Muhammad al-Halabi

Summary

Arab secretary of the Palestine Labor League’s Haifa branch who in September 1945 publicly dissociated the PLL from George Nassar’s pro-Zionist stance, was dismissed shortly thereafter, and by November had proclaimed his allegiance to the Palestine Arab Workers Society (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3539).

In September 1945 al-Halabi and three colleagues wrote to the Chief Secretary of the government of Palestine, with copies to international trade union organisations, dissociating themselves from the pro-Zionist stance George Nassar had adopted in the PLL’s name at the London international trade union conference in February 1945, declaring that “the Palestine Labour League do not agree that Palestine should become a Jewish National Home” and protesting “the trick done by the Arab Labour section in the Histadruth” in sending Nassar and Muhammad al-Hajj in the PLL’s name (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3539).
The letter seems to have cost al-Halabi his job: he was dismissed shortly thereafter, accused by the Arab Department of financial irregularities, although that charge may have been raised to deflect political embarrassment; by November he had publicly proclaimed his allegiance to the PAWS (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3541).

tags
aliases