Summary
League leader in Nazareth who, in Manna’s account, headed the delegation that offered cooperation to Minister Bechor Shitrit after Nazareth’s occupation and led the League’s work organising Arab labour under the military governor (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.134-135).
Details
- Khamis was at the top of the list of League members arrested by the Arab Rescue Army in Nazareth on 12 July 1948 and quickly freed after intervention by the al-Fahum family and the poet Abd al-Rahim Mahmud (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.133-134).
- Heading the League delegation to Shitrit, Khamis’s members told the minister the Jews should rely not on old collaborators but on ‘the popular forces’ like the League; Shitrit promised nothing would prevent League activities in Nazareth (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.134).
- Under Khamis the League organised Arab workers to cultivate refugees’ fields and orchards in cooperation with the military governor and the trustee of absentee property, expanding its membership and influence (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.135).
- About two weeks after Nazareth’s fall, Khamis relayed to Hanna Abu Hanna a proposal for the League to participate in ousting the Arab Rescue Army from the Galilee and asked for a list of about thirty young men; a month later he said the subject was closed (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.139-140).
- Israeli authorities gave Khamis a pistol and a car for his sole use, privileges then granted only to Israeli authorities and major collaborators such as Sayf al-Din al-Zu’bi; he kept the pistol after the war ended in 1949 (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.140).
Related pages
Nakba and Survival, National Liberation League, Maki, Nazareth, Bechor Shitrit