[UNLOCKED] History Unknown: The Palestinian Regiment of WWII
[UNLOCKED] History Unknown: The Palestinian Regiment of WWII
Zionists don't want you to know Palestinians fought the Nazis.
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Thank you! In Solidarity — Joe
Second only to bombs, propaganda has been a key weapon in Israel’s ongoing assault on Palestine. To achieve the public relations coverage they need to continue receiving diplomatic support and arms sales from Western governments, the IDF has been printing disinformation like the Weimar Republic printed Papiermarks. A large portion of Israel’s press statements recall the horrors of the Holocaust, an attempt to position the genocide of Gaza as a continuation of the resistance against the Nazi genocide of European Jews. If this sounds insane, it’s because it is. There’s no connection between modern Palestinians and the German Nazi party, but that hasn’t stopped Zionist mouthpieces from trying to create one. While Israeli propagandists know they can’t rewrite history to fit their contemporary politics, what they can do is kick up enough dirt that Western constituencies don’t buck their governments for selling arms to the IDF. Given how this revisionist history is a staple of Israel’s ongoing genocide, it’s crucial we debunk the bogus claims of a Palestine-Nazi link. The best way to do so is by elevating the story of the Palestinian Regiment, who courageously fought the Axis to end the Holocaust.
Holocaust Revisionism Is Bad, Actually
This isn’t the first time Israeli officials have revised the Holocaust to fit their imperialist goals. In 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech before the World Zionist Congress claiming Hitler “didn’t want to kill Jews” but was convinced to enact the Final Solution by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini.
JoeWrote Life Pro Tip — Don’t compliment Hitler. You’re most likely wrong and certainly an asshole.
This is as disgusting as it is inaccurate. Holocaust scholars immediately rebuked Netanyahu’s comments, pointing out they originated from the defense of Dieter Wisliceny, a Nazi commander who was tried at Nuremberg. Wisliceny tried to blame al-Husseini for the Holocaust, but the court was unpersuaded. (He was executed in 1948.) While the Grand Mufti’s anti-British sentiment did motivate him to join the Axis, preeminent Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer called Netanyahu's claim that Palestinians engineered the Holocaust “entirely baseless.”
“The Germans had started annihilating the Jews half a year before Hitler and the (Grand) Mufti met. Netanyahu’s story is entirely baseless.” - Yehuda Bauer, Holocaust historian
But Zionist propagandists aren’t going to let something as trivial as the historical record stop them from creating an imagined Nazi-Palestinian link. Last fall, conservative commentator Douglas Murray claimed Hamas was “worse than the Nazis,” then took the opportunity to whitewash the crimes of the Waffen SS.
“Many (Nazis) spent their evenings getting blind drunk to try to forget (they killed Jews). Nazi commanders had to worry about staff ‘morale.’” - Douglas Murray, Conservative Commentator/Waffen SS Spokesperson
Around the same time, Israeli President Isaac Herzog held a bizarre press conference in which he claimed a copy of Mein Kampf had been found in an alleged “Hamas base/children’s bedroom.” Considering how Hitler’s memoir calls Arabs “racially inferior”, Herzog’s attempt to claim Palestinians seek guidance from the book is outright laughable.
Not only is Israel’s Holocaust revisionism an immense disrespect to those murdered by the Nazi regime, but it runs contrary to reality. While the Israeli war machine attempts to malign Palestinians as fascist sympathizers, history shows Palestinians bravely joined the fight against the Nazi threat.
The Palestinian Regiment
In the years before the Second World War, Palestine was a powder keg. Three-way conflict was common between Jewish Zionists fleeing Europe, Palestinian Arabs, and the British, who governed the area since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. When WWII began, the British were reluctant to recruit troops from Palestine, fearing mutiny or sabotage. But as the Axis spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East, waning manpower forced the Allies to enlist every soldier they could. In August of 1942, the Secretary of State for War announced plans to form the Palestine Regiment.
According to historian Ashley Jackson (The British Empire and the Second World War), the original makeup of the regiment was 1,600 Jews and 1,200 Arabs. There was no division between the ethnicities. Jews and Arabs lived, fought, and died alongside each other. The Regiment eventually grew to around 5,000 fighting men, a significant portion of the 12,000 total Palestinians who joined the Allied cause. Though originally intended to only support the East Kent Regiment with guard duty and other non-combat tasks, the Palestinian Regiment was eventually called into combat and saw action from Libya to France. The camaraderie of Jewish and Arab soldiers was so remarkable that it was featured in British newsreels as a testament to the universal justice of the anti-fascist cause.
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While revisionist history is a nuisance employed by every political ideology, I’m not writing about the Palestinian Regiment to nitpick the finer points of World War II lore. Rather, my motivation lies in a burning fury at those who seek to revise the Holocaust so they may impose its horror on a novel victim. Though anti-Arab racism long predates the current cycle of violence in Israel-Palestine, it has been escalated and internalized to a level I didn’t think possible. Every time I write about Palestine, Israeli advocates mob my comments to talk about “The Arabs” as if they are a single being, no different from the hive-mind creatures of science fiction. Zionists point to the policies of the Egyptian, Syrian, and Saudi governments as if they are reflections of the Palestinian people, a tactic no less racist than claiming American Jews should be held to account for Israel’s crimes. Through this racism, Zionists have stripped every Palestinian of their personhood, smoothing the path of Israel’s policy of collective punishment. Despite collective penalties being outlawed after World War II (they were a favorite tactic of the Nazis to dissuade partisan resistance), world leaders frequently justify Israeli airstrikes on civilian targets as “justice” for war crimes committed by Hamas fighters on October 7th.
It breaks my heart that I must say this, but, just like every other human being, Palestinians are not responsible for the actions of someone else who happens to share their creed, language, or skin color. While Zionists attempt to paint every Palestinian as a subhuman Nazi sympathizer, the heroic contributions of the Palestinian Regiment show us that this is yet another Zionist fiction. Thousands of Palestinians risked their lives to stop the Holocaust. They fought and died alongside their Jewish comrades, a world away from their homes and families because they believed their sacrifice was worth it.
Try as they may, Zionist propaganda will never erase the gallant Palestinian Regiment.
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I had to cut some of the wartime actions of the Palestine Regiment just to keep this short, but there are some really remarkable stories out there if you're interested.
I had heard of this regiment, and of a Palestinian Arab and a Jew who fought side by side and were best friends. Stories like these should be much better known; they point the way to a possible future. Thank you!