Was Palestinian and Arab reaction to the establishment of Israel Anti-Semitic? or just Anti-Zionist?

Was Palestinian and Arab reaction to the establishment of Israel Anti-Semitic? or just Anti-Zionist?

Given that Jewish refugees arriving in Palestine during the British Mandate desired the formation of a “Jewish national home” within Palestine (something which occurred in no other land where Jewish refugees went), one can posit the proposition that in rejecting the arrival of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, the Palestinian community were anti-Zionist, but not necessarily anti-Semitic.

This could be a complicated theoretical discussion, but history gives us a clear, unambiguous answer. Basically, to be anti-Zionist but not anti-Semitic, the Palestinian Arab communities would have objected to the idea of Jewish national home within Palestine, but wished Jews well, elsewhere. To be anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic, they would have had to not only oppose the Jewish community within Palestine, but to also oppose Jews where ever they lived.

Two examples;

Jewish migration to Palestine rose dramatically after Hitler took power in Germany in 1933. It did so as a direct response to Nazi persecution. The Palestinian Arabs did not want this immigration, caused by Hitler’s anti-Semitic policy. Logically, they could have therefore opposed Nazism. They believed themselves to be being harmed because of it.

Palestinian Arabs could well have decided that their best option was indeed to help ameliorate conditions for Jews in Germany, as this would vastly reduce the number wanting to flee. While by no means an ideal position (such as welcoming the fleeing refugees), it could have been an option. They did not have to make common cause with Hitler. His early activities were profoundly detrimental to their own perceived best interests. How then did the Arab community view Nazism?

In fact, they voted with their hearts. The Palestinian newspaper al-Jami’a al-Arabiyya, the official paper of the Supreme Muslim Council, wrote; “As is well known, Herr Hitler and his party are the most violent adversaries of the Jews … As far as the position of the Arabs … because the Jews are our enemies our wish and our hope rest of course on Hitler.” Indeed, Palestinian notables met with the German Consul in Palestine in 1933 as they wished to learn more about the German boycott of Jewish goods, and to offer their help in this. The Consul reported that the Mufti wanted to join the boycott and offered to spread the word through special emissaries if necessary.

The Arab communities across the Middle East (in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and elsewhere), including the Arabs in Palestine, saw in Hitler a kindred spirit, someone who shared their hatred of Jews, and they embraced him as such. Hitler got it. He understood. He shared their worldview. Al-Husseini, the official leader of the Palestinian Arab community, actually advised Hitler that the best way to win Arab hearts was to preach hatred of the Jews.

To this day, Hitler and Mein Kampf remain popular across the Middle East, and among Palestinians. In 1999 for example, Mein Kampf was “sixth on the Palestinian best-seller list." This popularity is iconic. It is not because of the political and economic theories laid out in Mein Kampf, it is due solely to Hitler’s hatred and murder of Jews, a hatred and a goal shared by far too many. They recognise in him a kindred spirit. This again gives lie to the idea that Palestinians are anti-Zionist, but not anti-Jewish. Had they been so, they would have opposed Hitler and hoped that the Jews remained happy in Germany.

The second example comes from 1948+. Were the Arab communities simply anti-Zionist, opposing the creation of a Jewish State, but wishing Jews elsewhere well, or were the two concepts, anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, essentially identical for them? In early 1948, Arab governments uniformly threatened publicly at the United Nations that should the UN Partition vote pass (recognising a Jewish state), they would exact reprisals against the Jewish communities living in their lands. These reprisals, often starting with deadly riots, soon became mass expulsions. Roughly 850,000 Jews were forcibly driven from Arab lands, where they had lived for generations. Arab states punished local Jews because of Israel. Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism were indistinguishable. Note also that, like the early effects of Nazi policy, these expulsions were to the detriment of Palestine’s Arabs. The expelled Jews found a home in Israel, greatly strengthening it.

One could fairly say that supporting anti-Jewish measures harmed the Palestinian cause. No Arabs viewed it as such, however. No Palestinian leaders pleaded with them not to do it – attacking Jews was an obvious reaction for them against the creation of the Jewish state. If any distinctions can be drawn, they would be that anti-Semitism was a higher priority than anti-Zionism for these communities, although again, I doubt they saw it in such terms.

This distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is largely a Western construct devised by people who wish to hate the Jewish state, but not suffer the opprobrium of anti-Semitism. The Palestinian Arab community, like the Arab communities in general, had no problem with hating Jews (that was a European reaction to the Holocaust) and were generally both anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic. The minute distinctions between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism (or Jew-hatred) are simply not a pre-occupation for the vast majority of Arabs (unless when talking to Westerners!). They have no qualms about hating Jews in general and see such hate as part and parcel of their struggle against the Jewish State.