Muslim National Associations

The Muslim National Associations (MNA) was an organization established in the 1920s by Arabs who were employed by the Palestine Zionist Executive and organised by Chaim Margalioth Kalvarisky. The president of the Muslim National Associations was Hassan Bey Shukri, who founded the organization with Sheikh Musa Hadeib from the village of Dawaymeh near Hebron and head of the farmers' party of Mount Hebron.^[1][2] According to the Israeli historian Benny Morris, the organization was formed as a counterweight to the Muslim-Christian associations that were hotbeds of anti-Zionist nationalist agitation.^[3]

In July 1921, Shukri, who was the mayor of Haifa, sent the following telegram to the British government, declaring support for the Balfour Declaration and Zionist immigration to British Mandate Palestine:

We strongly protest against the attitude of the said delegation concerning the Zionist question. We do not consider the Jewish people as an enemy whose wish is to crush us. On the contrary. We consider the Jews as a brotherly people sharing our joys and troubles and helping us in the construction of our common country. We are certain that without Jewish immigration and financial assistance there will be no future development of our country as may be judged from the fact that the towns inhabited in part by Jews such as Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, and Tiberias are making steady progress while Nablus, Acre, and Nazareth where no Jews reside are steadily declining.^[1]

In 1936, explosives were planted at the home of Hassan Shukri. He escaped without injury, but several months later an Arab fired four shots at Shukri as he entered the Haifa City Hall. While the assassination attempt failed, Shukri was shaken and fled to Beirut. When Shukri died on January 29, 1940, many of Haifa’s Jewish leaders attended his funeral.^[4]

In 1929, Sheikh Musa Hadeib was murdered in Jerusalem for collaborating with the Zionists.^[5] His murderers were never apprehended, but both his family and the Zionist Executive claimed that the followers of Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem and the leader of the Arab National movement, were responsible.^[5][2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Cohen, Hillel Army of Shadows: Palestinian collaboration with Zionism, 1917-1948. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. p. 15-17
2. ^ ^{a b} Shadowplays, by Neve Gordon, The Nation, March 24, 2008
3. ^ The Tangled Truth, By Benny Morris, The New Republic; 7/5/08^{[clarification needed]}
4. ^ Paraszczuk, Joanna "Melting pot on the mountain". Jerusalem Post, 12/03/2010^{[clarification needed]}
5. ^ ^{a b} Cohen, Hillel Army of Shadows: Palestinian collaboration with Zionism, 1917-1948. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. p. 59