Blast from the past: 80 years ago

The more things change, the more they stay the same

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The Sydney Jewish News⁩, 2 May 1947⁩

The Arab Killer-Nazi and the General.

By Our Special Correspondent, SOLOMON ITZHAKI (Jerusalem).

A few days after General Barker’s departure from Palestine, there was a new guest at the Lydda airfield named Fawzi Kawkadji.

* * *

The skies of Eretz Israel still remain heavily clouded, while the name of two “stars” suddenly appeared before the astonished Yishuv: the well-known and “glorious” General Evelyn Barker, G.O.C. British Army in Palestine “unvisibly” left the country, while only a few days later, another “glorious” personality touched the earth of the Holy Land—the famous Arab-killer Nazi, the enemy of Britain and Russia and of the Jews (of course) Fawzi Kawkadji arrived by plane directly from Paris to Lydda, and he, too, was “unvisible” to British detectives and C.I.D. officials, who are great experts in hunting illegals… Kawkadji was certainly an illegal passenger: he reached Palestine without a British visa, but—he is not a Jewish refugee, who escaped the crematories and the gallows: Fawzi wass a killer-Nazi and seemingly he is not considered as dangerous as the unhappy Jewish refugee. This unhappy Jewish refugee… If he dies before discovering his dreamland, his Eretz Israel, the powers will be grateful to him, because he brought relief to the international problem. And if, he dares take his fate into his own hands and strives to reach the country of his longings without a certificate—the mighty machinery of the British power wll rise against him and hunt him down on land sea and in the air and finally he will be deported to another camp in Cyprus.
He is suspected of communist or terrorist activities and “anti-British tendences in general” and his presece is unde sirable everywhere.

PROFESSIONAL TROUBLE MAKER.

But Kawkadji was an Arab refugee, a professional instigator and rebel and a sworn enemy of Britain. He didn’t worry. Many loyal friends were on his side, aeroplanes will bring him to his place of destination and certificates will not be lacking, Yes, the unbelievable has happened: Fawzi Kawkadji the ringleader of the Arab gangs in Palestine in 1936-39, the accomplice of the Iraqi Nazi-leader Rashid Ali who started the rebellion against the Allied Powers in 1941, the faithful satellite of Hitler until the collapse of thes Third Reich—has been released by the Russians in whose detention he has been, firstly in Sophia then in Berlin, the French Secret Service delivered a passport to him, they allowed him to leave France by air for the Middle East, and he has not been arrested by the British when the plane landed in the Lydda airfield before the very eyes of His Majesty’s mighty army.

SYRIAN, NOT PALESTINIAN.

Kawadji is an “old glory.” Already in 1925 he practised in inciting rebellions when he organised an uprising against the French administration in Syria, his birthplace. Following the defeat of that uprising he escaped to Baghdad, where he deliberated as to how to return and renew the activities against the French. It was easy to prepare anti-French movements in Iraq, where the British are the sole rulers… But the French were careful and Kawkadji’s movement has been abated.
Then he found another sphere of action: Palestine.

At the outbreak of the bloody Arab disturbances aiming at the killing of Englishmen and of Jews he became the head of the gangs, and directed their activities until 1939. Jewish “Haganah” members under the leadership of the unforgotten Charles Ord-Wingate, finally got him: the rebel’s camp was cordoned off, by the British Jewish Army, however for reasons which are unclear to this day the iron ring was not closed and Kawkadji again succeeded in escaping to Baghdad.

In Iraq he was one of the most ferocious anti-British fighters, under the orders of the famous Nazi-agent Dr. Grubbe[a], but during an open battle near the Iraqi capital he was wounded and transported by a special plane of the German Embassy to Berlin.

His activities during the war years are well known, he was the aide-de-camp of the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, he went to Yugoslavia and Bulgaria to mobilize Moslem citizens of these countries against Russia and Great Britain, he spoke tens of times on the Nazi radio calling the Arab world to rise up against “British Imperialism and Bolshevist Judaism”; he became a bemedalled SS-man and got even a Nazi wife.

What’s going on behind that international story the hero of which is Fawzi Kawkadji? Whom will he serve at present? The Russians, the French, the British?
In any case, with the arrival of Kawkadji in the neighbourhood of Palestine ,the list of the Arab ‘ leaders who, during the war, were engaged in hostile activities aga inst the Allied Nations, has been completed…

The British could easily arrest him. There is no doubt, that he IS one of the great war-criminals, but—the official communique of, the Palestine Government naivelyI stated today:
“Fawzi Kawkadji regretfully escaped the vigilance of the Palestine Frontier Control…”

BARKER’S FRIENDSHIP FOR NAZIS.

On the other hand, you may be told in Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv: “Don’t worry, Kawkadji isn’t as dangerous as… General Barker. And the General has already left, Baruch Ha’shem.”
Because, among all those who headed the British administration for the last thirty years there has been no person whose principal line in his relation to the Yishuv was that of hatred to Jews, racial hatred of the notorious type.
Gen. Barker was known here even prior to his arrival. His excessive friendship for the Nazis in Germany, in Schleswig-Holstein, and his spiritual intimacy with the Nazis reached a stage which compelled the Danish press to demand his removal. This was the spiritual preparation which brought him to the country of, Jewish National Home. A few months after his arrival he staged the “Black Sabbath” of June 25th. All the acts committed by the British troops against the Yishuv were largely due to his plans. The attempt to destroy the Jewish political representation, the desire to disgrace it by seizing its premises, the attempt to desrtroy the Jewish defensive force.