Summary
Organisation formed in 1939 by liberal professionals and intellectuals together with several Po’alei Tziyon Smol leaders to promote mutual understanding and political compromise between Jews and Arabs; Hashomer Hatza’ir formally joined it in 1942 (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 3273, 3315).
Details
- In 1939 a group of liberal professionals and intellectuals, together with several Po’alei Tziyon Smol leaders, formed the League to promote mutual understanding and political compromise. In 1942 Hashomer Hatza’ir formally joined, adding the weight of its Hakibbutz Ha’artzi federation — over forty kibbutzim with more than 7,500 members — and of its urban sister party, the Socialist League (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3273).
- Aharon Cohen pressed his movement’s leadership to have Hashomer Hatza’ir formally join the League, which he saw as the vehicle through which the forces within the Yishuv that opposed MAPAI’s demand for Jewish statehood could coalesce into an effective counterweight and develop alliances with like-minded elements within the Arab community. When Hashomer Hatza’ir joined in June 1942, Cohen became the League’s most vigorous and outspoken activist (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3315).
- Moshe Shertok, director of the Jewish Agency’s Political Department, wrote to the League declaring that in the transition from a Jewish minority to a majority “not the Arabs but the British and the Americans will be the decisive factors” and “It is not the Arabs who will have the final word” (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 3317-3321).
- Cohen promoted ‘Abd Allah al-Bandaq to his colleagues in Hashomer Hatza’ir, the League and the Histadrut’s Arab Department as the prototype of a new breed of leftist but noncommunist Arab activist with whom left-wing Zionism could find common ground (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3367).
Related pages
Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Hashomer Hatza’ir, Aharon Cohen, Po’alei Tziyon Smol, ‘Abd Allah al-Bandaq, Mapai