(Ynet News) Ben-Dror Yemini - Does the fact that thousands of Palestinian Arabs enlisted in the British Army in World War II prove that only a tiny minority of Palestinians backed the Nazis? Israeli researcher Yoni Rainey claims it doesn't. In his books - Closed Case and The Hidden Side of Nazism and the Holocaust - he claims that 9,000 Palestinian and Jordanian Arabs did enlist in the British Army during the war (in comparison with 27,000 Jews). But from the moment it became evident that the Germans may pass through Egypt and reach Palestine in spring 1942, Palestinian Arabs switched sides. About 78% of the Arab volunteers deserted the British army, often stealing weapons for the purpose of helping the Germans fight the Jews when the time came. Additionally, a survey in 1941 showed that 88% of Palestinian Arabs supported Nazi Germany, while only 9% backed the British Mandate. If the war would have ended with a German victory, no Nakba would have taken place. Rather, the extermination of all Jews in the Mideast would have commenced.
2022-05-19 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive