The Moroccan Nationalist Movement and Its Attitude toward Jews and Zionism · 165this more radical stream of the Istiqlal. Al-Fassi and his followers were
greatly influenced by the “disturbances” in Palestine in the years 1929
and 1936–39, and they espoused clearly anti-Jewish sentiments. The
more moderate members of the Istiqlal, such as Aḥmad Balafrej and
Muḥammad al-Kholti, who had graduated from the French Protector-
ate schools and from colleges and universities of the metropolitan areas,
searched for ways to recruit Jewish support in their struggle for French
government reforms that would better the entire population of Morocco,
Muslims in particular. Already in 1933, al-Kholti wrote an article in the
newspaper L’Action du Peuple in which he discussed the need for Jewish-
Muslim cooperation as a positive starting point for the implementation
of urgent reforms in various areas, such as the legal system, and for calls
for full equalization between Jews and Muslims.^13 Among other things,
al-Kholti pointed out, “this understanding, which is based on honesty
and loyalty,” would be the embarkation point for both youth parties and
would lead “the implementation of urgent reforms in the field of law....
We want to prove that the Muslim youth of our day are filled with toler-
ance and love toward the entire human race and aspire to cooperate in
joint undertakings.... But this harmony cannot exist unless Jews and
Muslims are united and equal in the eyes of the law.”^14
Simultaneously, however, anti-Semitic propaganda was being dissem-
inated throughout Morocco, especially after Adolf Hitler came to power
in Germany in 1933, and then, even more forcefully, following the Span-
ish Civil War and the triumph of Generalísimo Franco (especially in the
Spanish zone of Morocco). It is noteworthy that European settlers were
usually behind this propaganda and that only a few of the claims and ac-
cusations were spread by Moroccan Nationalists. Assertions were made
that Jews were agents of the European imperialist exploiters, that they
were their agents in Palestine, and that they were harmful to the interests
of both the Europeans and the Muslims. These claims were repeated by
other radical Arab intellectuals, such as Shakib Arslan, the spokesman of
the Muslim Brothers, Hoda Sha ̔rawi, of Young Egypt, and others from
Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere. The Great Arab Rebellion that took place
in Palestine in 1936–39 had a pronounced effect on the Nationalists in
Morocco, although their support remained in the form of unrestrained
declarations of support of the Palestinian struggle. Supporters of the Je-
rusalem Mufti, Hajj Amin al-Ḥusayni, were active in North Africa, where