OPINION:
Following his graduation from Harvard University, Robert F. Kennedy went to what was then British-ruled Palestine and wrote news dispatches for the Boston Post.
His dispatches contain information very useful in clarifying current misinformation.
The period following World War II saw religious violence and political disagreements in the Middle East. Beginning with the British Mandate in 1922 and until 1948, when Kennedy arrived, over 500,000 Arabs migrated to Palestine. This is based on British government colonial government statistics.
Kennedy noted in his dispatches that Palestine was the only Arab-populated area where there was an Arab middle class, contradicting the notion that the Arabs in Palestine had lived there for centuries. (Interestingly, Yasser Arafat was actually born in Egypt.)
Clearly there were mixed feelings among the Arabs. While employment and medical care improved, there was also great hostility. On the positive side, David Ben Gurion, the future prime minister of Israel, dreamed of a peaceful Jewish-Arab state with significant Arab participation in government.
On the negative side was the influence of the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Amin al Husseini. He used intimidation and violence to prevent peaceful cooperation between Jews and Muslims in Palestine.
During the late 1930s, he encouraged mob violence, including murder, against Jews.
During World War II, he worked with Hitler, recruiting Balkan Muslims to guard the railroad bridges taking trains loaded with Jews headed to death camps. He was successful in preventing any sabotage of bridges.
CHARLES WINFIELD
Princeton, New Jersey
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