Mohammad Amin al-Husayni
Mohammad Amin al-Husayni (ca.
1895 -
July 4,
1974, أمين الØسيني, alternatively spelt
al-Husseini), the
Mufti of
Jerusalem, was a
Palestinian Arab nationalist and a
Muslim religious leader. Known for his
anti-Zionism, al-Husayni fought against the establishment of a Jewish state in the territory of the
British Mandate of Palestine. To this end, Husayni collaborated with
Nazi Germany during
World War II and helped recruit
Muslims for the
Waffen-SS. Recent Nazi documents uncovered in German Minstry of Foreign Affairs and the Military Archive Service in Freiburg [
1] by two researchers from Stuttgart University found that the Nazis had planned to exploit Arab friendship for their planned landing in Palestine and murdering of about 500,000 European Jews who had taken refuge there. In their book the researchers concluded that "The most important collaborator with the Nazis and an absolute Arab anti-Semite was Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem".[
2].
Amin al-Husayni was born in
Jerusalem in 1895 (some sources say 1893). He attended
Al-Azhar University in
Cairo (where he founded an
anti-Zionist society) and studied
Islamic Law for about one year. In 1913 at the age of 18, al-Husayni made the pilgrimage to
Mecca and received the
honorific of
Hajj. Prior to
World War I, al-Husayni studied at the School of Administration in
Istanbul.
With the outbreak of
World War I in 1914, al-Husayni joined the
Ottoman Turkish army, received a commission as an
artillery officer and was assigned to the Forty-Seventh Brigade stationed in and around the predominately
Greek Christian city of
Smyrna. In November 1916, al-Husayni left the Ottoman army on a three month disability leave and returned to Jerusalem where he remained for the duration of the war. After the British conquered Palestine and Syria in 1918, he was employed in various positions by the British military administration in Jerusalem and Damascus, including one where he recruited soldiers for
Faisal's army.
In 1919, al-Husayni attended the
Pan-Syrian Congress held in
Damascus where he supported Emir Faisal for King of
Syria. That year, al-Husayni joined (perhaps founded) the Arab
secret society El-Nadi al-Arabi (The Arab Club) in Jerusalem and wrote articles for the first new newspaper to be established in Palestine,
Suriyya al-Janubiyya (
Southern Syria). The paper was published in Jerusalem beginning in September 1919 by the lawyer
Muhammad Hasan al-Budayri, and edited by
'Arif al-'Arif, both were prominent members of
al-Nadi al-Arabi.
Until late 1921, al-Husayni focused his efforts on
Pan-Arabism and
Greater Syria in particular with Palestine being a southern province of an Arab state with its capital in Damascus. Greater Syria was to include territory now occupied by
Syria,
Lebanon,
Jordan and
Israel. The struggle for Greater Syria collapsed after Britain ceded control over present day Syria and Lebanon to
France in July 1920 in accord with the
Sykes-Picot Agreement. The French army entered Damascus at that time, overthrew King Faisal and dissolved Greater Syria.
After this, al-Husayni turned from a Damascus-oriented Pan-Arabism to a specifically Palestinian ideology centered on Jerusalem and expelling the Jews and foreigners from
Palestine, thus restoring it to
Dar al-Islam.
During the annual
Nabi Musa procession in Jerusalem in April 1920, several speakers denounced the
Balfour Declaration as a betrayal of the Arabs by the British. They included al-Husayni, who called for unity of Palestine with Syria as he had not yet adopted the Palestinian nationalism for which he would become known a few years later. The procession turned into a violent demonstration, and in the
ensuing riots 5 Jews and 4 Arabs were killed. Several Jews and Arabs were sentenced to prison terms for their parts in the riots, with al-Husayni being sentenced to ten years
imprisonment in absentia, since he had already fled to Damascus by way of
Trans-Jordan.
In 1921, the British military administration of Palestine was replaced by a civilian one, as a
mandate under the
League of Nations. Following the death of his brother
Kamil, the former Mufti, the British
High Commissioner Herbert Samuel decided to
pardon Amin al-Husayni and appoint him
Mufti of Jerusalem, a position that had been held by the al-Husayni clan for more than a century. (Al-Husayni and another Arab had been excluded from an earlier general amnesty because they had fled before their convictions.)
In 1922, al-Husayni was elected President of the newly formed Supreme Muslim Council, which controlled the
Waqf funds worth annually tens of thousands of pounds, the orphan funds, worth annually about 50,000 pounds, besides controlling the Islamic (
Shariah) courts in Palestine. These courts, among other duties, appointed teachers and preachers.
Al-Husayni launched an international Muslim campaign to improve and restore the mosque known as the
Dome of the Rock. Indeed, the current landscape of the
Temple Mount was directly affected by al-Husseini's fundraising activities.
Al-Husayni's role in the
1929 Hebron massacre was hotly disputed at the time. The
Jewish Agency charged him with responsibility for inciting the violence, but the
Shaw commission of enquiry concluded that "no connection has been established between the Mufti and the work of those who either are known or are thought to have engaged in agitation or incitement. ... After the disturbances had broken out the Mufti co-operated with the Government in their efforts both to restore peace and to prevent the extension of disorder". Al-Husayni also served as president of the
World Islamic Congress, which he founded in 1931.
The British initially balanced appointments to the Supreme Muslim Council between the
Husaynis and their supporters (known as the
majlisiya, or council supporters) and their rivals, the
Nashashibis and their allied clans (known as the
mu'arada, the opposition) (Robinson, 1997, p. 6), for example by replacing
Musa al-Husayni as mayor of Jerusalem with
Ragheb al-Nashashibi. During most of the period of the
British mandate, bickering between these two families seriously undermined any Palestinian unity. In 1936, however, they achieved a measure of unity when all the Palestinian groups joined to create a permanent executive organ known as the Arab High Committee under al-Husayni's chairmanship.
On
19 April 1936, an
Arab rebellion broke out in Palestine. Soon the rebellion had spread across the country, openly and officially led by the Mufti and his
Arab Higher Committee, founded a week after the rebellion had started. The Committee, with the Mufti presiding, proclaimed an Arab
general strike and called for nonpayment of taxes and shutting down municipal governments. In addition, the Committee demanded an end to
Jewish immigration, a ban on land sales to Jews, and national independence. Jewish colonies,
kibbutzim and quarters in towns, became the targets for Arab
sniping,
bombing, and other
terrorist activities.
In July 1937, British police were sent to arrest al-Husayni for his part in the Arab rebellion, but he was tipped off and escaped to the
Haram where the British thought it inadvisable to touch him. In September, he was removed from the presidency of the Muslim Supreme Council and the Arab Higher Committee was declared illegal. In October, he fled to
Lebanon, where he reconstituted the committee under his domination. Al-Husayni retained the support of most Palestinian Arabs and used his power to punish the Nashashabis. He remained in Lebanon for two years, but his deteriorating relationship with the French and Syrian authories led him to
Iraq in October 1939.
The rebellion lasted until 1939, when it was quelled by the British troops. It forced Britain to make substantial concessions to Arab demands. The British abandoned the idea of establishing Palestine as a
Jewish state and, while Jewish immigration was to continue for another five years (allowing a total of 75,000 Jews to immigrate), the immigration was thereafter to depend on Arab consent. Al-Husayni, however, felt that the concessions did not go far enough, and he repudiated the new policy.
See also Peel Commission, White Paper of 1939.Pre-war
[[Image:Himmler to Mufti telegram 1943.png|right|thumb|222px|November 2, 1943 Himmler's telegram to Mufti: ""To the Grand Mufti: The National Socialist movement of Greater Germany has, since its inception, inscribed upon its flag the fight against the world Jewry. It has therefore followed with particular sympathy the struggle of freedom-loving Arabs, especially in Palestine, against Jewish interlopers. In the recognition of this enemy and of the common struggle against it lies the firm foundation of the natural alliance that exists between the National Socialist Greater Germany and the freedom-loving Muslims of the whole world. In this spirit I am sending you on the anniversary of the infamous Balfour declaration my hearty greetings and wishes for the successful pursuit of your struggle until the final victory.
Reichsfuehrer S.S. Heinrich Himmler"]]In 1933, within weeks of
Hitler's rise to power in
Germany, al-Husayni sent a telegram to
Berlin addressed to the German Consul-General in the
British Mandate of Palestine saying he looked forward to spreading their ideology in the
Middle East , especially in Palestine and offered his services. Al-Husayni's offer was rejected at first out of concern for disrupting Anglo-German relations by allying with an anti-British leader. But one month later, Al-Husayni secretly met the German Consul-General
Karl Wolff near the
Dead Sea and expressed his approval of the anti-Jewish boycott in Germany and asked him not to send any Jews to Palestine. Later that year, the Mufti's assistants approached Wolff, seeking his help in establishing an Arab
National Socialist (Nazi) party in Palestine. Wolff and his superiors disapproved because they didn't want to become involved in a British sphere of influence, because the Nazis desired further Jewish immigration to Palestine, and because at the time the Nazi party was restricted to German speaking "Aryans" only.
On
21 July 1937, Al-Husayni paid a visit to the new German Consul-General,
Hans Döhle, in Palestine. He repeated his former support for Germany and "wanted to know to what extent the
Third Reich was prepared to support the Arab movement against the Jews." He later sent an agent and personal representative to Berlin for discussions with Nazi leaders.
In 1938, though Anglo-German relations were a concern, Al-Husayni's offer was accepted. From August 1938, Husseini received financial and military assistance and supplies from Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. From Berlin, al-Husayni would play a significant role in inter-Arab politics.
In May 1940, the
British Foreign Office declined a proposal from the chairman of the
Vaad Leumi (Jewish National Council in Palestine) that they
assassinate al-Husayni, but in November of that year
Winston Churchill approved such a plan. In May 1941, several members of the
Irgun including its former leader
David Raziel were released from prison and flown to
Iraq on a secret mission which, according to British sources, included a plan to "capture or kill" the Mufti. The Irgun version is that they were approached by the British for a sabotage mission and added a plan to capture the Mufti as a condition of their cooperation. The mission was abandoned when Raziel was killed by a German plane.
[Mattar, 1984.]In the Middle East
In April 1941 the "
Golden Square" pro-Nazi Iraqi army officers[
3], led by General
Rashid Ali, forced the Iraqi
Prime Minister, the pro-British
Nuri Said Pasha, to resign. In May he declared
jihad against Britain. In a few months British troops occupied the country and the Mufti went to Germany, via
Iran,
Turkey and
Mussolini's office in
Rome.
See Farhud for more details of the events in Iraq.Husayni aided the Axis cause in the Middle East by issuing a fatwa for a holy war against Britain in May 1941. The Mufti's widely heralded proclamation against Britain was declared in Iraq, where he was instrumental in "the pro-Nazi" Iraqi revolt of 1941. [
4]
In Nazi-occupied Europe
|
Al-Husayni inspects Islamic Waffen SS recruits |
Upon al-Husayni's arrival in Europe, he met the German Foreign Minister,
Joachim von Ribbentrop on
November 20 1941 and was officially received by
Adolf Hitler on
November 28 1941 in Berlin. He asked Hitler for a public declaration that "recognized and sympathized with the Arab struggles for independence and liberation, and that it would support the elimination of a national Jewish homeland". Earlier, al-Hussayni submitted to the German government a draft of such a declaration, containing a clause:
Germany and Italy recognize the right of the Arab countries to solve the question of the Jewish elements, which exist in Palestine and in the other Arab countries, as required by the national and ethnic (völkisch) interests of the Arabs, and as the Jewish question was solved in Germany and Italy.[Lewis (1984), p.190.]
Hitler refused to make such a public announcement, but "made the following declaration, requesting the Mufti to lock it deep in his heart: # He (the Führer) would carry on the fight until the last traces of the Jewish-Communist European hegemony had been obliterated. # In the course of this fight, the German army would - at a time that could not yet be specified, but in any case in the clearly foreseeable future - gain the southern exit of Caucasus. # As soon as this breakthrough was made, the Führer would offer the Arab world his personal assurance that the hour of liberation had struck. Thereafter, Germany's only remaining objective in the region would be limited to the
Vernichtung des...Judentums ['destruction of the Jewish element', sometimes taken to be a euphemism for 'annihilation of the Jews'] living under British protection in Arab lands.."
[official transcript, trans. Fleming]The Mufti established close contacts with Bosnian and Albanian Muslim leaders and spent the remainder of the war conducting the following activities:
*
Radio propaganda on behalf of Nazi Germany
*
Espionage and the
fifth column activities in Muslim regions of Europe and the Middle East
* Assisting with the formation of Muslim
Waffen SS units in the
Balkans* The formation of schools and training centers for Muslim
imams and
mullahs who would accompany the Muslim SS and Wehrmacht units.
Recruitment
|
Al-Husayni salutes the recruits on the cover of magazine "Vienna Illustrated" |
Beginning in 1943, al-Husayni was involved in the organization and recruitment of
Bosnian Muslims into several divisions of the Waffen SS and other units. The largest was the
13th "Handschar" division of 21,065 men (sometimes spelled
Hanjar: the word
Scimitar in
Turkish, Arabic
Khanjar خنجر), which conducted operations against Communist
partisans in the Balkans from February 1944.
Al-Husayni insisted that "The most important task of this division must be to protect the homeland and families (of the Bosnian volunteers); the division must not be permitted to leave Bosnia.", but this request was ignored by the Germans (German archives cited in Lepre, p34).
The Mufti's knowledge about the holocaust while living in Nazi Germany has been debated with the Mufti himself denying any such knowledge after the war. Testimony presented at the Nuremberg trials, however, accused the Mufti of not only having knowledge about the holocaust but of also actively encouraging the initiation of extermination programs against European Jews. Adolf Eichmann`s deputy Dieter Wisliceny testified during his war crimes trial in 1946 that ... "The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and 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."
When the
Red Cross offered to mediate with
Adolf Eichmann in a trade
prisoner-of-war exchange involving the freeing of German citizens in exchange for 5,000 Jewish children being sent from
Poland to the
Theresienstadt concentration camp, Husseini directly intervened with
Himmler and the exchange was cancelled, although there is no evidence that his intervention prevented their rescue.
Among the
sabotage al-Husayni organized was an attempted
chemical warfare assault on the second largest and predominantly Jewish city in Palestine,
Tel Aviv. Five
parachutists were sent with a
toxin to dump into the water system. The police caught the infiltrators in a cave near
Jericho, and according to Jericho district police commander
Fayiz Bey Idrissi, "The laboratory report stated that each container held enough poison to kill 25,000 people, and there were at least ten containers."[
5]
Recent Nazi documents uncovered in the German Minstry of Foreign Affairs and the Military Archive Service in Freiburg [
6] by two researchers, Klaus Michael Mallmann from Stuttgart University and Martin Cüppers from the University of Ludwigsburg, indicated that in the event of the British being defeated in Egypt by Field Marshal
Erwin Rommel's
Afrika Korps the Nazis had planned to deploy a special unit called Einsatzkommando Ägypten to exterminate Palestinian Jews and that they wanted Arab support to prevent the emergence of a Jewish state. In their book the researchers concluded that, "the most important collaborator with the Nazis and an absolute Arab anti-Semite was Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem".[[
7] According to the German researchers Husayni was a prime example of how Arabs and Nazis became friends out of a hatred of Jews. Al-Husseini had met several times with Adolf Eichmann[
8], Adolf Hitler's chief architect of the Holocaust
[ *"Germans, Jews, Genocide â€" The Holocaust as History and Present" by Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Martin Cueppers. Stuttgart University. ] [
9],[
10],[
11],[
12],[
13].
After the war, al-Husayni fled to
Switzerland, was detained and put under
house arrest in
France, but escaped and was given asylum in
Egypt. Zionist groups petitioned the British to have him indicted as a war criminal. The British declined, partly because they considered the evidence indecisive but also because such a move would have added to their growing problems in Egypt and Palestine, where al-Husayni was still popular.
Yugoslavia unsuccessfully sought his extradition.
From Egypt al-Husayni was among the sponsors of the 1948 war against the new
State of Israel. The Jordanian monarch,
King Abdullah, gave the position of Grand Mufti of the Jordanian part of divided Jerusalem to someone else, and Haj Amin al-Husayni was in contact with the Arab conspirators of King Abdullah's assassination in 1951, while still living in exile in Egypt.
King Talal followed Abdullah as king of Jordan, and he refused to give permission to Amin al-Husayni to enter Jerusalem. After one year, King Talal was declared incompetent; the new
King Hussein also refused to give al-Husayni permission to enter the City.
Although the
mufti was involved in some of the high level negotiations between Arab leaders before and during the
1948 Arab-Israeli War at a meeting held in
Damascus in February 1948 to organize Palestinian Field Commands, the commanders of his
Holy War Army,
Hasan Salama and
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, were allocated only the
Lydda district and
Jerusalem respectively. This decision paved the way for an undermining of the Mufti's position among the Arab States. On
9 February, only four days after the Damascus meeting, a severe blow was suffered by the Mufti at the
Arab League session in
Cairo [where his demands for] the appointment of a Palestinian to the General Staff of the League, the formation of a Palestinian Provisional Government, the transfer of authority to local National Committees in areas evacuated by the British, a loan for administration in Palestine and appropriation of large sums to the Arab Higher Executive for Palestinians entitled to war damages [were all rejected].
[Levenberg, 1993, p. 198.] The Arab League blocked recruitment to the
mufti's forces,
[Sayigh, 2000, p. 14.] which collapsed following the death of his most charismatic commander,
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, on
8 April.
Following rumors that
King Abdullah of
Transjordan was re-opening the bi-lateral negotiations with Israel that he had previously conducted in secret with the
Jewish Agency, the Arab League, led by Egypt, decided to set up the
All-Palestine Government in
Gaza on
8 September under the nominal leadership of the
mufti. Avi Shlaim writes:
The decision to form the Government of All-Palestine in Gaza, and the feeble attempt to create armed forces under its control, furnished the members of the Arab League with the means of divesting themselves of direct responsibility for the prosecution of the war and of withdrawing their armies from Palestine with some protection against popular outcry. Whatever the long-term future of the Arab government of Palestine, its immediate purpose, as conceived by its Egyptian sponsors, was to provide a focal point of opposition to Abdullah and serve as an instrument for frustrating his ambition to federate the Arab regions with Transjordan.[Shlaim, 2001, p. 97.]
Abdullah regarded the attempt to revive the
mufti's Holy War Army as a challenge to his authority and on
3 October his minister of defence ordered all armed bodies operating in the areas controlled by the
Arab Legion to be disbanded.
Glubb Pasha carried out the order ruthlessly and efficiently.
[Shlaim, 2001, p. 99.]Al-Husayni died in
Beirut,
Lebanon in 1974. He wished to be buried in Jerusalem, but the
Israeli government refused this request.
* The
Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry's report dated
April 20,
1946 says: "The flight of the Mufti, Haj Amin el-Husseini, to Italy and Germany, and his active support of the Axis, did not lose for him his following, and he is probably the most popular Arab leader in Palestine today." (
Appendix IV. Palestine: Historical Background. The Arabs and the War)
*
Yasser Arafat's interview with the London-based
Arabic language newspaper
Al Sharq al Awsat was reprinted by a leading Palestinian daily
Al Quds (August 2, 2002):
Interviewer: I have heard voices from within the
Palestinian Authority in the past few weeks, saying that the reforms are coordinated according to American whims...
Arafat: We are not Afghanistan. We are the mighty people. Were they able to replace our hero Hajj Amin al-Husseini?... There were a number of attempts to get rid of Hajj Amin, whom they considered an ally of the Nazis. But even so, he lived in Cairo, and participated in the 1948 war, and I was one of his troops."
* According to
John Marlowe, "The dominant figure in Palestine during the Mandate years was neither an Englishman nor a Jew, but an Arab — Haj Amin Muhammed Effendi al Husaini... Able, ambitious, ruthless, humourless, and incorruptible, he was of the authentic stuff of which dictators are made."
The Mufti of Jerusalem by
Philip Mattar (
Columbia University Press revised edition, 1988, ISBN 0231064632)
The Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Arab Politics, 1930-1937 (Outstanding
These from the
London School of Economics and Political Science) by
Yehuda Taggar (Garland Pub, 1987, ISBN 0824019334)
Palestinian Leader, Hajj Amin Al-Husoyni, Mufti of Jerusalem (Kingston Press Series. Leaders, Politics, and Social Change in the Islamic World, No 5) by
Taysir Jbara (
Kingston Press, 1985, ISBN 0940670216)
The Mufti of Jerusalem: Amin el-Husseini, and his diplomatic activity during World War II, October 1941-July 1943 by
Daniel Carpi Studies in Zionism, Vol VII (1983), pp101-131.
*"Al-Husayni and Iraq's quest for independence, 1939-1941" by
P. Mattar in
Arab Studies Quarterly 6,4 (1984), 267-281.
*"The Formation of Palestinian Identity: The Critical Years, 1917-1923" by
R. Khalidi in
Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East edited by
James Jankowski and
Israel Gershoni (
Columbia University Press, 1997, ISBN 0231106955)
Mufti of Jerusalem: The Story of Haj Amin el Husseini by
Moshe Pearlman (V Gollancz, 1947)
Days of our Years by
Pierre van Paassen (Hillman-Curl, Inc., 1939, LC 39027058) pp. 363-373
Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 by
Philip Rees (Macmillan Library Reference, 1991, ISBN 0130893013)
The Mufti and the Fuehrer: The rise and fall of Haj Amin el-Husseini by
Joseph B Schechtman (T. Yoseloff, 1965)
The Grand Mufti: Haj Amin Al-Hussaini, Founder of the Palestinian National Movement by
Zvi Elpeleg, translated by
David Harvey and edited by
Shmuel Himelstein (
Frank Cass Publishers, 1993, ISBN 0714634328)
The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict edited by
Walter Laqueur and
Barry M. Rubin (
Penguin Books 6th Rev edition, 2001, ISBN 0140297138)
Extreme Islam: Anti-American Propaganda of Muslim Fundamentalism edited by
Adam Parfrey (Last Gasp, 2002, ISBN 0922915784)
*
Article on Amin al-Husayni, including a picture with Hitler*Levenberg, Haim (1993).
Military Preparations of the Arab Community in Palestine: 1945-1948. London: Routledge. ISBN 0714634395
*Robinson, Glenn E. (1997).
Building a Palestinian State: The Incomplete Revolution. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253210828
* Sayigh, Yezid (2000).
Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198296436
* Shlaim, Avi (2001). Israel and the Arab Coalition. In Eugene Rogan and Avi Shlaim (eds.).
The War for Palestine (pp. 79-103). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521794765
*Zertal, Idith (2005).
Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521850967
*"Encyclopedia of the Holocaust" 1990 Macmillan Publishing Company New York, NY 10022
*"Himmler's Bosnian Division; The Waffen-SS Handschar Division 1943-1945" by George Lepre. Algen: Shiffer, 1997. ISBN 0764301349
*Deutsche - Juden - Völkermord. Der Holocaust als Geschichte und Gegenwart (
Germans, Jews, Genocide â€" The Holocaust as History and Present). Klaus Michael Mallmann and Martin Cüppers. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt, 2006.
*The Trouble with Islam Today by Irshad Manji, St. Martin's Griffin (paperback), 2005, ISBN 0312327005
*
"Husseini, Amin al-" article at
encyclopedia.com (includes links to many articles)
*
HUSSEINI, HAJ AMIN (1895-1974) at PALESTINE FACTS (with
photos)
*
Mufti's Biography at the Jewish Virtual Library
*
Hajj Amin El Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem article in Encyclopedic Dictionary of Zionism and Israel at
Zionism and Israel Information Center*
Al-Husseini profile and
photogallery at Tell the Children the Truth
*
"Anti-Semitism, Misinformation, and the Whitewashing of the Palestinian Leadership" Francisco Gil-White.
