Achcar on the Mufti of Jerusalem

When in New York recently I saw this book around and was tempted to buy it. I now regret not doing so! But Gilbert Achcar has a piece in Le Monde Diplomatique, highlighting the (mis)use of the sorry affair of the Mutfi of Jerusalem's pro-Nazi leanings by Israelis, usually to tarnish all Palestinians with some kind of responsibility of the Holocaust. I had read about the Mufti's generally terrible politics (on Palestinian as well as Jewish issues) in the 1930s and 1940s in Rachid Khalidi's excellent The Iron Cage so this came as no surprise, but I didn't know the extent to which Israel had exploited him:

But the Zionists claimed the mufti was an official representative of the Palestinians and Arabs and in 1945 demanded (without success) that he be handed over to the international military tribunal at Nuremberg, as if he had been a key part of the Nazi genocide machine. Articles, pamphlets and books were produced to present Husseini as a candidate for prosecution. The mufti served a symbolic purpose, allowing the Zionists to claim that the Palestinians shared responsibility for the genocide, and justify the creation of a “Jewish state” on the territory of their homeland.

This motive became a constant in the propaganda of the state of Israel. It explains the extraordinary importance accorded to the mufti in the Holocaust memorial museum, in Jerusalem. Tom Segev observes that the wall dedicated to al-Husseini gives the impression of a convergence between the Nazis’ genocide plans and Arab hostility towards Israel. Peter Novick points out that the entry on the mufti in the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, published in association with Yad Vashem (the Holocaust remembrance authority), is much longer than those on Himmler, Goebbels or Eichmann, and only a little shorter than that on Hitler.

That last bit is quite incredible!

On a related note I am currently reading Ian Johnson's A Mosque in Munich, which is about American recuperation of Muslim allies of the Nazis (mostly from dissident Soviets from the republics that are majority Muslim — the Stan countries). It's fascinating so far, although Johnson's grasp of Islamism is weak when he discusses the Egyptian Muslim Brothers. More about that later.

P.S. Achcar also did a podcast for the Diplo.

Comments

[jgupta]

I think you are saying that the importance of the Mufti is exaggerated and that he was not a significant figure. What is the appropriate importance to be given to the Mufti in connection with the views of Arabs in Mandate Palestine? Was he representative or not? Did he speak for them or not? Was he the main voice or just one voice among many? Who were the other leaders of the Mandate Arabs?

Is it analogous to saying the Mufti he spoke for them the way Netanyahu speaks for Israelis or Mubarek speaks for Egyptians today? Would you say he was more or less representative then Arafat 20 years ago or Hamas or the PA today?

Or is your point that while the Mufti did represent the Arabs, his role in the Holocaust and with Nazi Germany was not that big a deal and the Jews shouldn't make so much of it?

[Issandr El Amrani]

From my understanding of mandate era Palestine, the Mufti was a leader of one side of competing Palestinian notables involved in politics. He represented a faction of the Palestinian elite.

I would not compare him to an elected leader like Netanyahu, or even an explicitly political undemocratic leader like Mubarak, since he is a cleric.

I certainly would not say he represented "the Arabs" because I don't know what you mean by "the Arabs" — all Arabs, or the ones living in historic Palestine? If the latter I think it can safely be assumed no.

Finally, to my knowledge no Arab leader, pro or against the Nazis, had an important role in the Holocaust — at most they justified it, but the policies were devised and enacted entirely by the Nazi regime and its European allies.

[Lutuf Ghantous]

I read your blog on my Kindle. It give me a window of events in Egypt. (I graduated Cairo U 1964).
I think you missed an important point on the realtion between the Mufti and Hitler. 1936 Palestine was in avery bitter revolt against the British. This stopped during WWII at the request of Arab leaders who got assurance from UK of Stoping Jewish immigration. This did not take place. During WWII immigration increased. Enemy of UK was Hitler, thus Mufti and other leaders looked for his backing.
Same thing took place in Egypt. If you refer to Naser and Sadat's writings about the political development that lead to the July revolution, they mentioned more than one connection with Hitler, and Romel.
The Balfour declaration, and the process of Zionizing Palestine started in WWI, long before Mufti went to Germany.