some very interesting allies. There was a man called Michael Aflaq. He’s going to become, can we go on, please? Michael Aflaq is going to be very important. He came from a middle-class family in Damascus. He studied at the Sorbonne, he was a Christian. You’ve got to remember, he studies at the Sorbonne. Think what France was like in the first and second, third decades of the 20th century. Think about the Drefus, care fair think [Indistinct] He picked up a lot of his anti-Semitism in Paris. In Paris, he met a future collaborator, Salak Ardin Alur. He actually is going to return to Syria in 1932. He actually is a Communist, it’s fascinating. He wanted a secular state, but he also believed in the unity of the Arab world later.

But this is what he said about the Jews, “The Zionist menace is not merely an economic invasion, but a religious invasion, which has no parallel in history, except the crusades.” So it’s important to know that some, and he creates the Bath Party, which is going to be so important in Arab politics. So, it’s important to know that these kind of things are going on. Right, World War II breaks out. Can we go on to the next slide, please? There is Sami al-Jundi, who is his Muslim partner in Paris. And the two of them are going to be two of the most important figures in the development of Arab Nationalism. Now, of course, when war breaks out, can we go on to the next slide please? That is Rashid Ali al-Gaylani. Syria is French. So, you have a vichy regime in Syria. And it’s interesting, because the British had actually arrested most of the Irgun when war broke out. Look, in 1939 at the time of the White Paper, the Irgun continued the war against the British. When war actually breaks out, a group of Irgun break away under Abraham Stern and they continue fighting the British until Stern is killed in police custody. Do you see how desperate the situation is becoming? You know what’s happening in Europe. So, but Iraq is British and on the 3rd of March in Iraq, King Gazi dies prematurely leaving a son, Faisal, who’s only four years old, and his uncle supports the British in the war, Rashid Ali. Now Rashid Ali was born into a family of huge, important descent. He was an Arab nationalist. He’d held many government posts and he decides to seize power. The royal family managed to flee as coup d'etat. The British interests are attacked, because Iraq is a major supply of oil and a lamb bridge between Egypt and India. Rashid Ali is very close to Haj Amin al-Husseini. In fact, it is Haj Amin al-Husseini’s secretary, who is the man who eases Rashid Ali into power.

Britain, now what happens is David Raziel, the leader of the Irgun, was released from prison by the British and he’s sent on a mission to recapture the oil refineries and actually to kill the Mufti, he dies attempting it. So the leader of the Irgun who was a great hero in Israel, he was a poet, a philosopher. He dies fighting for the British under Rashid Ali, there’s a terrible outbreak of anti-Semitism on the press, in the radio, accusing the Jews of being pawns of the British. Between '33 and '41, the German ambassador in Iraq, Dr. Fritz Gruber, had often invited Iraqi officials to Germany as guests. He’d also purchased an Arab newspaper, “The Arab World,” and published “Mein Kampf” in Arabic. He also supported a movement, Al Fatwa, a youth movement based on the Hitler youth and very much instigated by Rashid Ali and the Mufti, There is a [Indistinct] the first and 2nd of June in Shabot. It’s instigated by the Al Muf Bana Club, which is very much put up by the Mufti’s secretary, it’s known as the [Indistinct] and I know that Julius has lectured on it. 180 Jews were murdered, 700 injured in the riots. And there were also [Indistinct] in Libya. Now what’s interesting, the massacre, the British forces are on the outskirts. They’re going to take back Iraq, but the massacre continues unopposed by the British troops. Now Somerset Struben de Chair, can we see his picture please? He was serving with the British forces as an intelligence officer and he actually came and asked his commanding officer, “Why don’t we go in and stop it?” And the British ambassador to Iraq, Cornwallis, had already said the British should not occupy Baghdad, except at the request of the Iraqi government. And it’s during the coup that the Mufti actually organises a fatwa against the British.

So where is he at the outbreak of war? He is in Lebanon, then he transfers himself to Iraq for the coup. And he, what happens then, he is during the war, he’s an active collaborator with the Nazis. He is, can we go on, please? He spends much of the time in Germany, because by this time, even though Hitler didn’t have much, he didn’t have much belief in the Arabs, but there was the emergence of another school in the German foreign office. Basically what they are saying is that the Arabs might be an interesting partner for us. And as a result of that, the Mufti is going to travel to Berlin. And can we see the next slide, please? Operation Atlas, I think we’ll start with this. Here you have Haj Amin al-Husseini meeting with Heinrich Himmler. Now, I want to read for you some of the things that he got up to. This is a pamphlet. He was very useful to the Germans. He would review, there were Muslim regiments fighting for the Germans in Bosnia. And this is a pamphlet he wrote. “The Day of Judgement will come when the Muslims will crush the Jews completely. And when every tree behind which Jew hides will say, 'There is a Jew behind me, kill him.’” This is one of his broadcasts from Radio Berlin. Because look, after the capture of, if you think when we look as far back as ‘37, when Mussolini gets to Libya, think about the propaganda, the access propaganda.

This is Radio Berlin that he broadcast from in Arabic. “Arabs, rise up as one man and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honour. God is with you.” And let me find some more quotes for you, as though you don’t need to hear so many more. Yeah, this is November. “It is the duty of Muslims in general and Arabs in particular to drive all the Jews from Arab and Muslim countries. Germany is also struggling against a common foe who oppressed Muslims in their different countries. It has very clearly recognised the Jews for what they are and resolved to find a definitive solution for the Jewish danger that would eliminate the scourge that the Jews represent to the world.” Not only did he visit Sachsenhausen, he tried to stop any rescue attempts. There was an attempt to raise, to make some rescue in Hungary, and he actually wrote to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, begging him to stop the rescue attempts. This is the letter, July the 25th, 1944. Don’t forget that Hungary was the last Jewish community to be attacked. And between May and July, 1944, nearly half a million people were sent to Auschwitz and gassed. They built the railway line straight up to the crematorium and the world knew. And this is a letter that the Mufti wrote to the Hungarian Foreign Minister. “Permit me to draw your attention to the necessity of preventing Jews from leaving the country for Palestine. And if there will be reasons which make their removal necessary, it would be indispensable and infinitely preferable to send them to other countries, i.e. Poland, where they would be under control.” He constantly urged the Germans to bomb Tel Aviv. He was part of a plan called Operation Atlas, which was to, there were German temples in Jerusalem and he wanted to parachute people into a rear guard action. Because don’t forget, there was a period when Romel, if Romel had succeeded, we now know that there was already an [Indistinct] group and ready to follow Romel through into Palestine and massacre all the Jews.

The Mufti also made a fortune from the Germans. They paid him 50,000 pounds a month. They only paid a film margin, 25,000 for his propaganda. He was always broadcasting on Arab radio. Hitler revealed the final solution to him. And this came out at the Eichman trial. Can we see another revolting character? There you see him greeting Bosnian Waffen, assess volunteers with the Nazi salute. Can we go on, please? Here you go. I’ve already read out that to you. Can we go on, Jude? Can we go on, Jude? Here you see [Indistinct] who had worked for Adolf Eichmann and he gave evidence at the Nuremberg Crimes trials that how much the Mufti was involved. When the war was over, he was arrested, he went to Paris and he was arrested by the French. But the British decide he is the only person who can control the Arabs. So even though, despite everything, he is still in charge of the Pan-Arab Congress. And he is going to work so hard to try and stop any Jewish state emerging in Palestine. But I’ll talk about that later on. So, I hope I’ve given you an overview. I know some of you will know a lot about this already and I hope I’ve given enough information to those who are not experts on this particular period of history. But as I said, I have lectured on it at length and those lectures will soon be available or buy yourself Martin Gilbert’s brilliant history atlases because that will show you the divisions of Palestine. And of course he is in charge of the Pan-Arab Congress when all hell is breaking loose in Palestine at the end of the war. And I’m going to be talking about that next week. So, a man who dreamt of first of all, of Arab nationalism then becomes specifically a Palestinian nationalist. He manages to make Palestine the issue of all the other Arab countries. But don’t forget, he is also a blood enemy of Abdullah and of Faisal of Iraq. So there’s terrible disunity amongst the Arabs. But in the end, the British are prepared to allow him to, because they think he can unite the Arabs. And by this time, certainly the British military in Palestine have become very anti-Jewish, for reasons that will become obvious next week. So, let us have a look at the questions.

Q&A and Comments:

Yes, Ron’s saying it’s ironic that he was appointed as Grand Mufti by Sir Herbert Samuel, the first high commissioner of Palestine, who was himself Jewish. Yeah, he became a great disappointment, certainly even to Weizmann in the end. You know, Weizmann is the tragic figure in all of this, because right up to 1939, he really did believe the British would come through. My personal assessment of British policy in Palestine, they were there for their own interests. And in the end, they had hoped to be able to accommodate both sides, but they couldn’t. I do believe there was some really sincere Zionists though in Parliament, some wonderful characters who did want to help the Jews. But there were some others who were violently anti-Semitic.

Yes, timeline. Yeah, I agree. You see, I have all these maps. I’m going to have to think of a way of doing this. It’s a good point, Diane.

Q: “Why do you think that [Indistinct] when the higher Muslim council viewed as an unsuitable and fifth in line?”

A: Because he wanted to keep the balance of power between the various families. I’ve got a very interesting guest coming in soon, a man called Sal Sad al-Kadi, who is an educator. He’s a Holocaust educator, he’s a Muslim and he comes from one of the family of notables from Jerusalem. So, I want you to poise that question to him.

Q: “What was the quid pro quo for Churchill in splitting off transport Jordan to say?”

A: He really believed that he could solve the problem of the Jews of Palestine. He thought they would have Palestine. You see, this is before Palestinian Nationalism. You’ve got to remember, don’t forget, in between 1958 and 1961, you have the United Arab Republic between Syria and Egypt. What is Palestinian nationalism? What is Arab nationalism? Palestine did not exist as an entity. It was part of Greater Syria. Yes, there were people living there. That is absolutely true. But most of the land was actually bought by the Zionists from Arab landowners.

Q: “So who gave Churchill,” Frank asked, “the right to cut off some 72% of mandated Palestine to create another Arab country? Was it a legitimate part of the dictates of the original mandate?”

A: No. In fact, the mandate was, it was illegal. It was absolutely illegal. But Churchill, they were the boots on the ground. Churchill was Colonial Secretary, the most powerful empire in the world. No, it was actually illegal, but it’s no point in going back to that, Frank, however upset we may be about it, because one has to live with a situation that we have today. And Palestinian Nationalism does exist now.

“I believe it was in 1916 when France and Britain signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement.” As I said, yes, it was the agreement between imperialist nations to split up the Middle East. The problem I have, Michael, is I’ve given these lectures at great depth and hopefully some of you will know this. I’m going to have to think of a way of, Judi, may I ask you a question? Is it possible if I can find the title of those lectures, they could be made available?

• [Judi] Yes.

• Okay. It’s my, it’s down to me then to find the titles of those lectures rather than drive anybody mad. If I can find the specific titles, then you can just, you can just have them sent to you, which I think will make it a lot easier for you.

Q: “Why weren’t any Arabs published in 1945 as German Nazis?”

A: No, Arlene.

Judith, there is need to alert people to the fact that the appeal commission report did not include the 650 page evidence given in secret session. This was released in by the UK National Archives in the last four or five years. But it’s the details are not researched.“ That’s interesting. Colin, maybe you can help us more about that. What is the take on the recent removal of his picture and story from the [Indistinct] I don’t know about this, Judith, maybe you can help me.

No, not at the, did I misspell, Alan? He gave evidence at the Nuremberg Crimes trials. He was actually executed by the Czechs. He was a Nazi. He was a ghastly character. Very venal. Someone said that the British have no friends and have no enemies, they only have British interests. Article 25, the late insertion into the mandate.

I think, is that everything? Are there any other questions? So what I’ll do is I will find those lectures I gave on Palestine, because you do need the maps. I realise that as I was lecturing. I know a lot of you and I could tell from the questions. A lot of you know this area very well and it will be new to some of you. That’s one of the joys of our Zoom channel.

So, I wish you all good evening and I will see you again in an hour when we show next film. God bless everyone.