From the very beginning of the book, there is conflict. The two major political parties of Palestine, the Husseinis and the Nashashibis, both shared a common desire to drive the Jews out of Palestine, but had completely different approaches to their methods: the Nashashibis wanted to be diplomatic and negotiate with the Jews through the British, but the Husseinis rejected all of their negotiations, resulting in bitter conflict between the two parties. "The police caught the assassin and he subsequently confessed that he had been sent by Hajj Amin al-Husseini to kill him because my uncle did not support his camp" (9). Upon reading about this conflict, I was reminded of the civil war taking place in Syria, and my interest was sparked. I wanted to learn more about each party and the clashes between them.
According to Montefiore, Haj Amin al-Husseini and Raghib al-Nashashibi were both very wealthy and powerful men and were cousins. Mashashibi was the mayor of Jerusalem Husseini was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and head of the Supreme Muslim Council. Husseini was a charming man, and was "soft, intelligent, well-educated, well-dressed with a shiny smile, fair hair, blue eyes, red beard, and a wry sense of humor." He actually did not win the Mufti election, but instead was appointed by the British, who overruled the vote. He belonged to the Islamic tradition, while Nashashibi belonged to the Ottoman tradition. These traditions directly correlated with their beliefs of what the best method was to drive the Jews out of Palestine. At first, Husseini played it off by standing as a "passive British ally," but ultimately, he had a very similar set of beliefs as Hitler did when it came to Jews.
Montefiore, Simon Sebag. Jerusalem: The Biograpny. Google Books.
I found your comparison to Syria very interesting. Because of this I decided to research both of these conflicts to find the differences and similarities. I found that these conflicts do have some alike things, however overall vary. Originally, the Syrian people were split into two parts that wanted the government overthrown. First, the extremist, who wanted a more Islamic influenced government. Then, the ones who wanted a more western government and democracy. These groups slowly separated with in the rebel groups of Syria, for good reason considering they had different end goals passed overthrowing the government. The Nashashibi and Husayni on the other hand, want the same end result, Palestine for their own and the Jews to stop immigration. However they went about it in totally different ways. The Nashashibi were a well known family in Palestine. They were the more moderate of the two parties, their goal was to work out the issues with the Jewish and British populations through politics. Additionally, they were in favor of the partitions proposed by the British and UN, proving them to be more realistic and negotiable. Husayni was completely different, they did not want any negotiation, as they completely rejected the Balfour Declaration policy. Furthermore, they attempted to get their way through violence and force. Because these groups spent time, power and energy on disagreeing on each others methods, they in turn lost a potential alliance and larger group of support.
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Ps I thought this posted Last night but it didn't Mrs K, you told me to remind you
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