Summary
The young Arab tailor employed by the Histadrut in 1925 as Avraham Khalfon’s full-time assistant in organising Haifa’s Arab workers, who co-led the October 1925 carpenters’ and tailors’ strike, was denounced by Arab nationalists as a lackey and traitor, and remained the Histadrut’s only available Arab organiser through 1929 (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 990, 1010-1012, 1082).
Details
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Hassun, said to be originally from Transjordan and the son of a Protestant minister, had sought to organise Haifa workers, especially porters, before frequenting the railway workers’ club and developing ties with Po’alei Tziyon Smol activists; an effective speaker with a good sense of humour, he was hired at £E8 a month (line 990).
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Berl Repetur — who would decades later serve as general secretary of the Histadrut but at the time was a young man working at the port of Haifa — recalls in his memoir Hassun embarrassing Jewish colleagues with exaggerated praise of what Zionism had done for Palestine’s Arabs; among Jews he was jokingly called “the Histadrut’s goy” (line 990; Chapter 2 note 40).
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At the Histadrut’s third congress in July 1927 Hassun, claiming to speak for the Histadrut-organised Haifa Arab workers, praised the Histadrut’s selfless assistance and declared that “the Arab worker has no one to depend on except the Hebrew worker” — rhetoric Lockman calls predictable from a Histadrut employee (line 1056).
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After Khalfon left in 1927 Hassun remained in charge of the General Workers’ Club amid large debts and a precarious job; in spring 1929 the Histadrut secretariat resolved to seek funds to clear his debts and resume work among Arabs, Hassun being the only candidate available, loyal and experienced despite officials’ scepticism about his capabilities and suspicion of his Smol links — but the decision was not followed by action (lines 1012, 1082).
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In Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Chapter 4, ‘Id Salim Haymur’s June 4, 1926 Filastin article alleged Hassun and Ibrahim al-Asmar were paid 15 piastres for each Arab worker they recruited for the Jewish-led union — an allegation Lockman calls far-fetched (lines 1848-1850).
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In Chapter 5’s opening, Hassun reopened the Haifa Arab workers’ club in fall 1930, insisting its Histadrut connection be kept secret, urged the January 1930 Arab workers’ congress organisers to avoid politics, and as club secretary deliberately excluded unskilled workers, with officials’ endorsement; the club claimed 138 members in February 1931 (lines 2248, 2252-2268).
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Chapter 5’s continuation gives Hassun’s end at the Histadrut: by late 1931 the Haifa club was barely operating and leaders questioned its value; Abba Hushi saw Hassun as an ineffective and expensive “legacy” who would have to go if Hushi’s strategy of mobilising Arab workers into Histadrut-linked unions was adopted. Hassun wrote frequent letters complaining he had received no funds for months, could not pay the club’s rent, electric bills or caretaker, and had borrowed heavily to keep it open, pleading for its debts to be paid and the club closed so he could reopen his tailor’s shop and feed his family; by spring 1932 he charged in a letter to Ben-Tzvi that Hushi had publicly threatened to beat him up if he persisted in demanding to see the club’s accounts — “this is our reward after ten years work, and after sacrificing youth and family on the altar of the Histadruth viz;—in old age there springs up a foolish fellow from the Histadruth threatening to beat and disgrace us” [as printed]. Ben-Gurion and Ben-Tzvi sided with Hushi; Hassun was dismissed as club secretary in June 1932, and what became of him after that is unknown. Eliyahu Agassi replaced him as the Histadrut’s organiser of Arab workers (lines 2301-2332).
Related pages
Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Avraham Khalfon, Histadrut, General Workers’ Club, Haifa, Abba Hushi, Eliyahu Agassi