Al-Futuwwah (Arabic: فتوة - "The Youth" or "The Brotherhood") was the youth organisation of the Palestine Arab Party in Palestine. The organisation was created in February 1936 by the al-Husseinis to counteract their rivals' al-Nashashibis National Defense Party. It was, to some extent, modelled on the Hitler Youth organisation in Germany.[1]

Origins

The Palestine Arab Party was founded at a congress in March 1935, when Jamal al-Husayni was elected President.[2] One of the tasks pursued by the heads of the Party was to create a youth branch; scouts of young Palestinians who participated in the political feuds of the time.[3][2] This was actively pursued by the General Secretary Emil Ghuri, who at first tried to work through the Boy Scouts, later creating a separate organisation. For a short time they called themselves the "Nazi Scouts" and then renamed it to al-Futuwwah, meaning 'chivalry' in Arabic.[2]

At the founding meeting on February 11, 1936, Jamal al-Husayni noted that Hitler's followers had grown in number from six to six hundred to sixty million and expressed the hope that al-Futuwwah would also be a nucleus of national resurrection.[2] The following credo was adopted:

Liberty is my right; Independence is my goal; Arabism is my principle; Palestine is my country and mine only. This I attest and God is a witness to my words.[2]

Later developments

Al-Futuwwa was broken up by the British in 1937 during the Arab Revolt.[4] It was re-established in September 1946 and Kamil Arikat was made its commander.[4] Its main task was to support the leadership of Jamal al-Husayni by opposing al-Najjada.[5] Its members wore uniforms and had superficial military training, with estimates of their strength ranging from 2,000 to 5,000, not existing as a signifiance force in the Palestinian political sphere.[4][6] An official merger of al-Futuwwa and al-Najjada was announced later that year, but in practice they continued to operate separately.[4] For al-Najjada and al-Futuwwa, by the summer of 1947 they were already dispersed as any serious militant organization.[7]

References

  1. ^ "Righteous victims: a history of the Zionist-Arab conflict, 1881-1999". p.124. Benny Morris, Random House, Inc. 1999
  2. ^ a b c d e Porath 1977, pp. 75–76.
  3. ^ Degani, Arnon (2014). "They Were Prepared: The Palestinian Arab Scout Movement 1920-1948". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 41 (2): 200–218. doi:10.1080/13530194.2014.884316. ISSN 1353-0194. JSTOR 43917060. S2CID 144716358.
  4. ^ a b c d Eliezer Tauber (2008). "The Army of Sacred Jihad". Israel Affairs. 14 (3): 419–445. doi:10.1080/13537120802127705. S2CID 145365150.
  5. ^ Tauber, Eliezer (2015). "The Arab Military Force in Palestine Prior to the Invasion of the Arab Armies, 1945–1948". Middle Eastern Studies. 51 (6): 953. doi:10.1080/00263206.2015.1044896. ISSN 0026-3206. JSTOR 24585912. S2CID 143058885.
  6. ^ Anderson 2013, pp. 318–319"As discussed above, the occasional admiration shown by Palestinians for the Nazis, perhaps especially in majlisi [supporter of the al-Husseini family] circles, was based more in a simplistic geopolitical reading that followed the slogan, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” than any deeper affiliation with the German regime. Indeed, the CID [Criminal Investigation Department] seemed to acknowledge the weakness of the feared linkage between Palestinians interested in paramilitary activity and their would-be European sources of inspiration when it referred “for want of a better name” to armed groups forming in Palestine in late 1935 as “Fascist-Nazi.” In the case of the PAP’s [Palestine Arab Party] youth wing, probably as pro-German a force as existed in Palestine at the time, it should be considered that for all of the terrible rhetorical bluster that accompanied it, its links to the German regime were insubstantial and inconsequential, and its operational influences derived, as suggested above, more closely from the example of local Zionist youth mobilization. In the event, the Futuwwah were a marginal body within the Palestinian political scene."
  7. ^ Tauber, Eliezer (2015). "The Arab Military Force in Palestine Prior to the Invasion of the Arab Armies, 1945–1948". Middle Eastern Studies. 51 (6): 955–956. doi:10.1080/00263206.2015.1044896. ISSN 0026-3206. JSTOR 24585912. S2CID 143058885.

Further reading

Tauber, Eliezer (November 2015). "The Arab Military Force in Palestine Prior to the Invasion of the Arab Armies, 1945–1948". Middle Eastern Studies. 51 (6): 950–985. doi:10.1080/00263206.2015.1044896. JSTOR 24585912. S2CID 143058885 – via JSTOR.

Anderson, Charles W. (September 2013). From Petition to Confrontation: The Palestinian National Movement and the Rise of Mass Politics, 1929-1939 (Thesis). New York University. ProQuest 1468938822.

Porath, Yehoshua (1977). The Palestinian Arab National Movement: From Riots to Rebellion. Vol. 2. Frank Cass. ISBN 9780714630700.

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