The Arabs as a whole as then and today still see the Holocaust, solely as a barbaric event on European soil for which the innocent Palestinian Arab population were made to pay the "ultimate" price. Their revisionist version of the post World War II era lays the blame for the UN Partition of "their land" - the post 1964 KGB-PLO invention of a previously non-existing Arab country named "Palestine", on the Christian European leaders at the UN in 1947.
According to "their version" of history the decision to "Partition" "Palestine" Arab lands was inspired solely by the view that the "colonial powers" did so "...as a way of seeking control over the Middle-East."
The basis for this view, as is seen in the
"newsreels" of the time, was the overwhelming sad view of the displaced post World War II survivors of European Jewry
attempting to enter the League of Nations Balfour Declaration decreed "Jewish homeland", that tortured the opinion of the world. These "Falestinian" apologists claim that the "Partition" was being unfairly "imposed" on the Arabs of Palestine.
The Arabs and their minions of supporters even today believe that the "colonial powers of Europe" who felt guilty about "their Jews", should have assumed the burden of accepting Jewish refugees back among them, rather than imposing them on the "indigenous" Arab population.
Furthermore it is this view that is used today in their hedious and heinous dezinformatsiya campaign to label
ALL Israelis as "
not indigenous" fake Khazarim "European" converts to Judaism and NOT true Jews. They could not see or believe then and even now the basis for the establishment of a Jewish state, even if it were to be in only part of the Mandated Palestinian Area.
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These same Arab apologists hotly deny that The Grand Mufti Of "Palestine"
Haj Amin Al-Husseini - "The Mufti" was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and that he had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan ...
"He was one of Eichmann's best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures. I heard him say, accompanied by Eichmann, he had visited incognito the gas chambers of Auschwitz." --- Testimony Of Deiter Wisliceny At The Nuremberg Trials in July 1946.
Arabs were not highly regarded by the Nazi racial theory, however, the Nazis encouraged Arab support and unrest as a counter to British hegemony and as a means to tie down Allied forces in the colonized areas.
SS-Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler was keen to exploit this, going so far as to enlist the aid of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Amin al-Husseini, sending him the following
telegram on 2 November 1943:
 |
| Photo of telegram from Himmler to the Mufti |
To the left is a photo of a telegram SS Heinrich Himmler sent to the Grand Mufti Haj Amin el Husseini
in the autumn of 1943 at the height of the extermination of Jews in Europe.
"
To the Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini.
The National-Socialist movement of greater Germany has made its fight against world Jewry a guiding principle since its very beginning, inscribed upon its flag the fight against the world Jewry.
For that reason it has therefore followed with particular sympathy the battle of freedom-seeking Arabs—and especially in Palestine—against the Jewish invaders," wrote the SS commander.
Himmler continued, saying,
"The joint recognition of the enemy, and the joint battle against him are what creates the firm allegiance between Germany and freedom-seeking Muslims all over the world."
Himmler ended the letter with congratulations to the Mufti, saying,
"In this spirit, I am happy to wish you on the anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration, my hearty greetings and warm wishes for the successful pursuit of your struggle until the final victory." – (signed) Reichsfuehrer S.S. Heinrich Himmler
The Grand Mufti Haj Amin el Husseini had previously arrived in Europe on November 5th, 1941, following the unsuccessful pro-Nazi coup which he had organized against the British in Iraq.
He met German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and was officially received by Adolf Hitler on November 28,1941 in Berlin.
The meeting took place despite Nazi Germany’s entanglement in Operation Barbarossa and the war against Russia. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al Husseini, recorded in his own handwriting his meeting with Hitler in his diary:
"The words of the Fuehrer on the 6th of Zul Qaada 1360 of the Hejira (which falls on the 21st of November 1941) Berlin, Friday, from 4:30 P.M. till a few minutes after 6. The objectives of my fight are clear. Primarily, I am fighting the Jews without respite, and this fight includes the fight against the so-called Jewish National Home in Palestine because the Jews want to establish there a central government for their own pernicious purposes, and to undertake a devastating and ruinous expansion at the expense of the governments of the world and of other peoples.
It is clear that the Jews have accomplished nothing in Palestine and their claims are lies. All the accomplishments in Palestine are due to the Arabs and not to the Jews. I am resolved to find a solution for the Jewish problem, progressing step by step without cessation. With regard to this I am making the necessary and right appeal, first to all the European countries and then to countries outside of Europe.
It is true that our common enemies are Great Britain and the Soviets whose principles are opposed to ours. But behind them stands hidden Jewry which drives them both. Jewry has but one aim in both these countries. We are now in the midst of a life and death struggle against both these nations. This fight will not only determine the outcome of the struggle between National Socialism and Jewry, but the whole conduct of this successful war will be of great and positive help to the Arabs who are engaged in the same struggle.
This is not only an abstract assurance. A mere promise would be of no value whatsoever. But assurance which rests upon a conquering force is the only one which has real value. In the Iraqi campaign, for instance, the sympathy of the whole German people was for Iraq. It was our aim to help Iraq, but circumstances prevented us from furnishing actual help. The German people saw in them (in the Iraqis-Ed.) comrades in suffering because the German people too have suffered as they have. All the help we gave Iraq was not sufficient to save Iraq from the British forces. For this reason it is necessary to underscore one thing: in this struggle which will decide the fate of the Arabs I can now speak as a man dedicated to an ideal and as a military leader and a soldier. Everyone united in this great struggle who helps to bring about its successful outcome, serves the common cause and thus serves the Arab cause. Any other view means weakening the military situation and thus offers no help to the Arab cause. Therefore it is necessary for us to decide the steps which can help us against world Jewry, against Communist Russia and England, and which among them can be most useful. Only if we win the war will the hour of deliverance also be the hour of fulfillment of Arab aspirations.
The situation is as follows: We are conducting the great struggle to open the way to the North of the Caucasus. The difficulties involved are more than transportation because of the demolished railways and roads and because of winter weather. And if I venture in these circumstances to issue a declaration with regard to Syria, then the pro-de Gaulle elements in France will be strengthened and this might cause a revolt in France. These men (the French) will be convinced then that joining Britain is more advantageous and the detachment of Syria is a pattern to be followed in the remainder of the French Empire. This will strengthen de Gaulle's stand in the colonies. If the declaration is issued now, difficulties will arise in Western Europe which will cause the diversion of some (German-Ed.) forces for defensive purposes, thus preventing us from sending all our forces to the East.
Hitler continued: Now I am going to tell you something I would like you to keep secret.
- First, I will keep up my fight until the complete destruction of the Judeo-Bolshevik rule has been accomplished.
- Second, during the struggle (and we don't know when victory will come, but probably not in the far future) we will reach the Southern Caucasus.
- Third, then I would like to issue a declaration; for then the hour of the liberation of the Arabs will have arrived. Germany has no ambitions in this area but cares only to annihilate the power which produces the Jews.
- Fourth, I am happy that you have escaped and that you are now with the Axis powers. The hour will strike when you will be the lord of the supreme word and not only the conveyor of our declarations. You will be the man to direct the Arab force and at that moment I cannot imagine what would happen to the Western peoples.
- Fifth, I think that with this Arab advance begins the dismemberment of the British world. The road from Rostov to Iran and Iraq is shorter than the distance from Berlin to Rostov. We hope next year to smash this barrier. It is better then and not now that a declaration should be issued as (now) we cannot help in anything.
I understand the Arab desire for this (declaration) but His Excellency the Mufti must understand that only five years after I became President of the German government and Fuehrer of the German people, was I able to get such a declaration (the Austrian Union), and this because military forces prevented me from issuing such a declaration. But when the German Panzer tanks and the German air squadrons reach the Southern Caucasus, then will be the time to issue the declaration.
He said (in reply to a request that a secret declaration or a treaty be made) that a declaration known to a number of persons cannot remain secret but will become public. I (Hitler) have made very few declarations in my life, unlike the British who have made many declarations. If I issue a declaration, I will uphold it. Once I promised the Finnish Marshal that I would help his country if the enemy attacks again. This word of mine made a stronger impression than any written declaration.
Recapitulating, I want to state the following to you: When we shall have arrived in the Southern Caucasus, then the time of the liberation of the Arabs will have arrived. And you can rely on my word.
We were troubled about you. I know your life history. I followed with interest your long and dangerous journey. I was very concerned about you. I am happy that you are with us now and that you are now in a position to add your strength to the common cause."
Nazi Germany established a Bureau for "der Grossmufti von Jerusalem", and gave him a monthly allowance of tens of thousands of dollars a month. He was instructed to hire dozens of assistants, each of whom also received a salary directly from the Third Reich. Among the individuals with whom he worked closely during his time in Berlin was
Hassan Salameh – the father of the Palestinian terrorist
Ali Hassan Salameh (aka “the Red Prince”), one of the perpetrators of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes from his offices in Berlin the Grand Mufti organized the following:
- Arabic-language radio propaganda station, that broadcast anti-Semitic propaganda in Arabic from 1939 until the Nazi party collapsed in 1945. This radio station was highly popular and could be heard throughout the Middle East.
- espionage and fifth column activities in Muslim regions of Europe and the Middle East;
- the formation of Muslim Waffen SS and Wehrmacht units in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo-Metohija, Western Macedonia, North Africa, and Nazi-occupied areas of the Soviet Union; and,
- the formation of schools and training centers for Muslim imams and mullahs who would accompany the Muslim SS and Wehrmacht units.
- the dissemination of Nazi propaganda translated into Arabic designed to encourage protests against British and French occupation.
As soon as he arrived in Europe, the Mufti established close contacts with Bosnian Muslim and Albanian Muslim leaders. He would spend the remainder of the war organizing and rallying Muslims in support of Nazi Germany.
The mufti lived in Germany until May 1945, when the Second World War came to an end. Throughout this entire period, the mufti was involved in espionage, sabotage, terrorist activity against the British and the Jews, as well as anti-Semitic propaganda.
As part of his alleged struggle for independence for the Palestinian people, the mufti attempted to prevent at all costs the arrival of European Jews to Palestine, as well as the establishment of a national Jewish homeland in the Land of Israel.
A plaintive Yiddish ballad written in the 1930s by the Polish Yiddish actor Igor S. Korntayer, describes in stark terms the dilemma faced by German Jews desperate to escape from their homeland after Hitler came to power.
"Vu Ahin Zol Ikh Geyn?
Tell me where shall I go,
Who can answer my plea?
Tell me where shall I go,
Every door is locked to me?
Though the world’s large enough,
There’s no room for me I know,
What I see is not for me,
Each road is closed, I am not free—
Tell me where shall I go."
The stiff Arab opposition and pressure led by the Mufti to prevent the creation of a Jewish homeland was reflected in the British 1939 "
White Paper" policy. Britain redefined Jewish immigration by restricting its flow according to the country's "economic capacity" to absorb the immigrants. In effect annual quotas were put in place as to how many Jews could immigrate. However, Jews who were able to pay a large sum of money (500 Pounds) were allowed to enter the country freely.
The Mufti's plans severely limited Jewish immigration to the British held Mandatory Territory. Jews who wished to leave Nazi Germany, and the conquered areas before plans for the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" were made on January 20, 1942 at the Wannsee Conference, could not enter the promised Jewish Homeland. Arab and anti-Semitic pressures prevented the Jews of Europe from finding countries willing to accept Jews. This "Closed Door Policy" led directly to the genocide of six million Jews in the Holocaust.
In an
interview with former Dachau inmate Theodore Haas, conducted by Aaron Zelman in 1990 he Haas states;
"I was arrested November 10th, "for my own personal security." I was 21 years old. My parents were arrested and ultimately died in a concentration camp in France. I was released from Dachau in 1941, under the condition that I leave Germany immediately."
A distant relative in the Mid-Western United States was able to guarantee his entrance to the USA by signing an affidavit that he would be no financial burden to the US Immigration Service. "This was common procedure before the "Final Solution."
Theodore Haas was only able to survive the Holocaust because he was released from Dachau in 1941, before implementation of the plans for the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" at the Wannsee Conference and because he
had a place to go.
At the Wannsee Conference in 1942 the director of the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Office; RSHA) SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich voiced the disappointed of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi regime at the problems encountered concerning the "Jewish Question".
The main purpose of the Wannsee Conference, lead by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, was to ensure the cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments in the implementation of the now proposed "Final Solution" of the "Jewish Question."
During the course of the conference, Heydrich outlined how European Jews would be rounded up from west to east and sent to extermination camps in the area of General Government (the occupied part of Poland), where they would be exterminated.
In this carefully calculated, organized arrangement, most of the Jews of German-occupied Europe would be rounded up to be deported by thoroughly coordinated train transportation to specially constructed death camps in Poland.
These facilities were to be specially constructed for the systematic murder in an economically efficient manner of large numbers of Jews in gas chambers. Careful planning for the construction of crematoriums with large industrial size ovens with special elevators to bring the bodies up from the underground gas chambers were carefully made and implemented.Consideration for the re-use of the belongings of the murdered Jews from their hair, clothing, shoes, bones and even ashes was made with German efficiency so as to make the extermination of the Jews profitable..
Conference attendees included representatives from several government ministries, including state secretaries from the Foreign Office, the justice, interior, and state ministries, and representatives from the Schutzstaffel (SS).
In an 2001 HBO/BBC TV re-enactment of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, "
Conspiracy" Reinhard Heydrich (played by Kenneth Branagh) the main architect of the Holocaust states that
Germany is facing the one drawback of world conquest as it continually increases its Jewish population as it annexes neighboring lands. "
Germany acquired 2.5 million Jews when we conquered
Poland, and we will get 5 million more when we take
Russia," he says.
Then, with studied rhetoric, he announces: "From Lapland to Libya, from Vladivostok, to Belfast, no Jews. Not one." This statement elicits an approving table-thumping by those present at the conference. America’s and the western world's lethargic response to the Nazi measures that became embodied in the Holocaust was embodied in the question;
"Who will take them?”
In 1936 President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt proposed to the British to allow free Jewish immigration to the Palestinian Mandated Territory but the British refused due to the "blackmail" and threat of revolt brought upon them by The Grand Mufti Of "Palestine" Haj Amin Al-Husseini. The critical
period of 1938-1941 was the period of the beginnings of war in Europe. It was also the period of British appeasement to the Arabs in response to the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. The Arab revolt was a nationalist uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against British colonial rule, as a demand for independence and opposition to mass Jewish immigration.
The revolt in Palestine was unsuccessful, and its consequence was the imposing of severe restrictions of Jewish immigration in the
White Paper of 1939 which doomed the Jews of Europe to death.
The mufti was constantly engaged encouraging the deportation and extermination of Jews from Arab countries and from Palestine. Here is the translation of a letter from, April 28, 1942, sent by the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop to the Mufti where he promises aid to Destroy the Jewish National Home:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Berlin, April 28, 1942
Your Eminence: the Grossmufti of Palestine
Amin El Husseini.
In response to your letter and to the accompanying communication of His Excellency, Prime Minister Raschid Ali El Gailani, and confirming the terms of our conversation, I have the honour to inform you:
The German Government appreciates fully the confidence of the Arab peoples in the Axis Powers in their aims and in their determination to conduct the fight against the common enemy until victory is achieved. The German Government has the greatest understanding for the national aspirations of the Arab countries as have been expressed by you both and the greatest sympathy for the sufferings of your peoples under British oppression.
I have therefore the honour to assure you, in complete agreement with the Italian Government, that the independence and freedom of the suffering Arab countries presently subjected to British oppression, is also one of the aims of the German Government.
Germany is consequently ready to give all her support to the oppressed Arab countries in their fight against British domination, for the fulfillment of their national aim to independence and sovereignty and for the destruction of the Jewish National Home in Palestine.
As previously agreed, the content of this letter should be maintained absolutely secret until we decide otherwise.
I beg your Eminence to be assured of my highest esteem and consideration.
Signed,
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Not satisfied with the murder of the Jews daily in the Camps the Mufti continued to petition the Nazis to murder more here is a copy of a letter from "The Arab Higher Committee. Its Origins, Personnel and Purposes”. A documentary record submitted to the United Nations, May 1947.
Here is the letter from the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini to Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop Foreign Minister of the German Reich from 1938 until 1945.
Berlin July 25, 1944
To His Excellency
Joachim von Ribbentrop
The Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Berlin
Your Excellency:
I have previously called the attention of your Excellency to the constant attempts
of the Jews to emigrate from Europe in order to reach Palestine, and asked your
Excellency to undertake the necessary steps so as to prevent the Jews from emigrating.
I had also sent you a letter, under date of June 5, 1944, in regard to the plan
for an exchange of Egyptians living in Germany with Palestinian Germans, in which
I asked you to exclude the Jews from this plan of exchange. I have, however, learned that
the Jews did depart on July 2, 1944, and I am afraid that further groups of Jews will leave
for Palestine from Germany and France to be exchanged for Palestinian Germans.
This exchange on the part of the Germans would encourage the Balkan countries likewise to
send their Jews to Palestine.
This step would be incomprehensible to the Arabs and Moslems after your
Excellency's declaration of November 2, 1943 that "the destruction of the so-called Jewish national
home in Palestine is an immutable part of the policy of the greater German Reich" and it would create in
them a feeling of keen disappointment.
It is for this reason that I ask your Excellency to do all that is necessary to prohibit the emigration
of Jews to Palestine, and in this way your Excellency would give a new practical example of the
policy of the naturally allied and friendly Germany towards the Arab Nation.
Yours,
Haj Amin al-Husseini
The Mufti of Jerusalem
According to the mufti’s memoirs, he was informed and made aware of the "Final Solution" already in the summer of 1943.Here is yet another letter from The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini asking the leaders of Hungary to Send Jews to death camps in Poland.
Rome, June 28, 1943
His Excellency The Minister of Foreign Affairs for Hungary
Your Excellency:
You no doubt know of the struggle between the Arabs and Jews
of Palestine, that it has been and what it Is, a long and bloody fight, brought
about by the desire of the Jews to create a national home, a Jewish State in
the Near East , with the help and protection of England
and the United States .
In fact, behind it lies the hope which the Jews have never relinquished,
namely, the domination of the whole world through this Important, strategic
center, Palestine, In effect their program has, among other purposes, always
aimed at the encouragement of Jewish migration to Palestine and the other
countries of the Near East. However, the war, as well as the understanding
which the members of the Three-Power Pact have of the responsibility of the
Jews for its outbreak and finally their evil Intentions towards these countries
which protected them until now - all these are reasons for placing them under
such vigilant control an will definitely stop their emigration to Palestine or
elsewhere.
Lately I have been informed of the uninterrupted efforts made by the English
and the Jews to obtain permission for the Jews living in your country to leave
for Palestine via Bulgaria and Turkey.
I have also learned that these negotiations were successful since some of the
Jews of Hungary have had the satisfaction of immigrating to Palestine via Bulgaria
and Turkey and that a group of these Jaws arrived In Palestine towards the end of last March.
The Jewish Agency. which supervises the execution of the Jewish program, has
published a bulletin which contains Important information on the current
negotiations between the English Government and the governments of other
interested states to send the Jews of Balkan countries to Palestine.
The Jewish Agency quoted, among other things, its receipt of a sufficient
number of immigration certificates for 900 Jewish children to be transported
from Hungary, accompanied by 100 adults.
To authorize these Jews to leave your country under the above circumstances and in
this way, would by no means solve the Jewish problem and would certainly not protect
your country against their evil influence - far from it! - for this escape would make
It possible for them to communicate and combine freely with their racial brethren in
enemy countries in order to strengthen their position and to exert a more dangerous influence on the
outcome of the war, especially since, as a consequence of their long stay in your
country. They are necessarily in a position to know many of your secrets and
also about your war effort. All this comes on top of the terrible damage done
to the friendly Arab nation which has taken its place at your side in this war
and which cherishes for your country the most sincere feelings and the very
best wishes.
This is the reason why I ask your Excellency to permit me to draw your attention
to the necessity of preventing the Jews from leaving your country for Palestine:
and If there are reasons which make their removal necessary, it would be indispensable
and Infinitely preferable to send them to other countries where they would find themselves
under active control, for example, in Poland, in order thereby to protect oneself from
their menace and avoid the consequent damages
Yours,
Haj Amin al-Husseini
The Mufti of Jerusalem
The Grand Mufti el-Husseini was venerated as a respected educator and leader hero by Yasser Arafat and the PLO. It should be noted, that Faisal Abdel Qader Al-Husseini (July 17, 1940–May 31, 2001) who was once the PLO's top figure in east Jerusalem. Was the son of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, commander of local Arab forces who was killed during hand-to-hand fighting for control of Kastel Hill on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road, on 8 April 1948 during the siege of Jerusalem. Faisal Abdel Qader Al-Hussein was born in Baghdad Iraq and he was the grandnephew of the Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini, the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.
The members of the UN had been aware that their inheritance of the “Mandate for Palestine” from the League Of Nations was a issue of grave proportions. Great Britain, though nearly bankrupt from the cost of World War II, held steadfastly to their rapidly shrinking post war Empire. The British government feared the loss of the “Mandate” if they sided with the Jews for fear of upsetting the petroleum imports and their increasing exportation of goods and services to Arab countries. During this period the British and their government had turned a blind eye to the suffering of the Jews as they, at the same time, distanced themselves from their promises made by Lord Balfour in 1917.
The British were in dire need of the immense revenues to be had through the oil pumped from the British Petroleum oil fields in Iraq through the Trans Arabian Pipeline to the refineries that they built in Haifa. They supposedly tried to work out an agreement acceptable to both Arabs and Jews. However the British promises to the Arabs guaranteed failure because the Arabs would not make any concessions. The British realizing that their anti Jewish immigration policy stemming from the Peel Commission report of 1937 and the White Paper of 1939 was causing immense criticism subsequently turned the issue over to the UN in February 1947 in the belief that this would defuse the issue and they would receive the continuation of the Mandate.
The UN established a Special Commission on Palestine (UNSCOP) which was sent to the area to devise a solution and found that the Jews of the “Yishuv”(the settlements”), both old and new immigrants, were imbued with the sense of right and were prepared to plead their case for a homeland in “Eretz Yisrael” before any unbiased tribunal. On the other hand the Arabs remained divided between the followers of the Grand Mufti and the other leading clans in the area. These “Arabs of the Mandated Area” were too divided along tribal and clan relations, from neighboring Arab countries, to form a central leadership.
"Palestine was part of the Province of Syria [...] politically, the Arabs of Palestine were not independent in the sense of forming a separate political entity."
(Representative of the Arab Higher Committee to the United Nations in a statement to General Assembly in May 1947.
The Arabs as usual had rejected this plan because it forced them to accept the creation of a Jewish state, and required some Palestinians to live under "Jewish domination." The Zionists opposed the Peel Plan's boundaries since they would have been confined to little more than a ghetto of 1,900 out of the 10,310 square miles remaining in Palestine. Nevertheless like with the UNSCOP decision the Zionists decided to negotiate with the British, while the Arabs refused to consider any compromises.
Once again in 1939 with the British White Paper, which called for the draconian measure limiting Jewish immigration to no more than 75,000 over the following five years and afterward, no Jews would be allowed in without the consent of the Arab population! Once again a plan that called for the establishment of an Arab state in Palestine within 10 years, and granted the Arabs a concession on Jewish immigration, and been offered the goal of Arab independence they repudiated the White Paper.
The leaders of the varied Arab clans were active in their rivalries but the one driving issue that united them all over and over again was the desire to eliminate the Jews. It is this innate rivalry and their own greed for leadership has prevented them over and over again from the establishment of a State of their own.
Although most of the Commission's members acknowledged the need to find a compromise solution, it was difficult for them to envision one given the parties' intractability. In any case, under British rule, there were various Arab bodies to coordinate the interests of the Palestinian community. Why didn’t these bodies evolve into entities that might have paved the way for a Palestinian state, or at least provided the necessary leadership to guide the Palestinians in moments of crisis? Surely the Arabs of Palestine did not need a stamp of approval from the Mandatory authorities to wield these institutions for their own purposes. Moreover, the Palestine civil service, judiciary, and even elements of the police force were staffed by Arabs who could have formed the basis of a civil administration within an Arab state. These Arabs were, after all, the employees of the Mandatory Authorities, as were Jews who served in similar positions.
When the Special Commission on Palestine returned, the delegates of seven nations — Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, The Netherlands, Peru, Sweden and Uruguay — recommended the establishment of two separate states, Jewish and Arab, to be joined by economic union, with Jerusalem an internationalized enclave. Three nations — India, Iran and Yugoslavia — recommended a unitary state with Arab and Jewish provinces. Australia abstained.
The Palestine Arab Higher Committee rejected the Special Commission recommendations out right because it did not meet their “All or nothing” attitude. This decision of theirs was supported in their rejection by the states of the Arab League. In a communication to the United Nations Palestine Commission dated 19 January 1948, the Arab Higher Committee for Palestine stated that it was "determined [to] persist in rejection [to the] partition and in refusal [to] recognize UNO resolution [with] this respect and anything deriving there from".
The Arabs blame the inability of the Palestinians to establish an independent state before the momentous and tragic events of 1947–49 on a variety of factors, including the public commitment of the British government to establishing a Jewish entity in a land that had, according to the Arabs, had been inhabited by an overwhelming Arab majority for centuries.
To the Arabs it was plain to them that the British should have given them the exclusive right to self determination when Great Britain contemplated carving up the Ottoman Empire during and after World War I.
According to the "Arabs of the Mandated Areas" it was the British who denied the Palestinians a formal representative body, a parliament of sorts that might have given them practice at democratic rule and set them on the path to future independence.
However the British officials made the creation of that elective body conditional upon Arab recognition of Jewish claims of the Yishuv [the Jewish community] as their “national home.” The Palestinians boycotted joint governing bodies which they were invited to participate in due to this “British” commitment.
Although the Jewish community of Palestine was not happy with the fact that Jerusalem was severed from the Jewish State and that the territory allotted to them by the Commission was very small they nevertheless welcomed the compromise. The partition plan took on a checkerboard appearance largely because Jewish towns and villages were spread throughout Palestine. This did not complicate the plan as much as the fact that the high living standards in Jewish cities and towns had attracted large Arab populations, which insured that any partition would result in a Jewish state that included a substantial Arab population. Recognizing the need to allow for additional Jewish settlement, the majority proposal allotted the Jews land in the northern part of the country, Galilee, and the large, arid Negev desert in the south. The remainder was to form the Arab state.
The Partition boundaries were based solely on demographics. The borders of the Jewish State were arranged with no consideration of security; hence, the new state's frontiers were virtually indefensible. Overall, the Jewish State was to be comprised of roughly 5,500 square miles 60 percent of which was to be the arid desert in the Negev and the population was to be 538,000 Jews and 397,000 Arabs.
The Arab State was to be 4,500 square miles with a population of 804,000 Arabs and 10,000 Jews. Though the Jews were allotted more total land, the majority of that land was in the desert.
Further complicating the situation was the UN majority's insistence that Jerusalem remain apart from both states and be administered as an international zone. This arrangement left more than 100,000 Jews in Jerusalem isolated from their country and circumscribed by the Arab state.
As the partition vote approached, it became clear little hope existed for a political solution to a problem that transcended politics: the Arabs' unwillingness to accept a Jewish state in Palestine and the refusal of the Zionists to settle for anything less. In a meeting with Arab League Secretary Azzam Pasha on September 16, 1947, Jewish Agency representatives David Horowitz and Abba Eban attempted to reach a compromise with the Arab League Secretary who told them bluntly:
“The Arab world is not in a compromising mood. It's likely, Mr. Horowitz that your plan is rational and logical, but the fate of nations is not decided by rational logic. Nations never concede; they fight. You won't get anything by peaceful means or compromise. You can, perhaps, get something, but only by the force of your arms. We shall try to defeat you. I am not sure we'll succeed, but we'll try. We were able to drive out the Crusaders, but on the other hand we lost Spain and Persia. It may be that we shall lose Palestine. But it's too late to talk of peaceful solutions.”
