Ten years later, despite much violence and conflict, Ben-Gurion’s core beliefs about living in peace with the Arabs had not wavered. In a speech on Dec. 13, 1947, he said: “In our state there will be non-Jews as well—and all of them will be equal citizens; equal in everything without exception … The attitude of the Jewish state to its Arab citizens will be an important factor—though not the only one—in building good neighborly relations with the Arab states.”
Despite the Jewish community’s attempts to live peacefully with their neighbors, the primary leader of the Palestinians, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, chose to make common cause with the Nazis, declaring through his spokesman that the Arabs’ goal was “the elimination of the Jewish state.” (Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, “O Jerusalem,” 1st edition, p 400).
The mufti spent much of World War II in Nazi Germany, where he urged the accelerated extermination of the Jews in meetings with Hitler and Himmler, helped organize Bosnian Muslim SS units that committed grave war crimes against Serbian Christians and Jews and made numerous pro-Nazi propaganda broadcasts to the Arab world. For example, in a broadcast from Germany on March 1, 1944, Husseini urged Arabs everywhere to commit genocide against the Jews:
“Rise as one and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history and religion. This serves your honor. God is with you.” (Jeffrey Herf, “Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World,” p. 213, Yale University Press, 2009.)
After the war Husseini was indicted by Yugoslavia for war crimes, but escaped prosecution by fleeing to Egypt, which gave him sanctuary. (For details on the Mufti’s life and activities see “The Mufti of Jerusalem Haj-Amin el-Husseini and National-Socialism,” by Jennie Lebel, Cigoya Stampa, 2007; “The Mufti and the Fuehrer,” Joseph Shechtman, Thomas Yoseloff Publisher, 1965.)
The mufti’s actions directly implicated the Palestinian movement in the Holocaust, but the Jews still tried to reach an accommodation with their Arab neighbors. When the United Nations in 1947 passed a resolution to partition the Palestine Mandate (or what was left of it, since most of the original territory had been lopped off by Britain to create the entirely Arab state of Trans-Jordan) into a Jewish and an Arab state, the Jews supported the plan, despite being deeply disappointed with how little land they would receive. The five Arab states in the United Nations all denounced the resolution (UNGA 181), voted against it, and together with the Palestinian representatives vowed to go to war to kill it.
Read full article here: https://www.jns.org/the-nakba-narrative-is-nonsense/
Remembering the Farhud and the Jewish Nakba 