106 • CHAPTER 3
matters to the attention of the readers across palestine’s diverse Zion-
ist community.
Dual Labels: Muslim Arabs and
(not Quite) Arab ChristiansIn addition to characterizing native non- Jews either by their religion
or simply as arabs, certain Zionist journalists elected at times to use
both, with the phrases “Christian arabs” or “Muslim arabs.” Such
terms are also found in ha-Ḥerut articles from the period, usually in
the context of comparing the communities’ attitudes toward Jews and
Zionism. relative to other hebrew newspapers in Late Ottoman pal-
estine, ha-Ḥerutwas exceptionally concerned with the anti- Zionist ar-
abic press. While the paper had already published many notices and
warnings about the arabic press in palestine— especially concerning
the newspaper al-Karmil, edited by najib nassar, a Greek Orthodox
arab in haifa— ha-Ḥerut’s full- scale, front- page literary war against
this phenomenon began in earnest in November 1910 with a two- page
article titled “the Great Danger.”^47 Ha-Sakanahha-gedolah, “the Great
Danger,” subsequently became ha-Ḥerut’s watchword for the problem
of the anti- Zionist arabic press. Nassar, as discussed in chapter 2, was
the journalist- activist who, like Ruhi al- Khalidi, translated Gottheil’s
“Zionism” encyclopedia entry. In describing Nassar, ha-Ḥerut’s edito-
rial claims that his paper was the work of “the Christian Arab enemies,
who hate us religiously and racially.” the true problem, asserts ha-
Ḥerut, is that the effects of anti- Zionist agitation among the Christian
arab papers extend to “our good Muslim arab neighbors.” Ha-Ḥerut
accuses these Christian arab enemies of using all sorts of tactics to
cause “our Muslim neighbors to come in conflict with us, to awaken
among them a hatred against the Jew who had always been considered
like a brother to the Arabs and a member of the same race [neḥshav
le-aḥu-le-vengezaʿle-ha-ʿarviyim].” Ha-Ḥerut’s editors saw a marked
distinction between the natural attitude toward Jews and Zionism of
Christian arabs, on the one hand, and of Muslim arabs, on the other.
the former, owing to their “religious and racial hatred” of Jews, were
deemed instinctively antagonistic; the latter, because of their feelings
of common race with Jews, were regarded as welcoming and support-
ive. Only on the instigation of the “Christian arab enemies” and the
deception they perpetrate might otherwise naturally sympathetic Mus-
lim arabs turn against Zionism.
(^47) ha-Ḥerut 3:6 (november 4, 1910), 1– 2.