Summary
The Arab foreman in the Palestine Railways freight car (“wagonage”) department who was among the first Arab railway workers contacted by the Jewish railway union and, with ‘Ali al-Batal, attended its fifth congress in September 1923 as the first Arab observers (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 1440, 1446).
Details
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Al-Asmar was contacted through the union club and Avraham Khalfon’s talks in 1923, and himself brought along ‘Ali al-Batal; their willingness to associate with Jewish unionists and advocate unionism despite management reprimands and threats signalled to rank-and-file Arab workers that involvement with the union was relatively safe (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 1440).
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At the fifth congress only five Arabs had actually joined the Haifa branch, but al-Asmar and al-Batal represented a much larger number of Haifa Arab workers in close contact with the union (line 1446).
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At the end of the January 1925 council meeting he was one of seven Arabs — five of them from Haifa — formally elected to the Union of Railway, Postal and Telegraph Workers’ central committee (line 1532).
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In Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Chapter 4: al-Asmar remained in the Jewish-led union after most Arabs left, sat on its central committee at the July 1926 Hebrew labor discussion with the Histadrut secretariat without, apparently, uttering a word — Lockman: he likely knew little if any Hebrew and “was probably invited mainly for propaganda purposes” — and was denounced as a “traitor” in ‘Id Salim Haymur’s June 1926 Filastin article, which alleged he was paid 15 piastres per Arab recruited, an allegation Lockman calls far-fetched (lines 1844, 1848-1860).
Related pages
Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Union of Railway, Postal and Telegraph Workers, Palestine Railways, ‘Ali al-Batal, Avraham Khalfon