When 'Heil Hitler' was the magic password for Arabs in Palestine

Submitted by Gil (United States), Sep 25, 2022 at 03:54

Ziff, William Bernard. The Rape of Palestine. 1938.

[https://archive.org/stream/TheRapeOfPalestineByWilliamB.Ziff1938withPageLinksForTheTableOfContents/The%20Rape%20of%20Palestine%20by%20William%20B.%20Ziff%20%281938%29%20%28with%20page%20links%20for%20the%20table%20of%20contents%29_djvu.txt]

p.403

Like many other informed men, Duff gave blunt warning that "as soon as the Palestinian leaders understood that Great Britain had really left them to their own devices ... a general massacre of the Jews and the destruction of their colonies would occur." It need occasion no surprise that the words 'Heil Hitler' proved a magic pass- word during the recent rebellion, protecting Europeans against attack.

p. 413:

All over Palestine groups of brown-clad storm troops were marching, shouting 'Heil Hitler.' At Nablus, boldly operating in the open, was a military training school for the Arab Scouts, prime leaders in the disturbances. Late in March a meeting of influential Arabs, practically all of them Government employees, was held at Safed to plan the uprising.

A delegation consisting of members of the Iraqian Parliament arrived to attend. It behaved itself in a flagrant manner which would have led to strong diplomatic representa- tions in any other country, but here its stay was made pleasant by every official courtesy. Fifteen days before the lid finally blew off of this seething caldron, the Revisionist leader Jabotinsky cabled the High Commissioner warning him that "specific Arab manifestations on an unprecedented scale are being exploited to revive the ominous battle cry, 'Eddowlah ma'ana' [the Government is with us]" and received a contemptuous reply.

* * *

Gunther, John. Inside Asia. United Kingdom: Harper & Brothers, 1939. p.528.

[https://books.google.com/books?id=IYJAAQAAIAAJ&q=%22hitler+is+tremendously+popular+with+the+Arabs%22].

Hitler is tremendously popular with the Arabs. The reason is not far to seek — he is the enemy of the Jews, whom the Arabs consider their enemy in Palestine, and of Great Britain. Hitler pointedly invited Arabs to Germany as honored guests, and in the Nuremberg speech in 1938 he talked about the "defenseless Arabs in Palestine, left in the lurch." An Arab spokesman in Jerusalem replied promptly, "Now we are not without friends in Europe; our ultimate success as a nation lies in the hands of Hitler and Mussolini."

* * *

Hirszowicz, Lukasz. The Third Reich and the Arab East. United Kingdom: Routledge & K. Paul, 1966. p.184.

[https://books.google.com/books?id=YD4BAAAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22their%C2%A0preference+for+Germany%2C%22]

The Arab leaders did not conceal their antipathy to France, their distrust of England and their preference for Germany, even in conversations with the Consul-General of the United States. They did not regard the war in Europe as a misfortune; they pinned their hopes on its weakening the Western Powers.

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