Issam Khalidi
Introduction
Despite the fact that the relationship between the British
and Zionist communities in Palestine is often viewed as purely political, there
are also other factors that contributed significantly to this relationship
between the two communities. These include economics, culture, education,
sports, all of which had a significant impact on the development of this
relationship between these two communities. The cooperation in sports was part of the multilateral
British support which was aimed to establish the Jewish National Home in
Palestine. Sporting
relations between the two communities evolved throughout different stages
according to political situations. However, in spite of the fact that
there were fights took place between the Jewish and British teams on the court
and terrorist activities carried out by the Zionist paramilitary gangs between
1946 and 1948 against the British, the relationship between British and Jewish
sports organizations in general was very friendly and a very generous support
was provided to Jewish sports organizations on a regular basis.
There was a common ground that laid the foundation for the British Zionist collaboration. It was based on the fact that the British Empire was a colonial power, and Zionism was the ideology of a Jewish colonial settler nationalist movement. It was aimed at colonizing Palestine and cleansing it of its Palestinian inhabitants. Between Zionism and the West there was and still a community of language and of ideology; Arabs were not part of this community. [1] In the Mandate years, both the British colonizers and the Zionists therefore tried to justify their actions by denying Palestinian cultural development and caricaturing Palestinians as backwards and uncivilized.[2] Additionally, both of them held negative and inferior views of Arabs in Palestine and the region.
In Palestine, the British sought to shape the political future of the country in accordance with the Balfour Declaration which called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” This Declaration was the cornerstone of this cooperation which the British made as their basic ground to the ‘Judaization’ of Palestine.[3] All of the British high commissioners who served in Palestine were ardent supporters of Zionism and the Jewish National Home during their tenure in Palestine. A number of the political, economic, and administrative measures taken by Herbert Samuel (the first British High Commissioner of Palestine) during his time in Palestine were meant to lay the groundwork not only for the establishment of a Jewish national home promised by the Balfour Declaration and the provisions of the Mandate, but also for the establishment of a fully functional Jewish state under the Balfour Declaration.[4]
This essay
examines relations between the British Mandate in Palestine and the Jewish
sports organizations and illustrates how political conditions could have
a significant impact on British Jewish sports relations and facilitate them at
the same time. Further, this paper demonstrates that the
growth of Jewish sports was influenced by the support they received from the
British government.
Keywords: British Mandate,
Zionist, sports, Arab, cooperation, relations
The British brought to Palestine a number of
sports such as boxing, cricket, polo, hockey and others. Soccer,
which was played in Palestine before the British occupation, was an exception
to this rule. The large part of the development of this sport branch was due to
the British. The British brought with them
the culture of football, but unlikely that they imposed this culture to the
citizens in Palestine. There is no evidence
that the Mandate authorities tried to enforce any specific fields of sports on
the local population.[5]
Although this might be true, it is also
important to remember that during the same period the British also imposed a
mandate on Palestine, which brought a plight upon the Palestinians. By
establishing the Jewish National Home as a platform for the Zionists, this
mandate resulted in a catastrophe that continues to this day. This is due to
the consequences it caused for the Palestinian people.
The Mandate
administration established the Jerusalem Sports Club in 1921 as a tribute to
the British soldiers and officers under their control at that time. For the
years 1924-1927, this club held a league under its name, and the Royal Air
Force was the winner of every year's cup held by this club. In addition, the
British held the Government Departments League in Jerusalem, which was one of
the first football leagues in Palestine. It was formed in 1920. It only
operated in Jerusalem. However, the league has fallen into abeyance in 1925.
A number of sports
competitions and Jewish national celebrations were sponsored by British
government officials. The Palestine Cup
Competition was organized in 1927. The Maccabi Cup competition and the Jaffa
District League have also been organized in the 1920s. In the 1920s, the Maccabi Cup
competitions as well as the Jaffa District League were organized. The British
organized leagues and championships for various sports with the Zionists and
organized competitions between them as well. Most
impressive of all was the ‘Fliers’ team of Ramla, which represented the British
Royal Air Force in Palestine and won every competition staged up until 1928,
when the cup was won, for the first time, by a Jewish team – Hapoel-Alenby Tel
Aviv.[6] From 1932 until 1947, there was a Palestine Football League,
which was started in Palestine in 1932. At this competition, Maccabi, Hapoel
and the Palestine Police took part.
British attitude toward Arab Sports
The mandate government did not interfere in
the formation of self-governing bodies elected by settlers only. Britain made all legislative
laws and regulations in the service of the Zionist interests in harm of the
Arab entity and interests.[7] Moreover, when it came to Arab political
violence, the British response was swifter and stronger than the Jewish
response to acts of the same magnitude against them. [8] Every
regulation and law that was enacted by Britain was excessive and placed at the
service of Zionist interests and harmed the Arabs. While on the other hand since the beginning of
their Mandate in Palestine the British warned about the spread of national
tendencies into the athletic social clubs. In April 1921 Filastin published
the following:
Last
Saturday saw the inauguration and laying of the cornerstone of the Sports Club
in Jerusalem. The Palestine Weekly mentioned that Mr. Storrs, the
Governor of Jerusalem, insisted on the participation of everyone regardless of
his religion or beliefs. The [Palestine] Weekly added that
the partisan athletic clubs in Egypt were a factor in the turmoil there, so
this mistake must not be repeated in Palestine.[9]
The administration of the Mandate took a
stubborn stance when it came to Arab social clubs and sports, including the
establishment of clubs, and rejected or obstructed requests for their
establishment. There were some concerns during that time regarding social clubs
in Palestine - including sports clubs as well - and the Mandate government
intended, via a statement broadcast in March 1926, to register all associations
and clubs in Palestine in accordance with the law in place in Palestine,
regardless of whether it was for charitable purposes or a political purpose. A
fear of youth elements was also present at the time. It was stated in a report
published by the government under the title "Youth Elements" in 1935
that:
One of the things that had a significant
impact on the Arab national movement was the strengthening of scouting groups
and various sports clubs, as well as the entry of youth in general into regular
institutions under different names, and not long after the end of the year, the
youth elements had consolidated their position and had become an important
factor which might be able to challenge the influence of the leaders of
Palestine who were older than the youth.[10]
Facilitation of Zionist Sports
During the course
of this collaboration, the British and Jewish communities engaged in a variety
of activities. “In the first years of the Mandate, the relations between the British
administration and the local Jewish population were generally positive and the
Yishuv gained greatly in many ways from the British presence. Among other
things, the world of sport received a great boost,” wrote Harrif and Galily. [11]
The British Authorities did not interfere
with the Zionist flag which has been raised in every occasion, athletic
exhibition and competition. Beginning
in the 1920s, Jewish clubs in Europe and the region came to Palestine to
compete with Jewish clubs there. They flew flags that resembled the Zionist
flag, a provocation that local Arabs vigorously protested. In January 1925, for
example, the executive committee of the Muslim-Christian Association sent the
High Commissioner for Palestine a protest against the flying of the Zionist
flag at a football match held in Jerusalem, claiming that the ordinance
regulating the flying of flags – issued in 1920 and banning the carrying or
exhibition of “the flag or emblem of any State … for the purpose of any
partisan demonstration” – had been violated.[12]
There was no surprise on the part of the
British when the Zionist flag was raised during football games, which they
perceived as normal and as being in support of the Jewish cause. It was only
the Arabs who were outraged by this act. In
March 1931, a football match between the Egyptian Tarsana team and a joint
Jewish-British Army team was held. Filastin published a letter (written
by a reader) criticizing the match and implied that Jewish-British co-operation
and activities against the Palestinian population extended also beyond the
pitch:
A mixture of soldiers of the British Army and Jewish youth
were photographed; between them stood the Governor of Jerusalem and the
Egyptian Consul …. The flags that were raised on the sides of the stadium were
the Egyptian flag, between the English and the Zionist flags …. Around the
stadium were many British soldiers and the Palestine police to maintain
security.[13]
Paramilitary activities
In order to defend the Zionist project in
Palestine, the British authorities ignored the military activities of the
Zionist "sports" organizations. It was facilitated the
creation of the paramilitary 'sports' clubs such as Betar which later became
famous for its links with the Zionist terrorist groups such as Irgun, Lehi,
Haganah and Palmach. The British were very active in disarming the
Arabs and adopted stringent measures to crush their uprisings and revolts. But,
they turned a blind eye to the Jewish arms smuggling and Jewish military
organizations, especially the Hagana, which later became the backbone of
the Israeli Army. [14]
The Betar Movement
is a Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded in 1993 in Riga, Latvia, by
Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jobotinsky.[15] It was one several
right-wing youth movements that arose at that time and adopted special salutes
and uniforms influenced by fascism.[16] This institution had and
still has a significant role today. It is famous for its hostility towards
Arabs. Military training activities were covered under sports activities and
clubs. When the British authorities tightened control over clubs' activities,
Jabotinsky saw that these units needed to be created and they could be covered
by sports and clubs for young men in different parts of the country, as long as
the young men were able to form a fully trained and organized unit at any given
moment.[17]
In Palestine the
Betar work brigades (from 1934 called mobilized groups) grew into a network of
disciplined unites based in villages and settlements. Most of these were in
Upper Galiliee but, after the outbreak of the Arab riots in 1936, such units
were established also in the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and at
Nahalat Yizhak near Jerusalem. These groups engaged in clandestine defense
training within the framework of Irgun Zeva’I Leummi, maintaining themselves
collectively formed the nuclei of the first Betar settlements (Ramat Tiomkin
near Netanyah, Tel Zur near Binyamina, and in Mishmar ha-Yarden. [18]
In 1938, Elitzur, the sports organization of the religious workers movement was founded at the initiative of R. Meir Bar-Ilan. Its early years in Palestine were devoted to mixed military and sports activities in the framework of the Haganah and Palmah and also in helping illegal immigrant come safely ashore.[19]
Crushing the 1936-39 Revolt
In 1936, widespread Palestinian dissatisfaction with Britain's governance erupted into open rebellion. Several key dynamics and events can be seen as setting the stage for this uprising. In Palestine, as elsewhere, the 1930s had been a time of intense economic disruption. Rural Palestinians were hit hard by debt and dispossession, and such pressures were only exacerbated by British policies and Zionist imperatives of land purchases and "Hebrew labor." Rural to urban migration swelled Haifa and Jaffa with poor Palestinians in search of work, and new attendant forms of political organizing emerged that emphasized youth, religion, class, and ideology over older elite-based structures. Meanwhile, rising anti-Semitism - especially its state-supported variant - in Europe led to an increase of Jewish immigration, legal and illegal, in Palestine. [20]
In
April 1936, due to the outbreak of the 1936 Revolt, all sporting activities
ceased. There have even been cases where clubs have been closed down and their
members have been arrested. There were others, such as the Orthodox Club that
fell into the hands of the authorities of the Mandate and were made into
headquarters.[21]
There
was a decline in Arab sports during the period between 1936 and 1939, whereas
Jewish sports experienced a boom during this period. As a result of its
cooperation with the British, it has been able to make great progress.
The 1930s witnessed an
increasing support for the Zionist project in Palestine. They had a pro-Zionist
A. Wauchope as the British Higher Commissioner for Palestine (1931 – 1938). [22] The British tried to
crush the revolts and disarm the Palestinians but were silent on the growing
military activities of the Jews and were even involved in the recruitment and
military training of tens of thousands of Jews, especially from 1936 to 1945. [23]
It was not surprising that there was a
strong desire on the part of the Zionists to intensify their cooperation with
the British in the field of sports. “Since the outbreak of these events [1936 Revolt],
an intensive effort was made in the Jewish Yishuv to hold sporting
contests in football, swimming, water polo and hockey against the army units,
in an attempt to bring British soldiers closer to Zionist settlement in
Palestine," wrote Harrif and Gallily. [24]
‘The scope of interest of most army and navy
personnel is limited to two: women and sport’, Nachum Chet, one of the heads of
Maccabi, maintained in memorandum he wrote in September 1936. Chet concluded
that ‘The first field is not for us; therefore, sport is in fact the only field
where we could find a common language and ground between our youth and most of
the army and navy’. [25]
Chet wished to build good relations with the
military because, in the face of the ‘Arab Revolt’, ‘the life of the Yishuv and
all its material property were given to these forces for protection and
defense’.[26]
Chet suggested that sports competitions be initiated ‘even in faraway
locations, since the army is scattered over the country and the competitions
with the soldiers who are bored in Zefat, Tzemach or in other settlement – from
our general point of view – are than with those situated in the cities. [27] The practical outcome of
Chet’s memo was the Jewish Agency’s appointment of George Flash, also a member
of Maccabi, to the position of ‘coordinating and organizing the sports relations
between the Hebrew sports organizations in the country and the British army
which is situated in the Land of Israel’. [28]
In
November 1938 Major General Bernard Montgomery arrived in Palestine. His task
was to crush the revolt. 'Monty' was a short-tempered professional soldier with
no inclination to study the details of the conflict in Palestine. He gave his
men simple orders on how to handle the rebels: kill them. This is what his men
did; in the process they broke the backbone of the Arab national movement. When
the struggle for Palestine entered its most crucial phase, in the aftermath of
the Second World War, the Jews were ready to do battle whereas the Arabs were
still licking their wounds.[29]
The Peel Commission proposed the partition
of Palestine. The logic behind partition was unassailable. It was the only
solution then and it remains the only solution today to the tragic conflict
between the two national movements. In 1937 the Jews accepted partition, but the
Arabs rejected it; so, the conflict continued, and the violence escalated. [30]
British
Officials
During the
British Mandate in Palestine, games as well as sporting events were played
between British army teams and Zionist teams during the course of the duration
of the mandate. British government officials sponsored sporting and national
events and celebrations, and Zionist flags were always raised alongside British
ones at these events. As far as coordinating and maintaining Jewish clubs and
teams administratively and organizationally, the British authorities offered
assistance in this regard as well. Their goal was to share with them the right
methods for organizing national teams, football leagues, federations, and
participating in competitions with them that are conducive to their success.
There were
a number of British officials who served as honorary and non-honorary
presidents of Zionist clubs in Palestine during the British Mandate. Major J.
Broadhurst was the president of the Maccabi football team in Tel Aviv and the
president of the Palestine Amateur Athletic Federation (founded in 1931). [31]
In July 1928, the Palestine Bulletin reported that “in coordination with the
British and with the help of Lord Melchett, it was decided to form a national
team for Palestine of 18 players (most of them Jews) to compete with England's
football teams. They will wear blue and white uniforms and carry Jewish
national flags.”[32]
Colonel
Fredrick Kisch, a well-known activist in the Zionist movement in Palestine
during the 1920s and early 1930s. He was chairman of the Palestine Zionist
Executive from 1923 until 1931 and the founding president of the POC, as well as an honorary president of the
Maccabi Sport Federation in Palestine in the years 1923 – 27, was required many times to address the issue of relations
between the British and Jewish football teams and made an effort to appease the
angry parties. [33]
Kisch arrived in
Palestine in November 1922. By spring, he was administering sport activity. He
presided over a meeting to organize a Maccabi sports meet in Jerusalem at the
end of September. In the meeting, the group appointed the necessary financial
and organization subcommittees and decided to have two events open to non-Jews.
Early on, Kisch and the Maccabi Movement were open to incorporating Arab
Palestinians into their sport activities. A short time later, Kisch attended
another Maccabi event, namely the cutting of the sod for the Maccabean colony
at Gezer. [34]
Kisch also presided over the meeting of the Maccabi Palestine committee
that dealt with the fund for developing the Maccabi sports ground in Jerusalem. [35]
At about the same
time as Kisch’s return, Maccabi Palestine hosted its Fifth Annual Sports
Meeting under the patronage of High Commissioner John Chancellor. The program
was entirely in Hebrew, except for its cover and the list of competitions on
the first page. Lord Melchett’s [Sir Alfred Mond] name was printed under that
of the High Commissioner. [36]
Melchett was
contributing substantial finances to Jewish sport in Palestine and by 1929 had
replaced Kisch as Maccabi Palestine’s honorary president. The Maccabis were
building a relationship with Melchett and were already thinking of organizing
the First Maccabiad, which needed the support of philanthropists like him. [37]
Palestine Bulletin reported in
July 1928 that Palestine selected team which is being organised with the help
of Lord Melchett to play with footballers in England, is leaving in October.
The team will be composed of 18 lads who will don a blue-white uniform and will
also carry with them the Jewish national banner. The Mond Cup has been won by
the "Hapoel" Tel-Aviv who also won the Palestine challenge Cup
recently.[38]
In
December 1926, Maccabi personnel held a meeting at the Egyptian Consulate in
Jerusalem to further this agenda. It wanted to arrange football matches with
more Egyptian. On the occasion of this meeting, His Majesty’s consul general of
Egypt offered to approach the Egyptian federation to encourage it to enter into
negotiations with Jewish football in Palestine, as well as to arrange on
Palestine’s behalf a side trip a side trip to the country for a visiting
football team from Vienna. [39]
The Maccabiah
It’s worth to note
that the government has not taken any
steps to address the issue of illegal immigration of athletes who have taken
part in sporting events in Palestine and who were attempting to stay in the
country illegally. In addition, there have been hundreds of Jewish 'fans' who
came to Palestine under the pretext of attending the Maccabiah Games and stayed
there without returning home.
Issa Sifri points out that the Zionists were
always seeking the appropriate means to bring more immigrants to Palestine.
Since 1924, Zionists have devised creative tricks to get more Jewish immigrants
into the country. As a result, they resorted to smuggling and deception,
claiming to accept the laws, and then transferring them to the colonies where
they were hidden. Among these methods was the "Maccabiad," a sports
festival in the style of the Olympic Games, which was organized by Zionist
leaders in 1929 [and was held in 1932 and 1935], in which Zionist youths from
all over the world participated from 1929 to 1935. As a result, many of these
people stayed and never returned. According to Sifri, six thousand immigrants
of this type came to Palestine in 1935. Their passports were handed over to the
government and they paid for insurance. They stayed in the country and haven't
left since.[40]
A report was
published in the newspaper Filastin in regard to the inauguration of
this festival: "On Tuesday, the Maccabees paraded through Tel Aviv streets
to celebrate this festival. One of the most surprising things about their
number was that it reached about twenty thousand in a short period of time,
whereas two weeks ago they were not even a third of that number. It is possible
that the Maccabees Society wanted a fake parade to take place. “It dressed as
many Jewish boys and girls as possible in Maccabees' clothes and included them
among its members as much as possible!” [41]
There were 3,500-4,000 athletes from
seventeen countries at this festival. According to the organizers, this
festival was a victory for Zionist ideas in general and Jewish sports in
particular. A unique feature of this festival was that it was the first
cultural event to attract so many visitors (immigrants) - a number that
exceeded the Levant Trade Fair and the Hebrew University's opening. According
to Zionist sources, there were about 1,591 tourists who stayed in Palestine in
the first three months of 1932. According to the Royal Commission Report,
17,900 travelers stayed in Palestine in 1932-1933. According to the Jewish
Agency, after years of immigration restrictions, a turning point started in
1932 when thousands of Jews came to Palestine under the pretext of the
Maccabiah. Neither the British government nor the British government has
condemned illegal immigration, nor has it taken any concrete steps to stop this
flow of immigration. It hasn't paid much attention. [42]
The social and
athletic institutions and clubs of the Arab world condemned the games as they
knew their dangers. Filastin asked whether the British authorities had
taken any steps at all to stop this influx of "tourists" or whether
they were aware that they were permanently living in the country as long-term
residents.[43]
In relation to
the second Maccabiah, the newspaper Filastin was critical of the Jewish
athletes who entered Palestine for that event:
‘The Jewish newspapers indicate that the
number of young people participating in the upcoming Maccabiah Games, scheduled
for mid-April, exceeds ten thousand, most of whom are coming from abroad. What we know is that these young athletes
do not have the funds to enter Palestine as tourists, and the Jewish Agency did
not grant them immigration certificates to Palestine. So how did the government
allow them to enter? And were the necessary precautions taken to ensure their
return to their country? The
first Maccabiah Games taught us that most of those who participated remained in
Palestine and hid in the Jewish colonies. So why does the government want to
repeat this incident? The
government may claim that it allowed them to enter under the pretext of
encouraging tourism to Palestine, but this claim is false. The purpose of
encouraging tourism is for wealthy tourists to spend money in the country,
helping to improve the economic situation. As for these young people who eat
for free in the restaurants of Zionist associations, they are not considered
tourists. Moreover, most of them do not belong to the Maccabi associations, as
the Jewish newspapers themselves state.” [44]
1940’s
As
demonstrated in a memorandum issued by the Maccabi Federation in Palestine
about six months after the war broke out:
Here it is, we are given
the opportunities now that tens of thousands of British soldiers from various
countries and classes happened to come to the country; some of which will play
important roles in the British policy and it is up to us to influence them and
make them our friends through friendly sport meeting; it is our duty to do so
properly and on a full state scale. [45]
Based on the precedent of the years before
the war, Maccabi leaders even suggested that a special office next to Jewish
Agency be established, ‘to hold games and competitions with the army. The
political department of the Jewish agency responded positively, declaring that
‘there is a necessity in arranging and encouraging sports meetings between the
army (especially the Australian army) and the various sports organizations in
the country. [46]
The high point of sorting relations with foreign military people was the visit of the famous British football team ’Wonders’ to Palestine in 1941, 1943 and 1944. The players of this team gained a reputation for their skillful play and traveled around the Middle East to wherever British units stayed, playing matches and entertaining personnel. The first tour of the ‘Wonders’ to Palestine raised hopes that ‘Hebrew sport would be given a possibility to shake the hands of the English sport’s proxy in friendship and peace. ‘However, the Palestine Football Federation, which wanted to organize the best players of the Jewish Yishuv against the host team, encountered an uncompromising demand from the British government that a ‘mixed” team consisting of representatives of different communities and circles be put together. The failure of that team, which had been assembled rather hastily and consisted of sic Jews, three English, one Arab and one Greek, was devastating. In front of 12,000 spectators in Tel Aviv the team was beaten 8-3, while at half time the score was 8-0 and only after the Arab goalkeeper was replaced by a Jew did the team become competitive. [47]
Deterioration of relations 1944 - 1947
The Jewish revolt of 1944 - 1947 proved fatal to the British mandate, in which the targeted assassinations of officials, attacks on infrastructure, bombings of police stations, and the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel were milestones. [48] The year 1946 saw high tension between the Zionist Organization, supported by the United States, and the British government, with the goal of pushing the latter to end the mandate and hand over Palestine to the Zionist settlement, which thought it was qualified to establish its political entity there, even by force if necessary. [49]
In the years following the establishment of
the (Arab) Palestine Sport Federation (September 1944), there were meetings
between its selected team and the British Army team in Palestine annually. Also,
the Arabs were eager to bring the British teams to their side. Football matches
between Arab and British teams intensified after the crisis in relations
between the British and the Zionists. This was due to Zionist gangs' terrorist
acts against the British government and the facilities of the British
government. In addition to pressure on London through Truman [to bring in one
hundred thousand Jews to Palestine], the Zionist leadership also pressured the
Mandate Authority directly, through terrorist and military operations, and by
sending ships loaded with illegal immigrants to Palestine.[50]
Among these acts was also the well-known bombing of the King David Hotel in
Jerusalem on July 22, 1946. The attack, regarded as the worst terrorist act of
the first half of the twentieth century, claimed the lives of 93 people, mostly
civilians, employees, and visitors, including 41 Arabs, 28 British, 17 Jews,
and five others. [51]
In August 1947, the mandate's leaders declared the Jewish sport movement Beitar an illegal movement, on the grounds that it consisted of activists of one of the extreme underground movements that fought the British army -- the National Military Organization. In order to circumvent this order, the Beitar Association in Tel Aviv changed its name to Nordia (named after the Zionist leader, Max Nordau) and committed itself, albeit only formally, not to act unlawfully against the British. [52]
Conclusion
“When the British left Palestine in 1948, there was no need to create apparatus of a Jewish state ab novo. That apparatus had in fact been functioning under the British aegis for decades,” wrote Rashid Khalidi.[53] It was the British who, during their mandate in Palestine, played a crucial role in the creation of the Jewish sports infrastructure that allowed Jews to flourish once they established their own state. Because of the British government's assistance to Jewish sports, it was possible for the Jewish state to compete locally and internationally as soon as it was established. The British played a vital role in Jewish sports coordination and cooperation with international sports organizations. During the British mandate in Palestine, several federations were formed as Palestinians first and then converted to Israelis after 1948. As an example, the Palestine Football Association and the Palestine Olympic Committee have been changed to the Israel Football Association and the Israel Olympic Committee.
As a result, this
Endnotes
[1] Edward
Said, The Question of Palestine, (NY, Vintage Books: 1980), p.
25 -26. Quoted from Nur
Masalha, Palestine A Four Thousand Year History, (London: Tauris, 2018), p.
315.
[2]
Edward Said (1979). ‘Zionism from the Standpoint of its Victims, Social Text, Number 1, pp. 7-58.
[3]
Encyclopedia of Palestine: Britain and
the Palestinian Question.
[4] Avi
Shlaim, Israel and Palestine, Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations, (London:
Verso, 2009), p.15.
[5] Harif, H; Galily, Y. “Sport and Politics in
Palestine, 1918-1948: Football as a Mirror Reflecting the Relations between
Jews and Britons”. Soccer and Society, Vol. 4, no. 1, (Spring
2003), p. 41-56.
[6] Issam
Khalidi, Football Leagues in Mandate Palestine
http://www.hpalestinesports.net/2024/10/football-leagues-in-mandate-palestine_15.html
[7]
Encyclopedia of Palestine: Britain and
the Palestinian Question
[8] Mohsen M. Saleh, British-Zionist
Military Cooperation in Palestine, 1917-1939.
[9]
Filastin, 12 April 1921.
[10] Issa al-Sifri, Filastin bayn al-Intidabwa al-Sahyuniyya [Palestine
between the Mandate and Zionism] (Jaffa: Maktabat Filastin al-Jadida,1937), p.
195.
There were many cases where social clubs were not able to obtain
licenses from the mandate authorities in order to operate. It was as a
consequence of this that they made an application under the pretext of being
athletic and not national or cultural.
[12]
Palestine Weekly, 24 March 1925.
This protest, published in Filastin,
mentioned the name of the Jewish team ha-Koah (Vienna) and stated that the
Zionist flag was flown beside the British flag in Jerusalem. It added: “there
were more Zionist flags flying around the court. So, what does his honor the
High Commissioner thinks about this?” In response, the Governor of the
Jerusalem-Jaffa District argued that the flag flown was the Club flag of the
Hakoah football team, of which the colours are similar to those of the Zionist
flag.… It is apparent that the Hakoah Club flag is not a state flag, and
equally apparent that it was not being carried or exhibited for the purpose of
any partisan demonstration, and that the Ordinance was therefore in no way
infringed.
[13]
Filastin, 28 March 1931.
[14] Mohsen
M. Saleh, British-Zionist Military Cooperation in Palestine, 1917-1939
[15] Betar
was the name of the fortress in which Bar Kochba made his last stand against
the Romans in 135 A.D.
[21] Issam Khalidi,
Palestinian sports and the 1936 Revolt, Thawra 1936 Walriyadah Al- Filastiniyyah. History of Palestine
Sports: ثورة 1936 والرياضة في فلسطين
[22] Saleh.
[23] Ibid.
[25] Chet to Col. Kish (p.10, 28 Sept. 1936,
CZA S25/3376. Quoted in Harif, H; Galily, Y. “Sport and Politics in
Palestine, 1918-1948: Football as a Mirror Reflecting the Relations between
Jews and Britons”. Soccer and Society, Vol. 4, no. 1, (Spring
2003), p. 41-56.
[26] Ibid.,
3.
[27] Ibid. Quoted in Harif, H; Galily, Y. “Sport and Politics in
Palestine, 1918-1948: Football as a Mirror Reflecting the Relations between
Jews and Britons” . Soccer and Society, Vol. 4, no. 1, (Spring
2003), p. 41-56.
[28] Col. Kisch, 'To All Parties Interested',
5 Oct. 1936, CZA S25/3376. Quoted in Harif, H; Galily, Y. “Sport and Politics in
Palestine, 1918-1948: Football as a Mirror Reflecting the Relations between
Jews and Britons” . Soccer and Society, Vol. 4, no. 1, (Spring
2003), p. 41-56.
[29] Avi
Shlaim Israel and Palestine, Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations, (London:
Verso, 2009). p. 19.
[30] Ibid.
[31] In the
year 1932, he accompanied his team to Egypt and met with Arsenal and the
Hellenic Club in Cairo and Alexandria as part of their tour of the country. He
also arranged a “test match” between the British Police and the Hapoel teams of
Haifa and Tel Aviv.
[32] Palestine Bulletin 24 July 1928. Lord
Melchett was a British industrialist who embraced the Jewish faith and became a
prominent leader in the Zionist movement.
Lord Melchett is a British industrialist who embraced
the Jewish faith and became a prominent leader in the Zionist movement.
[34] San
Charles Haddad, The File, Origins of the Munich Massacre. (New York:
Post Hill Press, 2020) p.30
Kisch did not hesitate to criticize the behavior of Jewish players where
necessary, and although he attributed some expressions of violence to
‘ignorance and inexperience’, he stressed by the same token that ‘out of desire
to maintain our reputation, I shall advise the High Commissioner, the Chief
Secretary and the Regional Governor not to be present in any of our games until
such time when I shall again trust the behaviour of our teams and fans’.
Football-related incidents reached their climax following the publication of
the ‘White Book’ in October 1930, resulting in expressions of hostility by
Jewish spectators towards British teams, and even in confrontation between
Jewish and Arab fans. Consequently, the third high commissioner, John
Chancellor (1928-31), ordered the suspension of matches between Hebrew teams
and British military and police teams in November 1930.
[35]
Ibid. 30
[36] An enthusiastic Zionist, in 1920 Mond donated ten thousand pounds to Vladimir Jobotinsky. The following year he visited Palestine with Chaim Weismann. He contributed money to the Jewish Colonization Corporation for Palestine and wrote for Zionist publications. He became President of the British Zionist foundation and made financial contributions to Zionist causes.
[37] San Charles Haddad. 43
[38]
Palestine Post, 24 July 1928.
[39] San Charles
Haddad, The File, Origins of the Munich Massacre, p.
36.
[40] Eisen, George. “The Maccabiah Games: A history of the
Jewish Olympics”, (Doctoral thesis,
University of Miami, 1979).
[41] Filastin,
1 April 1932.
[42] Filastin,
18 March 1932.
[43] Filastin,
31 March 1932
[44] Filastin,
20 March 1935
[46] Ibid.
[47] Ibid.
51
[49] Elias
Shoufani, al-Moujaz fi Tarikh Falastin al-Siyasi: Munthu Fajr Attarikh hatta
sanat 1949. A Brief History of Palestine's Politics, from the Dawn of History
to 1949, (Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1996), p 501.
[50] Walid Khalidi, Khamsoon Aman ala Qarar al-Taqseem 1947
– 1997, Fifty Years since the Partition Decision 1947 – 1997 (Beirut: Dar
Annahar, 1998) p. 53.
[51] Walid
Khalidi, Khamsoon Aman ala Taqseem Filastin 1947 – 1947 Fifty Years since the Partition Decision 1947-1997,
(Beirut: Dar al-Nahar, 1998) p 55.
[52] M. Kashtan, 60 Years of Football: The
Story of Lunia Devorin (Tel Aviv: self-publication, 1991), pp 58 -9. Quoted
from Harif, H; Galily, Y. “Sport and Politics in
Palestine, 1918-1948: Football as a Mirror Reflecting the Relations between
Jews and Britons”. Soccer and Society, Vol. 4, no. 1, (Spring
2003), p. 41-56.
[53] Rashid
Khalidi, The Hundred Year’s War on Palestine, A History of Settler Colonialism
and Resistance, 1917 – 2017 (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2020), p. 53.
No comments:
Post a Comment