The Two Arab Clans of Ottoman Empire Jerusalem; Khalidi and al-Husayni Who Still Try to End Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

                                               

Yusuf Diya al-Din Pasha al-Khalidi, approximately in the 1890s. Photo: Khalidi Library

In 1899, the sentiment of the Mayor of Jerusalem, at age 57, Yusuf Diya ali Khalidi,  wrote a letter to the Zadok Kahn, the chief rabbi of France in which he stated:

"Who can challenge the rights of the Jews in Palestine?  Good Lord!  Historically it is really your country!"  He had seen the return of Jews starting in 1880 from Eastern Europe and Russia.  At the time, the Ottoman Empire ruled the land.  

            Rabbi Zadok Kahn, Chief rabbi of France, (18 February 1839-1905) in Mommenheim, Alsace – 8 December 1905 in Paris) was an Alsatian-French rabbi and chief rabbi of France. He combatted anti- Semitism during the Dreyfus Case.   

Al-Khalidi played a key role in the opposing political factions established to prohibit the Ottoman Empire's attempts to violate the constitution. He also wrote the first Kurdish-Arabic dictionary.  From about 1517 to 1917, the Ottoman Empire ruled much of the region. When World War I ended in 1918, the British took control of Palestine and held the 30 year mandate from the League of Nations over the land.                                                             

Prof. Rashid Khalidi b:1948, writer;  His father was Ismail Khalidi.  "Rashid Ismail Khalidi is a Palestinian American historian of the Middle East, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, and director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs."  

I have Said's book and cry when I read it as there are so many errors in his knowledge.  We do not agree at all on facts.  

Editor’s Note: This excerpt from Columbia University historian Rashid Khalidi’s newly released book, “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017,” was scheduled to run in the Wall Street Journal this weekend in its Review section. On Thursday, about two months after the Journal accepted Khalidi’s excerpt for publication, an editor informed him the piece was being killed because it “felt too close to the op-ed end of the spectrum.” The Review section is part of the Journal’s newsroom, which is supposed to be independent of its opinion department, which maintains an unremittingly pro-Israel stance. Days before deciding not to publish Khalidi’s book excerpt, the Journal published an editorial that warmly praised the Trump administration’s one-sided plan for Palestine drafted by the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Asked for comment, the Journal said, “Opinion Department staff have no input into the essays run by Review’s editors. In preparing each week’s issue of Review, News Department editors have ongoing discussions to ensure that the essays in the section are differentiated from the Journal’s Opinion Department editorials and op-ed pieces. This can entail difficult editorial decisions, sometimes late in the process, as occurs in any news organization. We are pleased that Prof. Khalidi’s piece is running in The Intercept.”

In “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine,” historian Rashid Khalidi explores the early Zionists’ colonialist justifications for their claim to Palestine.

Following the Ottoman conquest in 1517, the Land was divided into four districts and attached administratively to the province of Damascus and ruled from Istanbul. 

At the outset of the Ottoman era, an estimated 1,000 Jewish families lived in the country, mainly in Jerusalem, Nablus (Shechem), Hebron, Gaza, Safed (Tzfat) and the villages of Galilee. The community was comprised of descendants of Jews who had never left the Land as well as immigrants from North Africa and Europe.

 However, Al-Khalidi then suggested that, since Palestine was already inhabited, the Zionists should find another place for the implementation of their political goals. " ... in the name of God," he wrote, "let Palestine be left alone." Kahn showed the letter to Theodore Herzl, the founder of political Zionism. 

On 19 March 1899 Theodor Herzl,  reporter and founder of Zionism who died in 1904, replied to al-Khalidi in French assuring him that, if the Zionists were not wanted in Palestine, "We will search and, believe me, we will find elsewhere what we need."  The Jewish leadership had been searching and even considered Africa.  They despaired and realized that only Israel's original site-Palestine-would do as that is what the Jewish people had been praying for 3 times a day for some past 1900 years.  

Khalidi  served as mayor of Jerusalem from the years 1870 to 1876, 1878 to 1879, and 1899 to 1906.

Al-Khalidi was born in Jerusalem in 1842 His father, Muhammad Ali al-Khalidi, served as the head of the sharia court in Jerusalem for about sixty years. Members of the Khalidi family, one of the two politically prominent, old families of the local nobility (the other being the al-Husayni clan), continuously held the office through the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the Husayni clan was larger and wealthier, the Khalidis were more united and noted for their intellect. As a teenager, al-Khalidi may have been influenced by the Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856. At the age of 17, he wrote of his thoughts about the state of the world, personal dignity and the individual's quest to become free. He viewed the Ottoman Empire as being increasingly surrounded by European powers pilfering the region of its wealth and identified the cause of the situation to be the disparity in knowledge between the region and Europe.  

Musa al-Husayni was the Mayor of Jerusalem and led the Palestinian national movement.  Musa al-Husayni was mayor of Jerusalem, 1918–1920, the time right after WWI.

                                                  

    Kamil al-Husayni was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem  1908-1921, 

The Husaynis were a major force in rebelling against Muhammad Ali who governed Egypt and Palestine in defiance of the Ottoman Empire. This solidified a cooperative relationship with the returning Ottoman authority. The clan took part in fighting the Qaisi tribe in an alliance with a rural lord of the Jerusalem area Mustafa Abu Ghosh, who clashed with the tribe frequently. The feuds gradually occurred in the city between the clan and the Khalidis that led the Qaisis, however these conflicts dealt with city positions and not Qaisi-Yamani rivalry. The Husaynis later led opposition and propaganda movements against the Young Turks who controlled the Ottoman Empire.

By the time of the British Mandate the clan had hundreds of members and its several branches encompassed thousands. They were mostly concentrated in the Old City, however a large number of clan members also lived in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah, the German Colony, Katamon, Baka and Musrara. Several members of the clan were appointed to important political positions such as Mayor and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.  Mohammed Tahir al-Husayni was Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, 1860s-1908, followed by his son Kamil al-Husayni, 1908-1921, and then another son Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, 1921-1937. The main political rivals for the clan was the Nashashibi clan of Jerusalem, especially during the Mandate period. 

                                                 

Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni led Palestinian irregular forces against the Haganah and other Jewish militias during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He died in combat in al-Qastal.

Before the formal commencement of the British Mandate, Musa and Amin al-Husayni incited the 1920 Palestine riots, resulting in many deaths. As a result, Musa was replaced as mayor by the head of the rival Nashashibi clan. Amin al-Husayni and Aref al-Aref were arrested, but when they were let out on bail they both escaped to Syria. A military court sentenced Amin in absentia to 10 years imprisonment, and he failed to qualify for a general amnesty in early 1921 because of his absence.   

                      

Mohammad Amin al-Husayni(1893-1974)  was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and President of the Supreme Muslim Council.  Haj Mohammad Amin al-Husseini /Husayni was also the Sherif of Jerusalem and also called the "Grand Mufti from  1921-1937.  

In1921, the  High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, an English Jew, appointed him as mufti of Jerusalem and head of the Supreme Moslem Council.  In 1936, as chairman of the Arab Supreme Council, he organized the Palestine disturbances for which he was sentenced to exile in 1937.  He fled to  Lebanon and during WWII, participated in Rashid Ali's pro-Axis coup in Iraq before going to Europe, where he assisted Hitler and was largely responsible for the liquidation of the Jews in the Moslem areas of Bosnia.  In 1946, he escaped to Egypt.  After 1948 and the birth of Israel, he set up a short-lived "Palestine Government in Gaza, and then later in Cairo.  

This same Husayni (Arabic: الحسيني‎ also spelled Husseini) is of a prominent Palestinian Arab clan formerly based in Jerusalem, which claims descent from Husayn ibn Ali (the son of Ali).  

Husayn ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib (Arabic: ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱبْن أَبِي طَالِب‎, romanized: Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlīy ibn ʾAbī Ṭālib‎; 10 January AD 626 – 10 October 680) was a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a son of Ali ibn Abi Talib (the fourth caliph of Sunni Muslims and the first imam of Shia Muslims) and Muhammad's daughter Fatimah. He is an important figure in Islam as he was a member of the Household of Muhammad (Ahl al-Bayt) and the People of the Cloak (Ahl al-Kisā'), as well as the third Shia Imam.

                                                       

      Battle of Karbala, (October 10, 680 [10th of Muḥarram, AH 61]), brief military engagement in which a small party led by al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and son of ʿAlī, the fourth caliph, was defeated and massacred by an army sent by the Umayyad caliph Yazīd I.

The deep history of the family and Muhammad goes like this:  Prior to his death, the Umayyad ruler Mu'awiya appointed his son Yazid as his successor, contrary to the Hasan-Muawiya treaty. When Muawiya died in 680, Yazid demanded that Husayn pledge allegiance to him. Husayn refused to pledge allegiance to Yazid, even though it meant sacrificing his life. 

As a consequence, he left Medina, his hometown, to take refuge in Mecca in AH 60. There, the people of Kufa sent letters to him, asking his help and pledging their allegiance to him. So Husayn  traveled towards Kufa along with a small caravan of his relatives and followers, after getting some favorable indications, but near Karbala his caravan was intercepted by Yazid's army. He was killed and beheaded in the Battle of Karbala on 10 October 680 (10 Muharram 61 AH) by Yazid, along with most of his family and companions, including Husayn's six-month old son, Ali al-Asghar, with the women and children taken as prisoners. Anger at Husayn's death was turned into a rallying cry that helped undermine the Umayyad caliphate's legitimacy, and ultimately its overthrow by the Abbasid Revolution.

The story of Husayn has been a strong source of inspiration for Shi'i revolutionary movements, justifying their own resistance against unjust authority. In the course of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran against the Pahlavi dynasty, Shi'i beliefs and symbols were instrumental in orchestrating and sustaining widespread popular resistance with Husayn's story providing a framework for labeling as evil and reacting against the Pahlavi Shah.

Religion matters very much even among the many followers of Muhammad in that they don't all agree in the protocals, anymore than all Christians are in agreement or even all Jews.  The Khalidi and Husayn clans in Palestine were like 2 competitor royalty lines for power.  

The Husaynis follow the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam, in contrast to the Shafi school followed by most of the Arab Muslim population of Palestine.Jordan also follows the Sunni-Shafti'i besides Djibouti, Brunei and the Maldives.

Lebanon follows Sunni Hanafi/Jafari;  Egypt is Sunni/Shafti'i, Iraq is mixed 

Shi'a/Sunni-Jafari/Hanafi; and Syria is mixed Sunni/Shi'a-Hanafi/Alevi

In order to know what makes the Palestinian mind tick, we need to know their back-

ground as much as possible; family history, religion, education, the works.  These 2

clan families held some power over the Palestinians, and they enjoyed it.  When we

Jews entered the field of their great opportunity, that was someone to fight, and 

they haven't yet stopped.  Mohammad Amin al-Husayni was the worst.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yousef_al-Khalidi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husayn_ibn_Ali

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Husayni_family

https://theintercept.com/2020/02/01/hundred-years-war-palestine-book-rashid-khalidi/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zadoc_Kahn

https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/palestine#:~:text=From%20about%201517%20to%201917,British%20took%20control%20of%20Palestine.

Brigitte Gabriel Calls Rashid Khalidi on Translation of Sura From Quran On Beheading

Nadene Goldfoot                                                            

                                                          Professor  Rashid Khalidi

In 1982 I was in Safed, Israel during the Lebanon War.  In fact, I was in the Army Hospital in Haifa to find out about when pins would be removed from my elbow when I noticed that the hospital was almost empty.  They were getting ready for battle-injuries.  I wound up baking cakes to feed our IDF who would be reporting to their posts by walking or hitch-hiking.  My husband and I had made aliyah in 1980 and were in Israel as  immigrants  from Oregon.  My Jewish paternal grandfather was born in Telsiai, Lithuania and my grandmother from Suwalki, Poland/Lithuania.  I come from a Jewish family.

At the very same time, Rashid Khalidi, Muslim,  was in Lebanon. He has just agreed with his friend,  Obama,  in that IS is not Islam by reading a translation of the Quran over PBS.     Khalidi became politically active in Beirut, where he resided through the 1982 Lebanon War.  He was teaching at a Lebanese University, possibly AUB (American University of Beirut) .  New York City born in  1948, he is the son of a Saudi citizen who says he has Palestinian origins and was born in Jerusalem and was a worker for the UN.

Rashid's father was  Ismail Ragib Khalidi, who was born on 13 November 1916 –died  2 September 1968)  was a senior political affairs officer for the United Nations Department of Political Affairs.    He was the brother of Husayin al-Khalidi .  Husayn Fakhri al-Khalidi  1895–26 December 1966) was born in Jerusalem like his brother. He worked as medical doctor for the Department of Public Health in Aleppo, Syria.   Husayin al-Khalidi was mayor of Jerusalem from 1934 to 1937.   The  Khalidi father and uncle were born in Jerusalem, then still part of the Ottoman Empire.

 Though a Saudi citizen, the question arises as to why Ismail and Husayin  were born in Jerusalem.  Many Arabs had come into Palestine looking for work from the Jews.  His father could have been one of them.  It's rare that any Palestinian is accepted as a citizen of another Arab country, so I doubt if this happened and Ismail moved to Saudi Arabia and became a citizen.  More likely their parents came from Saudi Arabia to Palestine  looking for work and education.  

Ismail  Khalidi attended St. George's School, Jerusalem and the Arab College (Jerusalem) (1927-1936). In 1939, he received his B.A.in political science from the American University of Beirut. "   Israel became a state on May 14, 1948.  Khalidi also served as the Assistant Editor, Middle East Desk, United States Office of War Information from 1942–44 and the Secretary of the Institute of the Arab American Affairs, from 1945-48. He was a member of the UN for 19 years, joining originally as a radio announcer He died on 2 September 1968 at the age of 51 in Beirut, Lebanon

 Rashid's  mother was born in the USA of  Lebanese parents..  Khalidi attended the UN International school.   He serves as the  Edward Said   Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University.   Khalidi  is a strong Palestinian activist and blames America and Israel for all the Middle East problems which isn't surprising.   He's also a big time supporter and associate of  America's president, Barack Obama.  To be criticizing the USA and a friend of its president is certainly contrary.  I cannot say he is a Palestinian, though.  Being his father was in Jerusalem while working for the UN does not make his father a Palestinian. His father, Ismail Khalidi and his brother, Husayin al-Khalidi were Saudis.

Obama was heard on TV to say in a speech that IS is not Islamic.  Khalidi has been backing him up on this.  On a PBS segment Khalidi gave an explanation of Sura 47, verse 4 of the Quran where Khalidi says does not justify beheadings.  Khalidi and Obama are saying that IS is not following the Islamic law.
                                                                     

He has been called on this by Brigitte Gabriel, founder and president of Act for America.  She's one of the leading national security experts in the world on the rise of Islamic terrorism. 

"Brigitte Gabriel, Christian,  is an American journalist, author, social commentator and activist.  Gabriel says that Islam keeps countries backward, and that it teaches terrorism.  She should know, because she was born in Lebanon to Maronite Christian parents as Nour Saman on October 21, 1964.  .  .
                                                               
She was in Lebanon  at the same time that I was in Israel and Rashid was in Lebanon.  She was there before, during the Lebanese Civil War where Islamic militants launched an attack on the Lebanese military base near her family's house and destroyed it when Gabriel was 10 years old in 1974.  She suffered from being hit by shrapnel during this attack.  The family was forced to live underground in all that remained which turned out to be like an 8 by 10 foot  bomb shelter for 7 years.  All they had was a small kerosene heater, no sanitary supplies, no electricity or running water and little food.  She had to crawl in a ditch along the road to get spring water as she had to evade Muslim snipers.  So, in 1978, 2 years before I moved to Israel, her family was warned of an impending attack by the Islamic militias on all Christians.  

Her life was saved when the Israeli army invaded Lebanon in Operation Litani in 1982.  Her mother was seriously injured later and taken to an Israeli hospital.  She was amazed that Israelis showed such care and humanity for them which was the opposite of the propaganda she had heard about Jews when she was a little girl.  Israel's border with Lebanon had been protected by Major Hadad and his men, of the Christian Maronites.  Israel had a deal with him to take in his family if, G-d forbid, anything happened to him.  

Brigitte speaks Arabic, French, English and Hebrew.  She  reads Arabic being it was the language used in Lebanon and has studied the Quran.  She finds that this paragraph of Sura 47 verse 4 was not read entirely for the PBS audience and is not what most Qurans says.  She gives us the translation from the Quran published in Saudi Arabia:
                                                                          

"So, when you meet (in fight-Jihad in Allah's cause) those who disbelieve, smite (their) necks till when you have KILLED (emphasis added) and wounded many of them, then bind a bond firmly (on them, i.e.take them captives.).  Thereafter (is the time) either for generosity (i.e. free them without ransom), or ransom (according to what benefits Islam), until the war lays down its burden.  Thus (you are ordered by Allah to continue in carrying out Jihad against the disbelievers till they embrace Islam and are saved from the punishment in the Hell-fire or at least come under your protection.),  but if it had been Allah's will, He Himself could certainly have punished them (without you).  But (He lets you fight) in order to test some of you with others.  But those who are killed in the Way of Allah,  He will never let their deeds be lost."  

She notes that the word, KILLED is pretty important and is in this Quran in 47/4.  Khalidi evidently did not use this word in the reading which caught Brigitte's attention.  He's trying to downplay the proper translation as a defense for Islam's terroristic directions.   I note that the paragraph does not say you have to behead ALL of them or kill all of them in battle, but taking prisoners is allowed.  I don't believe IS has been doing this from the TV pictures of long lineups of Iraqi soldiers  killed.  But it certainly does allow for beheading and why not?  When the Quran was written, beheadings were the usual thing done by Islam.  

Khalidi has stated that there is a legal right under international law for Palestinians to resist Israeli "Occupation" of which is an untruth in itself.  Israel is not "occupying Gaza."  Israelis, according to international law, have a right to live in Judea and Samaria, and that is not "occupying."  

Khalidi gave a speech to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and said that killing civilians is a war crime.  It's a violation of international law.  (This is exactly what Palestinian Hamas has been doing to Israel which is what caused Israel to finally go into Gaza a month ago).  However, Khalidi was not talking about Israel's woes.  He was using this reference to defend Palestinians.  The New York Sun editorial caught this and criticized him for it as he did not distinguish between Palestinian combatants and noncombatants and was implying that all Palestinians have this right to resist.  This turns out to be incorrect under international law.

.  Khalidi was an opposer of the Iraq War March 19, 2003 to May 1, 2003 was the beginning.   The U.S. completed its withdrawal of military personnel in December 2011, during the ninth year of the war.^] However, the insurgency is ongoing and continues to cause thousands of fatalities. Khalidi  has been telling Obama that we owe reparations to the Iraqi people.  Here we are fighting IS now from the sky over Iraq and Syria.  

What Brigitte may not have known is the tie Rashid Khalidi has to Jerusalem, causing him as an Arab to be highly motivated to defend the Palestinians and their behaviors since Netanyahu has said there's little difference between Hamas terrorists and IS.  I wonder if Obama knows of his family's  connections.  

 "In Brigitte's view, Palestinian nationalism has largely been replaced by "holy obligation" motivating adherents to commit "terrorist murder.   She states that the legitimization of Palestinian suicide attacks within Israel has now evolved to where, "Islamists believe that they may commit mass murder anywhere in the world to advance their holy cause." As a result, she believes the world now suffers "from a plague of Islamic terrorism... authored and perfected by the Palestinians."

With regard to the two-state solution, Gabriel states: "Forcing Israel to accept a two-state solution is not going to work unless the Palestinians first are forced to clean up their act and eliminate hatred from their schoolbooks, teach tolerance to their people, and preach acceptance of Israel and the Jews as a neighbor."  This has been my thoughts, exactly.  Thank you Brigitte.  

Resource:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashid_Khalidi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigitte_Gabriel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismail_Khalidi