|
Defeat
of Nazism - Stateless Holocaust Remnant-
Einstein Opposes Zionist Independence but Demands Immediate Immigration
of Jews to Palestine Israel Independence War - Israel Reborn / Arab Nakbah
"In
This Last Period of the Fulfillment of Our Dreams ...
One Thing That Weighed Heavily Upon Me ...
we [Zionists]
were compelled ... to assert our rights through force of arms; it was
the only way to avert complete annihilation."
|
| 1940 |
| USA: |
Einstein becomes
US citizen
He retains his Swiss citizenship |
 |
Citizen Einstein
Left: Einstein's secretary Helen Dukas,
Right: Stepdaughter Margot take the oath of US citizenship |
August 16
Einstein writes Otto Nathan to help Philippe Halsman, "the Austrian Dreyfus"
Wrongly convicted of murdering his father in 1928, Halsman will become
a Life Magazine star photographer and take this
iconic portrait of his benefactor.
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Zionist Revisionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky in USA,
enlisting support for a Jewish army to fight Nazis
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In upstate New York Ze'ev Jabotinsky
inspects uniformed youths of Beitar - the youth group of his Revisionist
Zionist Movement which wa s abhorrent to Einstein. |
A regiment of enlisted Zionist Jews
from Palestine fighting in the British Army want to fight the Nazis
as a national body under their own flag. Jabotinsky, co-creator of the
Jewish Legion in WWI, champions that cause.
Eventually the British will allow Zionist Jews to fight
under their own flag as The Jewish Brigade link.
A British-planned Palestinian Arab counterpart fails to attract adequate
enlistment. Though several thousand Palestinian Arabs serve with British
forces, the Palestinian nationalist cause is completely identified with Hitler,
thanks to the Mufti's efforts on behalf of the Third Reich.
The "Arab Legion" that does fight in WWII fights for the Nazis.
Jabotinsky dies of a heart attack
near New York
(His remains were re-interred on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem in 1965.)
Einstein thoroughly opposed militarism in Zionism and signed a public
letter repudiating Jabotinsky's successor, Menachem Begin. |
| 1941 |
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USA: |
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Einstein attends dedication of a HeChalutz (pioneers for Palestine) Farm
in Hightstown, New Jersey
"The professor spent more than fifteen minutes
inspecting the chicken houses"
(NYT
June 16, 1941, In Pais, Einstein Lived Here pg.219)
 |
Chicken houses at HeChalutz Farm, Cream Ridge New Jersey - a kibbutz preparatory commune similar to the nearby farm Einstein visited.
1946 photo. [My mother was in charge of this chicken house when she met my father. She had lived on the commune for two years when my father came for a visit after he returned from fighting in Europe in WWII - Dan Cutler] More photos of HeChalutz Farm here. |
This
farm will be used by members of our third American Kibbutz, who,
cut off from emigration by the war, are continuing and intensifying
their training for future life as pioneers in Palestine. The broad
fertile fields, 45 acres of orchard, and modern and extensive
facilities for raising chickens will provide ample opportunity
for the pioneers to learn and develop their collective economy.
Hashomer Hatzair. A Monthly Magazine
for American Jewish Youth, March,1941 link
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| PALESTINE: |
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January
LEHI (Lohmai Herut Yisrael - "Fighters for Israel's Freedom"
(called "Stern Gang" by British ) break away from Irgun in protest
against wartime truce with Britain.
Their leader offers to ally with Nazis against Britain.
He is rebuffed.
Fanatically anti-British, the tiny
dissident group rejects mainstream Zionism. Dubbed "Stern Gang"
by the British (after founder Avraham Stern) they openly espouse terrorism
to drive out the British and establish a Jewish state modeled on fascist
Italy. In a bizarre footnote to history, founder Avraham Stern even offered
alliance with Nazi Germany to expel British from Palestine. Stern's letter
to Berlin got no response. |
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%20shamir.jpg) |
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Avraham
Stern
"Yair" (his nomme de guerre) is arrested and shot
dead by British in 1942. A triumvirate leadership then heads the
violent splinter group. |
Yitzhak
Shamir
One of the LEHI commanders after the British killed "Yair"
was elected Israeli Prime Minister in 1983. |
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| IRAQ: |
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April 3, 1941
Pro-Nazi coup instigated in Iraq
by Mufti Amin al-Husseini
Nazi sympathizer Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and
four generals lead a military coup after Iraqi ruler flees to British
air base at Hibbanya, and then to Amman. Germany sends weapons and aircraft
to Husseini, but pro-Nazi coup fails. (The Mufti's right-hand man in Iraq,
Kharaillah Tulfah was Saddam Hussein's uncle and mentor).
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Mufti Amin al-Husseini with
Pro-Nazi Iraq coup leader Rashid Ali. |
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Irgun leader David Raziel
killed in undercover anti-Nazi mission in Iraq
Menachem Begin takes command of the Irgun, the dissident Jewish militia
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David Raziel, Irgun commander
killed in an undercover anti-Nazi operation on behalf of the
British. His mission: to assassinate Mufti Amin al-Hussseini in
Iraq
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Britain suppresses pro-Nazi coup in Iraq
Army of Transjordan, fighting under British officers on Britain's
behalf suppresses the pro-Nazi coup and restores the regent to power.
(The army of Transjordan -- the Arab Legion -- will be the only battle-tested
professional army among the Arab states that invade Israel in 1948).
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British-led Arab Legionnaires
put down Mufti-instigated pro-Nazi coup in Iraq.
When Israel declares independence in 1948 the Arab Legion (Transjordan's
British-led army) will be the only battle-tested force among the
Arab armies and irregulars to attack the new Jewish state. |
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Wounded in the fighting : Fawzi al-Quwakji,
pro-Nazi Mufti supporter
Hero of the Palestinian Arab Revolt (link)
who will lead the the Arab Salvation Army against Israel's independence
(link).
Al-Quwakji will marry a German woman and return to the Middle East as
a German officer. |
|
June 1
Pro-Nazi Iraqis riot against Jews after British put
down coup.
The "Farhud"
(violent dispossession) is triggered against Jews greeting the returning
ruler (a regent, ruling in place of the underage king). Murders, rapes,
and looting continue for two days. In several instances Muslims defend
their Jewish neighbors against the mobs.
Churchill incensed at Palestinian
leaders' support for Nazis
Churchill: Britain now owes the Arabs nothing after the war.
(Righteous Victims pg. 166)
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FASCIST ITALY:
Mufti escapes Iraq,
reaches Rome, obtains Mussolini's support
From Rome he declares jihad against Britain.
 |
| Mufti calls for jihad
against British |
THE MUFTI'S WWII FATWAH
AGAINST BRITAIN
May 10, 1941
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In the name of Merciful and
Almighty God. I invite all my Moslem brothers throughout the
whole world to join in the Holy War for God, for the defense
of Islam and her lands against her enemy. O Faithful, obey and
respond to my call. O Moslems! Proud Iraq has placed herself
in the vanguard of this Holy Struggle, and has thrown herself
against the strongest enemy of Islam ... The English have overthrown
the Ottoman Empire, have destroyed Moslem rule in India, inciting
one community against another; they stifled the Egyptian awakening,
the dream of Mohammed Ali, colonizing Egypt for half a century.
They took advantage of the weakening of the Ottoman Empire to
stretch out their hands and use every sort of trick to take
possession of many Arab countries as happened to Aden, the 9
Districts, the Hadramut, Oman, Masqat and the Emirates of the
Persian Gulf and Transjordan. The vivid proof of the imperialistic
designs of the British is to be found in Moslem Palestine which,
although promised by England to Sheriff Hussein has had to submit
to the outrageous infiltration of Jews, shameful politics designed
to divide Arab-Moslem countries of Asia from those of Africa.
In Palestine the English have committed unheard of barbarisms;
among others, they have profaned the el-Aqsa Mosque and have
declared the most unyielding war against Islam, both in deed
and in word. The Prime Minister at that time told Parliament
that the world would never see peace as long as the Koran existed.
What hatred against Islam is stronger than that which publicly
declares the Sacred Koran an enemy of human kind? Should such
sacrilege go unpunished? ... I invite you, O Brothers, to join
in the War for God to preserve Islam, your independence and
your lands from English aggression. I invite you to bring all
your weight to bear in helping Iraq that she may throw off the
shame that torments her. O Heroic Iraq, God is with Thee, the
Arab Nation and the Moslem World are solidly with Thee in Thy
Holy Struggle!
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| NORTH AFRICA: |
Nazi army advances
on Egypt, Suez Canal at risk
Thousand of Palestinian Jews rush to enlist in British Army. German
tanks commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel fight British forces in Tunisia
and Libya. Palestinian Jews fear that if the Germans break through,
they will take Egypt and come to Palestine. |
| |
NAZI GERMANY, BERLIN:
November
Palestinian leader meets Hitler, agree their common
enemy: The Jews
Hitler: We're natural allies - we have the same enemy, namely the
Jews. When we win, Mufti will be Fuehrer of Muslims.
Record of the Conversation Between
the Fuehrer and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem on November 28, 1941, in the
Presence of Reich Foreign Minister and Minister Grobba in Berlin,
Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918-1945, Series D, Vol. XIII,
London, 1964, p. 881ff in Walter Lacquer and Barry Rubin, The Israel-Arab
Reader, (NY: Penguin Books, 2001), pp. 51-55.
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November
30, 1941
Mufti Amin al-Husseini sees eye
to eye with Hitler |
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Mufti Amin al-Husseini
and his patron Heinrich Himmler
Himmler awarded the Mufti rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer
and turned over to him Jewish property in Dresden for an Islamic
Institute to train Muslim chaplains for the Mufti's SS troops. With
Himmler the Mufti toured Auschwitz and wondered whether the process
could not be speeded up. |
|
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Mufti Amin
al-Husseini recruits Nazi Waffen SS Muslim Divisions to fight for Hitler
His Muslim troops pledge allegiance to the Nazi regime in an official
statement prepared by SS Chief Heinrich Himmler. They include Bosnian
Muslims recruited into Waffen SS units Hanjar (named for a dagger
worn by Turkish officers), 13th Waffen SS division; the Kama 23rd
Waffen SS division; and the Albanian Skanderbeg 21st Waffen SS
division. These units distinguished themselves brutally suppressing Tito's
anti-fascist resistance fighters, committing genocide of Serbs, and by
implementing the Final Solution to the "problem" of Jews and
Roma ("Gypsies"). The Mufti calls his SS troops "the Cream
of Islam".
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Mufti
reviews Bosnian troops of his Muslim Waffen SS Handschar
Division
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April
Ustashe Fascist Party sets up Nazi puppet state of Independent
Croatia
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The Nazi puppet "Independent Croatia" and the Mufti
Zagreb, Croatia (photo 1943) En route to Sarajevo to oversee
the formation of the Bosnian Muslim Waffen SS Division, The Mufti
greeted by Andrija Artukovic, Interior Minister of the Croatian
Nazi-puppet state, and (right) Minister of Culture and of Religion
Mile Budak ("our brother Muslims are also the purest Croats".
Artukovic, "the Croat Himmler" ran Croatian concentration
camps. Budak's signature authorized some of the most infamous
decrees of the Ustashe. His pronouncement towards the Serbs: "kill
a third, expel a third, and convert a third" of the Serbian
population, from their Orthodox church to Catholicism. (The neat
mathematical approach was copied from Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev's 1882
solution to Czar Alexander III's Jewish problem.)
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Mufti Amin al-Husseini and
friends ( Mile Budak cooling soup) |
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US PACIFIC TERRITORY, PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII: |
December 7
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
America is brought into the war. |
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1942 |
| USA: |
MAY 6-11
Zionists announce goal is now a political independence,
"a Jewish Commonwealth integrated in the structure of the new democratic
world."
This is the first time political independence
rather than a "national homeland" is proclaimed as the goal of
Zionism. Unrestricted right of immigration is paramount. The pronouncement
is made at an extraordinary wartime Zionist Conference at Biltmore Hotel,
New York |
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May
1942: Zionists now want a political independence, not just "homeland"
Biltmore Hotel, New York City, lends its name to the program announced
by extraordinary wartime Zionist Congress held there May, 1942.
For the first time the Zionist Movement declares political independence
is now our goal. |
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Associated with the Ben Gurion faction, the program
implies acceptance of less than the entire historic Land of Israel, and
therefore, meets opposition.
In a private memorandum earlier Ben Gurion suggested that
due to the urgency of accommodating the influx of refuge Jews it might
be necessary to transfer Arabs to neighboring Arab countries. |
| EASTERN EUROPE: |
Nazi offensive towards
east,
Mobile killing squads round up, exterminate Jews. A similar unit is attached
to Rommel's North African troops, tasked with finishing off the Jews in
Palestine once the region falls to the Third Reich. |
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1942 Einsazgruppen, Ukraine
Nazi push eastward entails mass murder of whole Jewish populations.
Shooting individuals proves too slow for the scale of murder contemplated
by Nazis. More efficient methods are sought.
The Mufti's Muslim recruits are active among the killer squads.
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February 24
OFF COAST OF TURKEY:
768 Jewish escapees from Nazis denied refuge in Palestine
or anywhere else, drown at sea.
Stranded off coast of Turkey, British tow the disabled Struma
out to sea and set it adrift. Hopelessly overcrowded with now malnourished
, sick refugees, with no country willing to accept them, the Struma
is torpedoed by a Russian submarine. 768 drown, one survivor.
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"People
Unwanted Anywhere Else"
The overcrowded, crippled SS Struma.
Denied entry in Palestine, set adrift off the coast of Turkey and
eventually sunk. 768 drown. |
"Turkey cannot be expected to serve as a refuge or surrogate
homeland for people unwanted anywhere else."
Turkish Minister
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Einstein
Cites a Similarly Doomed Refugee Ship
Einstein and historian friend
Eric Kahler quote from Walter Clay Lowdermilk, who had recently
published a study on land use in the middle east (Palestine,
Land of Promise, Harpers, New York, 1944)
During my
stay in Palestine in 1939," Mr. Lowdermilk tells us "I
witnessed a tragic by-product of the German advance ... In Palestine
and Syria we were told of old cargo boats, filled with refugees
from Nazi-dominated Central Europe…whose miserable passengers
were not permitted to land anywhere because of the lack of formal
visas. We saw those wretched ships floating about on a steaming
sea, with refugees packed in holds under intolerablely inhuman
conditions. The laws governing the transportation of animals
for slaughter in the United States do not permit conditions
like those which some of the intelligentsia of Central Europe
had to undergo on these old boats on the Mediterranean. The
revolting slave ships of a century ago were better; for slaves
had a sale value and their ships were sped their destination
without delay. But Jewish refugees were kept floating about
upon a torrid sea, just out of sight of land, with the desperate
hope that the captain…would attempt to discharge them illegally
on the shores of Palestine…
During our stay in Beirut, an old cargo
boat. Loaded with 655 refugees…was unloaded at the quarantine
station for few days. The ship was so overrun with rats that
the passengers had to be removed to exterminate the vermin.
We found that they had been floating about for eleven weeks,
packed into little wooden shells built around the four cargo
holds. The congestion, the ghastly unsanitary conditions and
the sufferings that these people had undergone aroused our highest
admiration for their courage and fortitude. We were astonished
to find that these former citizens of Czechoslovakia represented
a very high level of European culture…42 were lawyers,
40 were engineers, 26 were physicians and surgeons, in addition
to women doctors, professional writers, gifted musicians, pharmacists
and nurses.
…Without passports, without country,
these useful and highly cultured refugees presented one of the
most tragic spectacles of modern times. No ambassador, no consul
spoke up for them to demand the rights and privileges enjoyed
by the lowliest citizen in the smallest country."
This is the Jewish situation; and there
is no guarantee whatever against the persistence or recurrence
of anti-Semitic outbreaks everywhere after this war. Even
if we put aside the spiritual, religious and cultural ties making
Palestine the only place in the world which persecuted Jews
could consider their home and develop - with all the devotion
a homeland inspires - there is not even any other country acceptable
to human beings which the numerous refugee conferences were
able to offer to this hounded people.
Albert Einstein and Eric Kahler, Palestine
Setting of Sacred History of Jewish Race, Princeton Herald,
April 14, 1944
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The British High Commissioner in Palestine, Sir Harold
MacMichael, says of SS Struma:
The fate of these people [Jews
fleeing Nazi Germany] was tragic, but the fact remains that
they were nationals of a country at war with Britain, proceeding
direct from enemy territory. Palestine was under no obligations
towards them.
British High Commissioner in Palestine
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British Navy continues to block
Jewish refugee boats from reaching Palestine.
Some refuge boats are fired on as they approach the coast; some are turned
back.
During the war 3 refuge ships will be sunk; 21 boats will succeed in running
the British blockade, landing some 15,000 refugees. |
| NAZI GERMANY: |
|
Mufti Amin al-Husseini's other efforts
for Hitler:
Radio propaganda on behalf of Nazi Germany, espionage, fifth column activities
in Muslim regions of Europe and the Middle East, formation of schools
and training centers for imams and mullahs to accompany the Muslim SS
and
Mufti Radio Plea for for Axis
Haj Amin el Husseini flies the
flag for the Nazis in a broadcast from Italy. Among other things,
he declared that "if England and America win the war, the
Jews will dominate the world. If on the other hand the victory
is carried off by the Axis, the Arab world will be freed. The
Axis is befriending us. Fight for its victory."
New York Times, November 12, 1942.
page 9
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Mufti Amin al-Husseini and one
of his Muslim SS recruits |
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Mufti Amin al-Husseini has 10,000 Jewish
children sent to concentration camp rather than safety in Palestine
At the end of 1942, Eichmann orders 10,000 Jewish children sent
from to Theresienstadt. The Red Cross offers to trade German prisoners
for them. Mufti al-Husseini learns of the plan and protested vehemently
to Himmler. The exchange is thwarted and the children are eventually
sent to the gas chambers.
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Mufti Amin al-Husseini inspects
Bosnian Muslim SS volunteers, his "Cream of Islam".
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October 23 -November 3
Nazi conquest of North Africa stopped by British
at Battle of al-Alamein
Nazi advance towards Palestine turned back. |
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Scottish soldiers charge Rommel's
Afrika Korps at El- Alamein, halting the Nazi advance towards the
Suez Canal and Palestine where local Arab Einsatzgruppen
would dispatch the Jews. The Mufti laments defeat of the Nazi advance
and urges his followers to keep faith with ultimate victory of Nazi
Germany. (AP photo)
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SS Ensatzgruppe
Egypt stands down
24 man Einsatzgruppe under SS Standartenfuhrer Walther Rauff standing
by in Athens in the summer of '42, attached to Rommel and prepared to move
with him into the Suez Canal Zone and Palestine (although some reports have
him in Tunis as head of the SD there) Most of the manpower for the mission
would be provided by Palestinian Nazi collaborators.
Mufti broadcasts from Berlin:
Followers, don't lose hope, ultimate Nazi victory coming. |
| 1943 |
| |
Heinrich Himmler to Mufti:
"Natural Alliance" in Our "Common Struggle"
November 2, 1943
To the Grand Mufti: The National
Socialist Movement of Greater Germany has, since its beginning,
inscribed upon its flag the fight against world Jewry. It has,
therefore, followed with particular sympathy the struggle of the
freedom-loving Arabians, especially in Palestine, against the
Jewish interlopers. It is in the recognition of this enemy and
of the common struggle against him that lies the firm foundation
of the natural alliance that exists between National-Socialist-Greater
Germany and the freedom-loving Moslems 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 certain final victory.
Signed: Reichsfuehrer-S.S. Heinrich
Himmler
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At the Nuremberg Trials, Adolf Eichmann's deputy Dieter
Wisliceny (subsequently executed as a war criminal), testified:
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 chamber of Auschwitz.
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The
Mufti saluting Bosnian-Muslim SS, 1943 |
|
| 1944 |
| PALESTINE: |
February
Irgun commander Menachem Begin proclaims "Revolt"
to drive Britain out of Palestine
Targets immigration authorities, income
tax offices, British intelligence and police |
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Irgun bomb British tax office;
July 13, Irgun bomb British Intelligence HQ 1944 February
12 |
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| NAZI GERMANY: |
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March 1
"Kill Jews" urges Mufti Amin Al-Husseini
In a March 1 broadcast to Muslim SS troops by radio broadcast from Berlin:
Kill the Jews wherever you find
them. This pleases This pleases God, history and religion. This
saves your honor. God is with you.
Mufti Amin al-Husseini Radio Berlin broadcast,
March 1, 1944
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| USA: |
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March 12
Einstein recalls first Zionist appearance in US
on occasion of Zionist leader's 65th birthday:
Einstein Recollects
His Zionist Mission to USA
Now almost
twenty-five years have passed since your first visit to me,
when you persuaded me to make the journey to the United States,
a journey that was good and necessary; and also pleasant once
it was over.
(Hoffman article pg. 238)
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February
Pro-Zionist American Palestine Committee
sponsors National Conference on Palestine
Founded in 1932 the American Palestine Committee included a number of prominent
public figures, statesmen and elected officials. It merged in 1946 with
the Christian Council on Palestine (founded in 1942) and became the American
Christian Palestine Committee (ACPC), with a membership of over 15,000 Christians
from mostly liberal congregations who argued the justice of the Zionist
cause. Future president Harry Truman joined in 1941.
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Protestant Support for
Zionism: Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr
Two
Protestant luminaries of the Christian Council on Palestine - a
Zionist support group demanding justice for Jews everywhere.-- They
endorsed the Zionist goal of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. |
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Einstein: Zionism's
Aim is Dignity
Zionism
is nationalism whose aim is not power but dignity and health.
From an article in New
York Times Magazine, March 12, 1944 quoted in Jamie Sayen, Einstein
in America, The Scientist's Conscience in the Age of Hitler
and Hiroshima, Crown, New York (1985) pg. 107
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The Arab case for Palestine made
by Princeton scholar Phillip Hitti (A History of Arab Peoples)
to US Congress Committee on International Relations.
His testimony is reprinted in Princeton Herald.
Hitti's salient points:
1. Local Arabs descend from Canaanites, he maintains. They precede Israelite
claim on the land.
2. Jerusalem is the third most important Muslim holy site.
3. The land was won through jihad and is therefore a bequest of Allah
to Muslims for eternity.
Einstein rebuts Phillip Hitti's
anti-Zionist testimony.
Einstein and his historian friend Eric Kahler, like Einstein,
a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, compose a rebuttal:
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Einstein/Kahler Rebuttal of Hitti Claims
If... the
Arab conquest of Palestine is considered holy it would be only
fair to admit the corresponding holiness of the peaceful claim
and the peaceful reclamation of the country by the Jews. To
refer to the legitimacy of a "holy war" sounds rather
queer for a people which denounces peaceful immigration as a
violation of their rights...
But the Jews do not resort to arguments
of power or of priority. One does not get very far with historical
rights. Very few peoples of the world would be entitled to their
present countries if such a criterion were applied...
The Jews are willing and ready to give
any guarantee of protection for the holy places and the civil
rights ... they offer their assistance and their experience
for the economic and scientific advancement of the Arab countries,
for the lifting of the population to a modern standard of living.
But this, unfortunately, is just what
the Arab leaders do not want. For the true source of Arab resistance
and hostility toward a Jewish Palestine is neither religious
nor political, but social and economic...
[T]he masses of people are held in a
backward and inferior condition... [T]he big effendis fear the
example and the impulse which the Jewish colonization of Palestine
presents to the Peoples of the Near East, they resent the social
and economic uplift of the Arabian workers in in Palestine.
They act as all fascist forces have acted: they screen their
fear of social reform behind nationalistic slogans and demagoguery.
If it were not for these leaders and instigators a perfect agreement
and cooperation could be achieved between the Arab and the Jewish
people.
We do not, and the vast majority of Jews
does not, advocate the establishment of a state for the sake
of national greed and self-glorification...
In speaking up for a Jewish Palestine
we want to promote the establishment of a place of refuge where
persecuted human beings may find security and peace and the
undisputed right to live under a law and order of their own
making.
In a subsequent article Hitti reiterates
his arguments opposing a Jewish State. Einstein and Kahler again
reply: Hitti seems to know nothing of Jewish historical attachment
to the land and the primacy of Jerusalem in Jewish religion.
Of Zionist achievements they note that even so sure a friend
of the Arabs as T.E. Lawrence observed:
"Palestine was a decent country
[in ancient times], and could easily be made so again. The sooner
the Jews farm it all the better: their colonies are bright spots
in the desert."
There is only one point in which we may
agree with Professor Hitti: The Jews too have their diehards
and their terrorists... We do not shield or excuse these extremists...
Einstein and Kahler take exception
to Hitti's assertion that Chaim Weizmann threatened to expel
the Arab population:
..we have to correct Professor Hitti's
quotation. [Weizmann] never threatened the Arabs with expulsion.
The passage to which Professor Hitti
refers reads: There will be complete civil and political equality
of rights for all citizens without distinction of race or religion,
and, in addition, the Arabs will enjoy full autonomy in their
own internal affairs. But if any Arabs who do not wish to remain
in a Jewish state, every facility will be given to them to transfer
to one of the many and vast Arab countries.
There was a time,
in 1919, when a perfect Arab-Jewish-British agreement was worked
out by the late King Feisal, a nobler brand of leader than the
present chiefs, Dr. Weizmann and T.E. Lawrence...
Princeton Herald April 28, 1944 reported in
Brian pg. 337-338
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Einstein: Jews and Arabs Must Both
Avoid Narrow-Minded Nationalism
The
spirit of the Jews in Palestine has remained fresh and resilient.
I have no doubt that they will succeed in a good measure of
cooperation with the Arab people if only both our people and
the Arabs succeed in conquering that childhood complaint of
a narrow-minded nationalism imported from Europe and aggravated
by professional politicians. Both peoples, it is to be hoped,
will soon recognize that no rigid legal formula but only a lively
mutual understanding and faithful cooperation in the daily tasks
can open the right way.
(1944. June. Message
by Einstein to a dinner by the American Fund for Palestinian
Institutions in Abraham Pais, Einstein Lived Here,
Clarendon Press, Oxford U Press, 1994, pg.248:)
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August 21
United Nations foundations
set
Allies meet to discuss postwar world at Dumberton Oaks conference,
Washington D.C.
Einstein is pessimistic about the organization's
ability to maintain peace.
It's fatal flaw: Each state retains individual sovereignty.
He will say of the UN...
By holding onto
their sovereignty, the great states make the weapons race unavoidable
and this will in turn make future wars unavoidable. The fear
of these wars’ frightfulness leads in two directions,
working as a deterrent, but also compelling a preventive war...
The physicists are well-behaved; they are all against secret
armament, and they are in favor of preventing wars on an international
basis. But they are afraid of drawing the final consequence—a
world government that alone has military power.
Albert Einstein to Otto Nathan, 12 November
1945, Adele and Morris Bergreen Albert Einstein Collection,
Vassar College Library cited in Action
at a Distance: Einstein as Activist By Jessica
Heckman
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The Jewish Brigade
British accede to Zionist wish to fight Nazis under their own
flag. The Jewish Brigade is organized as part of British 8th Army
Sept 20, 1944 Brig Ernest F Benjamin commands the 5500
man formation. Eventually, 25,000-28,000 Palestinian Jews fight
with the British. A plan to even-handedly raise a similar Arab
Brigade falters. The Jewish Brigade trains in Egypt, sees action
against Germans in northern Italy.
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The Jewish Brigade
1945
Jewish brigade members in Rome
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Late 1944
Mufti Amin al-Husseini's Nazi agents paratroop
into Palestine to poison Tel Aviv's water
A mixed German-Arab SS commando crew sponsored by the Mufti parachutes
into Palestine in a last ditch effort to trigger all-out war between Arabs
and Jews, drawing off British troops from anti-Nazi campaign. They are
discovered and arrested before completing their first mission: poisoning
Tel Aviv's wells.
November 6, 1944
Right-wing Jewish LEHI (Stern Gang)
assassinates British Minister responsible
for deporting Jewish refugees
Lord Moyne, the British Secretary of State in Cairo, declared on 9 June
1942 in the House of Lords that the Jews were not the descendants of the
ancient Hebrews and that they had no "legitimate claim" on the Holy Land.
at his place of residence in Cairo was responsible for implementing the
White Paper, responsible for the deportation of the immigrant ships |
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Left: Lord Moyne, in charge of
deporting Jewish refugees and his assassins. Moyne's murder by dissident
LEHI incurs wrath of British, and particularly the formerly sympathetic
Churchill. Moyne was his personal friend. Mainstream Jewish Hagana
militia ends alliance and turns on LEHI.
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"Hunting
Season" begins - Jewish mainstream
cracks down on Jewish terrorists
Haganah (mainstream Jewish militia) cooperates with British authorities
to hunt down Jewish terrorists and turn them in to the British |
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| 1945 |
1945-46: WORLD WAR II ENDS,
PALESTINE CRISES COMES TO A HEAD
EINSTEIN
DEMANDS FREEDOM FOR DISPLACED JEWS
TO MAKE NEW HOMES PALESTINE |
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| JAPAN: |
| Atomic bombing of Hiroshima,
Nagasaki. WWI ends. |
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Left: Soviet flag flies over defeated Nazi government building,
Berlin. Right: Atomic bomb explodes on Nagasaki, Japan.
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| EUROPE: |
Scope of
Nazi holocaust is revealed.
Among the millions murdered are Einstein's relatives, colleagues and friends:
Georg Pick, the mathematician at the German University in Prague who suggested
to Einstein the appropriate mathematical tool to generalize his Theory of
Relativity. |
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Corpses piled at Buchenwald death
camp, liberated by US Third Army, April 11, 1945 |
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Buchenwald concentration camp
survivors, April 1945 (AP photo) |
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Dachau survivors liberated by
US 7th Army April 29, 1945 |
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May:
Mile Budak captured by Tito's partisans,
tried and executed. They now demand the Mufti to face justice.
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Anti-Fascist commander
of Yugoslavia Marshal Tito demands Mufti face justice for genocidal
crimes
Mufti al-Husseini's troops distinguished
themselves by bestial treatment of Tito's anti-Nazi partisans. |
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Yugoslavia indicts Mufti Amin al-Husseini
as a war criminal. He escapes
but is captured in France and placed under house arrest
Hundreds of thousands of displaced
persons stranded throughout Europe
Poles brought to Germany as slaves, Russian prisoners awaiting
return home. Among the displaced: 100,000 traumatized Jewish survivors
of Nazi death camps
Allies create Displaced Persons camps
Russian POWs, Polish slave laborers, liberated concentration camp
inmates await repatriation to homes
Jewish DPs can't return to
former homes
Some who try are murdered by neighbors who have confiscated their property
(notably on July 4, 1946: 43 Holocaust survivors straggle back to Kielce,
Poland and are murdered by neighbors). Others have nowhere to go, as their
communities have been liquidated, families exterminated.
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1945 Polish Jewish survivors
awaiting transit to DP camps |
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These Jewish youngsters are on
their way to the British Mandate of Palestine after being released
from Buchenwald concentration camp, June 5, 1945, near Weimar, Germany.
The girl on the left is from Poland, the boy in the center is from
Latvia, and the girl holding the Zionist flag is from Hungary. (AP
Photo and original caption) |
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| Jews seek to rebuild lives in Palestine
are blocked by British. |
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Left: British intercept refugee
ship off coast of Palestine,
They arrest the stateless passengers and keep them in detention
camps.
Center: Refugee wounded resisting British arrest deported
to Cyprus April 12, 1946;
Right: Brits check Holocaust survivors before deporting them
to Cyprus detention camps after intercepting them aboard the
Aliyah Bet ship Theodor Herzl. |
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"Illegal" immigration secretly land ships
of Jewish refugees. If caught, British send them to detention camps.
65 "illegal" immigrant boats embarked for Palestine 1945
- 1948. Most of the boats were intercepted by the British, the passengers
transferred to detention camp at Atlit. From August 1946, the British
begin deporting Jewish refugee immigrants to detention camps in Cyprus |
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October
Jewish Resistance Movement formed
through alliance of Haganah, Irgun, LEHI (Stern Gang)
Haganah militia allies with dissident Irgun and LEHI (Stern Gang) to fight
British restrictions on Jewish immigration. [The alliance will end after
Irgun bombs British military, police, and civil headquarters at the King
David Hotel as a retaliation for Black Sabbath (Operation Agatha)]. |
| PALESTINE: |
| Mufti Amin al-Husseini
is appointed leader of Muslim Brotherhood in Jerusalem, in absentia |
| LIBYA: |
November 1945
Mass anti-Jewish violence in Libya:
120 Jews massacred, over 500 wounded,2,000 made
homeless, synagogues torched. |
| USA: |
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December
Einstein: Jewish immigration to Palestine
must be immediately resumed with no restrictions: |
Einstein: Justice for Jewish Remnant!
As long
as Nazi violence was unleashed only, or mainly, against the
Jews the rest of the world looked on passively..
[Once] the methods of the gas chambers
were well known all over the world, all attempts to rescue...
Jews came to naught because the doors of Palestine were closed
to Jewish immigrants by the British government, and no country
could be found that would admit those forsaken people. They
were left to perish like their brothers and sisters...
But after all that has happened, and
was not prevented from happening, how is it today? While in
Europe territories are being distributed without any qualms
about the wishes of the people concerned, the remainders of
European Jewry, one fifth of its prewar population, are again
denied access to their haven in Palestine and left to hunger
and cold and persisting hostility. There is no country, even
today, that would be willing or able to offer them a place where
they could live in peace and security. And the fact that many
of them are still kept in the degrading conditions of concentration
camps by the Allies gives sufficient evidence of the shamefulness
and hopelessness of the situation.
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British Displaced Persons Camp director: Jews should not try
to "jump to the head of the queue"
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DP camps run by British General Frederick Morgan, Director of
UN Relief and Rehabilitation Agency for all zones of occupation
in Germany
Jews should not try to "jump to the head of the queue"
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Einstein responds:
Einstein: 6 Million
Dead Push Them
to the Head of the Queue
...the Western powers, in upholding
the ban of the White Paper, are yielding to the threats and
the external pressure of five vast and underpopulated Arab
states. It is sheer irony when the British Foreign Minister
tells the poor lot of European Jews they should remain in
Europe because their genius is needed there, and, on the other
hand, advises them not to try to get to the head of the queue
lest they might incur new hatred and persecution. Well, I
am afraid, they cannot help it; with their six million dead
they have been pushed to the head of the queue, of the queue
of Nazi victims, much against their will.
from an address at the Astor Hotel, Dec
10, 1945 published as "The War is Won but Peace is Not"
reproduced in Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years
Greenwood Press, Westport, CN, 201-202
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Einstein ceaselessly speaks out on behalf of
Jewish war refugees and Holocaust survivors |
Einstein to Britain:
Honor your promises.
Open Palestine to
Jewish immigration
Percentage
wise the Jewish people have lost more than any other people
people effected by the disasters of recent years. If a truly
just settlement is to be striven for, the Jewish people must
be given special consideration in the organization of the peace...
In decades of hard work and voluntary financial aid the Jews
have restored the soil of Palestine to fertility. All of these
sacrifices were made because of the trust in the officially
sanctioned promise given by the governments in question after
the last war, namely that the Jewish people were to be given
a secure home in their ancient Palestinian country. To put it
mildly, the fulfillment of this policy has been but hesitant
and partial.
Now that the Jews - especially
the Jews in Palestine - have in this war too rendered a valuable
contribution, the promise must be forcibly brought to mind.
The demand must be put forward that Palestine, within the limits
of its economic capacity, be thrown open to Jewish immigration.
If supranational institutions are to win the confidence that
must form the most important buttress for their endurance then
it must be shown above all that those who, trusting to these
institutions, have made the heaviest sacrifices are not defrauded.
from an unpublished preface to a Black Book
[commemorating a community destroyed by the Nazis] written 1945
reproduced in Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years
Greenwood Press, Westport, CN, pg. 258
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Einstein slams anti-Zionist Jews
Anti-Zionist American Jews advance what they call
a "just and peaceful resolution" of Palestine conflict.
American Council for Judaism publishes their denunciations of Zionism
in a full page ad in New York Post (Nov. 20, 1945).
Einstein Denounces
Anti-Zionist Jewish Group
I am very
happy indeed to hear that the platform for which the American
Council for Judaism stands is meeting with strong opposition.
This organization appears to me to be nothing more than a pitiable
attempt to obtain favor and toleration from our enemies by betraying
true Jewish ideals... I believe this method to be both undignified
and ineffective. Our opponents are bound to view it with disdain
and even contempt, and in my opinion justly. He who is untrue
to his own cause cannot command the respect of others. Apart
from these considerations the movement in question is a fairly
exact copy of the [Central Association of German Citizens of
Jewish Faith*] of unhappy memory, which in the days of our crucial
need showed itself utterly impotent and corroded the Jewish
group by undermining that inner certitude by which alone our
Jewish people could have overcome the trials of this difficult
age.
Aufbau 11, December 14, 1945, reprinted in
Einstein on Politics , ed . Rowe, Schulamann Princeton
Press (2007) pg. 339
* The Central Association of German Citizens
of Jewish Faith was rebuffed
by Einstein at the start of his career as a public Zionist.
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| EGYPT: |
Arab League founded
Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen join to reinforce
Pan-Islamic unity. The alliance is headquartered in Cairo. Between
the seven countries they field five armies. |
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March
22, 1945 Creation of the Arab League
Mufti Amin al-Husseini represents
the proposed Arab state of Palestine at the Cairo meeting.
They declare economic war on Jews in Palestine |
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"Jewish products and manufactured
goods shall be considered undesirable to the Arab countries."
All Arab "institutions, organizations, merchants, commission
agents and individuals" are called upon "to refuse to deal in,
distribute, or consume Zionist products or manufactured goods."
Arab League Boycott declaration, December
2, 1945
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November 1945
Arab League reestablishes Arab High Committee for Palestine.
After changes it becomes Arab Higher Committee (1947), headed
by Mufti Amin al-Husseini |
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| 1946 |
EINSTEIN ARGUES FOR A BINATIONAL
STATE IN PALESTINE
WITH UNRESTRICTED RIGHTS OF JEWS TO SEEK REFUGE |
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President Truman: Allow in 100,000
Jewish refugees. Britain: No!
Arabs demand an independent Arab state, end to Jewish immigration,
cessation of all land sales to Jews
Jewish DPs: Open the Gates to Palestine!
Allow free immigration for holocaust survivors |
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Displaced
persons (DPs) in camp rally demand to be permitted to go to Palestine
Photo credit: Alice Lev Collection, USHMM
Photo Archives |
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Our Only Refuge - Open the Gates to Palestine!
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| ANGLO-AMERCIAN COMMITTEE ON PALESTINE
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| Einstein's
Testimony on the Future of Palestine: |
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USA:
An Anglo-American
Committee of Inquiry
A British-US Committee of Inquiry is
formed to decide policy towards Jewish immigration to Palestine. Six Americans
and six Brits investigate DP camps in Europe, take testimony in Palestine
and Washington. ( Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion and Walter Lowdermilk argued
for Jewish statehood.Judah Magnes - with no support from Zionist mainstream
nor Arab nationalists - continued to argue for a binational state.)
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January 1
Einstein called to testify to
Anglo-American Committee in Washington:
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Other experts who weighed in:
Chaim Weizmann(l) and David Ben Gurion (R) before Anglo-American
Committee |
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Weisgall, Helen Dukas, and Einstein
on their way to the Anglo-American Committee hearing in Washington
(AP photo)
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Albert
Einstein arrives to testify at the Anglo-American Committee on Palestine
at the end of a day of Arab advocates' testimony |
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Einstein cheerfully delivers a
scathing indictment of Britain
1. Britain unfit to rule
in Palestine
In India, Britain's colonial policy is to stir strife between
communities, according to the principal of "divide
and conquer".
Britain's Palestine policy is "a
small model of India"; Jewish-Arab
tensions are "artificially
created".
"British colonial rule is based on the 'native' - Do you know what
it is, the 'native'? - and he is a very exploited man."
British colonial governors "always
were in tacit alliance with the land-owning class which opposes the bulk
of the people."
(Arab landowners are dependent on keeping the masses impoverished and
ignorant so Zionist raising the standard of living threatens them.) The
British empowered the Mufti Amin al-Husseini - exactly the kind of "trouble-maker"
they need for their purposes.
"As long as Britain rules Palestine
there will be no peace between the Jews and the Arabs."
Einstein repeatedly denounces the very commission as nothing but a ploy
to give the appearance that Britain is doing something while retaining
power in Palestine.
2. Immediately end restrictions
on immigration of Jews to Palestine
The majority of dispossessed Jewish refugees should immediately be permitted
to settle in Palestine.
The Jews there will take responsibility for rehabilitating these destitute
people. (Indeed, after Independence, once Jewish refugees did arrive,
Einstein himself lead efforts to raise funds for their resettlement).
3. UN trusteeship for Palestine,
pending home rule.
No single country should be entrusted
with the Mandate. Rather, Palestine should be
jointly administered by the United Nations.
3. Einstein's shocker: No need for Jewish homeland
to be a nation-state
When asked his opinion about the form of government home rule should take,
Einstein shocks his supporters by declaring: |
Einstein Opposes Political Independence
The
state idea is not according to my heart. I cannot understand why
it is needed. It is connected with many difficulties and a narrow
mindedness. I believe it is bad.
The
Zionist proposal to create a Jewish national state was an invitation
of the weaknesses of of Europe which "is
ill from nationalism".
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Zionist leaders ask Einstein to clarify his remarks
to the Committee
by signing a statement penned by his friend Rabbi Stephen
Wise stating that Jews should be able to
immigrate "freely within the limits of the
economic absorptive possibilities of Palestine,
which in turn should have a government that made sure there was no "Majorisation...of
one group by the other."
Einstein signs, but adds a private note to Stephen Wise:
Einstein for a Binational State
I believe
furthermore that a solution on the basis of an honestly bi-national
character is the only one we can hope for and I am firmly convinced
that a rigid demand for a Jewish State will have only undesirable
results for us.
Einstein note to Stephen Wise
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Anglo-American Committee on Palestine
recommendation: "Repeal White Paper"
(1939 British restriction on Jewish immigration)
1. Permit immediate immigration of 100,00 Jewish refugees
2. Set up of a binational state.
3. Do not dismantle Jewish Haganah militia - Doing so would insure
attacks on the Jews.
British government
ignores the report
September until
February 1947
A New London Conference
At the later stages of the conference, the British government presents
its own proposal for two autonomous provinces in Palestine, which would
continue to be governed under the British High Commissioner. (Einstein
later accuses British of delaying and obfuscating for the purpose of maintaining
control of Palestine.) Both the Arab and the Jewish sides reject the British
proposal.
Jews of Palestine
arm for the struggle
to evict the British and to defend themselves against their hostile
neighbors.
Einstein
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