Monday, May 08, 2023
Elder of ZiyonIn the middle of an excellent Sapir article by Jeffrey Herf - highly recommended - he notes that "Jamal Husseini, the representative of the Arab Higher Committee to the United Nations, reject[ed] a Jewish state in Palestine, because, he said, it would undermine the 'racial homogeneity' of the Arab world. "
The highly articulate Fadel Jamali of Iraq - who would later become prime minister of that country - spoke eloquently at the UN at the July 23, 1947 Special Committee for Palestine meeting held in Lebanon. But his words were still suffused with racism and antisemitism:
I found the full quote here:
One other consideration of fundamental importance to the Arab world was that of racial homogeneity. The Arabs lived in a vast territory stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, spoke one language, had the same history, tradition and aspirations. Their unity was a solid foundation for peace in one of the most central and sensitive areas of the world. It was illogical, therefore, that the United Nations should associate itself with the introduction of an alien body into that established homogeneity, a course which could only produce new Balkans.While the Arab speakers at the UN made sure that they appealed to the most liberal Western thinkers in their speeches, they often betrayed their racism and antisemitism anyway. Here is one example - Husseini is saying that Arabs are racists, who cannot countenance non-Arabs in their midst.
This was a theme with Arab debaters at the UN in 1947.
The extremists today are not satisfied with Palestine alone. They want Trans-Jordan to be attached to Palestine to form one Jewish State immediately. This Jewish State might extend from the Nile to the Euphrates at a later stage and some pronouncements have appeared to the effect that Zionist ambitions do not fall short of the economic, if not political, penetration of the whole Middle East....Here are some of the powerful means used by the Zionists to make their ambitions and aggressive intentions appear in be right. First, economic pressure. Zionists use great economic pressure to make the Arab sell his land. They allure him and they weaken him by offering an exorbitant sum of money, for his land. The weak Arab succumbs and soon finds himself a landless, homeless fellow....Probably the most effective means which they have used to attain their goal is propaganda. The Zionists have a well-organized machinery of propaganda with which the Arabs cannot possibly compete today. They have access to the press in most of the Western countries, besides providing their own press. Through the press Zionists try to prove their wrong right, and the right of the Arabs wrong.... The Zionists have not come only for Palestine, which is mainly a barren, rocky and sandy country. Palestine is just a stepping-stone to the economic exploitation of the whole Middle-East. I... A new method used by extreme Zionists in post-war years has been a resort to force. Some Zionists in this War probably joined the Allied Forces with a double end in view — the defeat of Hitler and the conquest of Palestine by force. They certainly learned some of the deadliest and most treacherous Nazi methods of warfare. They are applying them in Palestine today. ...
Some Zionists who want a Jewish State, no matter how small to begin with, and some non-Jews who are not familiar with the situation, speak of partition as a solution. I wish to make it clear that no partition in any form or guise will be acceptable to the Arabs. They will fight it and resist sooner or later for no Jewish State in any size or form will ever be tolerated by the Arab world. Moreover, partition cannot work for more than one reason for it can never separate the Arabs from the Jews completely, and the State derived therefrom can never stand on its own feet economically. But these are from the Arab point of view, secondary considerations compared with their firm determination to fight the idea of partition as well as the idea of the Jewish State. I hope the Committee will give due consideration to this point.
That last part was a recurring theme, that is heard even today - if Jews get what they want, it will cause Arabs to be upset and they will launch a never ending war. That threat of violence, with the implication that the Arab leaders cannot do anything to stop their own wild mobs of people, has been a constant theme from the Arab world to bully the West into concessions and pressuring Israel.
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