Summary
Haifa’s oldest Arabic newspaper, strongly anti-Zionist, edited by Najib Nassar, which sympathised with the October 1925 carpenters’ and tailors’ demands while warning the strikers against a Zionist trap, hosted the negotiations that settled the strike, and hoped trade “guilds” would block Zionist involvement in Arab workers’ affairs (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 998-1004).
Details
- Al-Karmil declared during the strike: “We fear,” al-Karmil declared, “that the purpose of inducing the Arab workers to strike is (1) to incite them to rebellion; (2) to cause a disturbance in the business activity of Arab enterprises; (3) to raise prices so that it will be easier for Jewish goods to combat and compete with the Arabs and take jobs from them” (line 998; Chapter 2 note 41, citing Al-Karmil, October 10, 1925).
- Lockman reads the paper’s turn to labour affairs as an effect of its anti-Zionism rather than of concern for social justice: Haifa’s conservative Arab bourgeoisie was pushed toward interest in the emerging Palestinian working class chiefly by fear that Zionists would capitalise on class conflict within the Arab community (line 1004).
- The Arabic term al-Karmil used for “guild” was niqaba, by then the standard Egyptian term for a labour union, in Palestine still apparently retaining older guild connotations (Chapter 2 note 44, citing Al-Karmil, October 21, 1925).
Related pages
Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, General Workers’ Club, Haifa, Filastin