Ottoman officer, living in Haifa, painted a newly-uncovered mural

From Hurriyet Daily News:

Locals in Haifa have discovered a large painting dating back from World War I in a nuts store in the coastal Israeli city.

The 10-meter-wide and three-meter-high painting, which covers the entire wall, depicts an air attack by the British army against the Ottoman army during World War I.

The painting was revealed by a university student who had come to the store for shopping. Seeing a miniature soldier’s head beneath the peeled-off plaster on the wall, the student called a friend who is an expert on wall paintings. The expert went to the store the following day to examine the wall and said a bigger painting could be concealed beneath the plaster.

The university student, the expert and Haifa History Club member Eli Liran obtained permission from the store’s owner to begin peeling off the plaster on the wall.

After a long and detailed work, the painting by an Ottoman soldier was finally revealed.

Dozens of miniatures depicting Turkish warplanes bombing British planes or dead and wounded Turkish soldiers being carried on stretchers were found. Below the painting was the signature of the painter, “Edip Kemal,” and the words “Hotel Zahara Syria.”

Speaking about the issue, Liran said: “We have examined a Hebrew newspaper from this era and found out that Edip Kemal was an Ottoman officer of Transcaucasian origin. He went to Damascus with the Ottoman army, which lost the war and withdrew to Damascus, but he returned to Jerusalem in 1933 and then to Haifa. He operated this nuts store as a boxing club.

Here is the Turkish news report:



Edip Kemal was not the only Turk who moved to Palestine - or even to Haifa -  after World War I. I found this clip from The Palestine Bulletin from July 1926:

So...are these non-Arab Muslims who lived in Palestine now considered "Palestinians"?

(h/t DM)