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Faisal I (Iraq) - Arab-Jewish solidarity

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Meccan Emir Faisal ibn Hussein, one the main leaders of the Arab Revolt against Turkey during World War I, speaks of Arab-Jewish solidarity between Arab nationalists and Zionists in their mutual pursuit of self-determination at the peace conference at Versailles, France. In that year the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement was agreed to by Faisal and Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann where both men agreed to recognize an Arab state in the Arabian peninsula and the Fertile Crescent, and a Jewish state in the region of Palestine; including that the borders between the Arab state and the Jewish state would be determined by a commission. In addition all Muslim holy places within the territory of the Jewish state would remain under Muslim control.

This statement seems very strange to be said by an Arab leader by present-day awareness of the Arab-Jewish conflicts that have erupted since World War I, and especially from an Arab leader who stirred Arab nationalism into a formidable movement. However at the time the Hashemite Arab leadership of Hussein ibn Ali and his son Faisal saw Zionism as a powerful force and wanted to avoid having it drawn into the British sphere and control due to Arab intransigence. At the same time Faisal sought to maintain links with the economically influential elements of the Jewish community in Iraq and appointed the Iraqi Jewish financier Sir Sassoon Eskell to be Minister of Finance of Iraq from 1921-25.

This shows the great divide of attitude that erupted in the aftermath of World War I as division between Arab nationalists and Zionists over Palestine led to violence in the British Mandate of Palestine between two sides that by the 1930s had created strong radical factions on both sides that were opposed to the kind of compromise proposed by Faisal and Weizmann in 1919. This severe deterioration of relations and the radicalization of Arab nationalism in turn resulted in the successor Hashemite rulers such as Jordanian King Hussein supporting Arab nationalist desires for the destruction of just-founded Israel in 1948.
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PeggyArnold's avatar
Faisal was on the outside looking into Palestine. Faisal did not understand that Zionist Jews and native "Hill People," the Palestinians, had already started fighting each other in 1913. The rest as they say is history, bloody history.