From Immigrants and Refugees to Terrorists

For the first few years of World War Two, most Jews in Palestine played nice with the British.  If Britain was victorious in the larger conflict, the Zionists would have some chance to continue their immigration in Palestine and achieve their hoped-for state.  If Germany was victorious, there was no chance of this.

This approach did not survive the war.

One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, by Tom Segev

Immigrants and Refugees

Jews were dying in Europe.  The British held little concern for this; the Jews in Palestine felt the same:

“I was not well-versed on matters of saving of the Jews of Europe, even though I was chairman of the Jewish Agency,” Ben-Gurion wrote a few years later.  “The heart of my activity was enlisting Jewry in the demand to establish a Jewish state.”

The Arabs, in the meantime, saw the risk:

“We all sympathize with the Jews and are shocked at the way Christian nations are persecuting them.  But do you expect Moslems of Palestine…to become more Christian or more humanitarian than the followers of Christ: Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, etc. etc.?  Have we to suffer in order to make good what you Christians commit?”

Ben-Gurion was troubled by the possibility that Jewish survivors in Europe might not want to come to Palestine, but would choose to settle elsewhere.

“I think we should not treat this danger lightly.  It is the greatest danger not only to Zionism but to the Yishuv.”

But the Jews from Europe came – before the war, during the war, and after the war; the number of Jews in Palestine increased eight-fold during the Mandatory period, to one-third of the total population; Muslims and Christians doubled.

Terrorists

“The revolt sprang from the land and from the blood,” wrote Menachem Begin, Etzel leader.  Despite its name, though, Etzel’s action was not a revolt, but rather a decision to resume terrorist activities, largely against the British.

Menachem Begin was one of those immigrants turned terrorist, arriving in Palestine in May 1942.

Etzel (Irgun) announced the beginning of terrorism on February 1, 1944.  The more radical among the Zionists decided it was time to run the British out.

Etzel’s funds came from robbing banks or extorting money from local businessmen; the organization received contributions as well, mostly from America.

The Story of a Donkey

If I were in your place I would be a Zionist, and if you were in my place you would be an Arab nationalist like me.

-        Aouni Abd-al Hadi to David Ben-Gurion

One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, by Tom Segev

A man was riding on his donkey and saw another man walking.  He invited the man to ride with him.  Mounting the donkey, the stranger said, “How fast your donkey is!”  The two rode on for a while.  When the stranger then said, “How fast our donkey is!” the animal’s owner ordered the man to get off.  “Why?” the stranger asked.  “I’m afraid,” said the owner, “that you’ll soon be saying, ‘How fast my donkey is!’”

-        Khalil al-Sakakini, a Christian Arab, to Dr. Judah Leib Magnes, president of the Hebrew University

In the aftermath of World War One, with the formerly Ottoman Middle East carved primarily between British and French interests, the British held the mandate for Palestine.  Given the contradictory wartime promises made by the British to the Arabs who populated the land and the Jews who hoped to populate it, it seems just that Britain was stuck with this mess of its making.

Talks between the Arabs and Jews were fruitless – each wanting something the other was unwilling to give.  Push came to shove (you will not get a more complex analysis than this from me); from 1936 to 1939 the Arabs revolted, marked traditionally as beginning in Jaffa on April 19, 1936.

Initially, Arab terrorism was primarily aimed at the British; it was the British that held the authority, it was the British allowing the immigration.

Inevitably, Jews were on both the receiving and giving end of the violence; like the Arabs, Jews were both victims and perpetrators.  Ben-Gurion, while writing in his diary that he never felt hatred for the Arabs or desire for vengeance, still would note:

The destruction of Jaffa , the city and the port, will happen and it will be for the best.  When Jaffa falls into hell I will not be among the mourners.

Segev’s book covers the entire Mandatory period.  In this post, I will look at one specific aspect: the British response to the Arab revolts.  You will note that tactics when dealing with “the other” have changed little.

Laughed At by Time

All the same we take our chances

Laughed at by time

Tricked by circumstances

Plus ca change

Plus c'est la meme chose

The more that things change

The more they stay the same

-        Rush

Maybe history wouldn't have to repeat itself if we listened once in awhile.

-        Wynne McLaughlin

One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, by Tom Segev.

The year is 1911; the place is Libya, Syria, Palestine; the man is Muhammed Iz-al-Din al-Qassam.  But the story is just one of type: it has been repeated regularly both before and since, in all regions of North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, by many others.

I will add: there is one other difference.  All of the violence fostered in 1911 was local – local to the region, local to Palestine.  Today, the blowback is not regionally restricted; we read of events almost daily, mostly throughout Europe but also the United States.  London and Manchester are merely the recent examples.

Otherwise, there is nothing new under today’s sun.  If you find something different while reading this story, please raise your hand.

In 1911, Italy invaded Libya and al-Qassam declared a jihad, a holy war, against the infidel Catholics defiling a Muslim nation.

At the time, al-Qassam was imam of a local mosque in Haifa.  He began collecting funds for the Libyan resistance; he wrote a victory anthem; he recruited dozens of volunteers who set out for Libya.  All reasonable actions to take if one was fending off an invasion of homeland, as was the case.

Yet, the Ottoman authorities turned his volunteers back – not allowing them to continue to Libya.

After World War One, the entire region was “in the grip of lawlessness…and everyone was fighting everyone else….”  Also after World War One, Britain had the Mandate from the League of Nations regarding Palestine; Britain also had the complications of competing promises made to the local Arabs and to the Zionist Jews.  It was a recipe for conflict.

Somewhere around this time, al-Qassam was appointed to an official position within the Supreme Muslim Council; using this position he would go from village to village, encouraging people to organize terrorist cells against the British and the Jews.

Fathers were proud of their “martyred” sons, those who joined to fight against the British and the Jews.  Neighbors would visit the home of a dead son, offering, not condolences, but congratulations, to the parents.  The parents would joyously accept such sentiments.

In addition to human targets, these cells went after symbolic targets: trees planted by the Jews; railroad tracks laid by the British.

The popular and near spontaneous outbreaks of violence, fostered by al-Qassam, were expressions of social unrest, national rage, and the dark mood of a generation that had matured under British rule.

In November, 1935, al-Qassam hid in the hills, along with several men; it was felt at the time that if Jewish immigration continued, Palestine’s future was “very black.”  Yes, rather.  Especially for Palestinian Arabs.

In the meantime, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia; Hitler and the Nazis came to power in Germany, opening the benefit of more international pressure supportive of bringing even more European Jews to Palestine.  The conflict – both in Palestine and throughout the region – was certain to escalate.

When al-Qassam died, thousands attended his funeral; it turned into a mass demonstration of national unity.  In death, his work had only begun.

What the Jewish community called “the events” and the Arab community referred to as their “rebellion” began on April 19, 1936, in Jaffa, when nine Jews were murdered and four wounded.

The Arabs launched a war for their homeland.

Now the conflict between the two peoples became a threat to the security of every individual, every day of the week and every hour of the day; life was a routine of total horror.

Bombs, bullets, burned fields – every night before sleep and after morning after awakening.  Countless thousands killed – including unknown thousands in inter-Arab violence.  Throwing a grenade into a passenger train full of Jews was considered heroes’ work.

The Arabs went on strike; Arab leaders were murdered by Arabs, accused of collaborating with the British; family feuds were brought to a head – charges taken to the British by one Arab brother against another brother.

Many Arabs lost their lives at the hands of other Arabs.

And many Arabs lost their lives at the hands of the British and the Jews; many Jews lost their lives at the hands of the Arabs.

And, in the meantime, more Jews were coming.  The British were seemingly impotent to offer any meaningful solutions.  British officials in Palestine were sympathetic to the Arabs; those in London felt otherwise.

Conclusion

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.

-        George Bernard Shaw

This “unexpected” hasn’t gone on for over one hundred years because political leaders are stupid, “incapable…of learning from experience.”  When something like this is sustained – when the same “mistakes” occur repeatedly – one might consider other reasons.

I will revisit my view for the reasons behind this ongoing history in the coming days.