240 • CONCluSION
and around al- Ḥaram ash- Sharīf, the Temple Mount, around the Jewish
holidays of Yom Kippur 1928 and Tishʿah be- Av 1929; or the so- called
Great Revolt of 1936 through 1939, after the funeral of the Muslim
preacher ʿIzz ad- Din al- Qassam, who was eulogized popularly as “Is-
lam’s ideal soldier.”^18 In each of these cases, religion should not be
considered the sole factor in either creating or sustaining the hostility
felt between the various communities of Palestine, but it was certainly
a factor, and an important one, that informed (and sometimes misin-
formed) the groups’ perceptions of one another, even as the language
and logic of nationalism became more deeply ingrained on all sides.
The language of race and the notion of a racial link between Jews
and Arabs also continued to play a role in the years immediately fol-
lowing the Great War. In January 1919, in the context of the postwar
peace conference in Paris, the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann met
with Faisal Hussein, who had led the wartime Arab Revolt against the
Ottomans and then proclaimed himself king of Syria. Weizmann and
Faisal produced an agreement that stressed race as a point of common-
ality: “His Royal Highness the Amir Faisal, representing and acting
on behalf of the Arab Kingdom of Hejaz and Dr. Chaim Weizmann,
representing and acting on behalf of the Zionist Organization, mind-
ful of the racial kinship and ancient bond existing between the Arabs
and the Jewish people.”^19 In the subsequent months in Paris, Faisal
continued to use this language in expressing his sense of connection to
the Jews and even his sympathy for the Zionist enterprise. In a March
1919 letter to the Viennese- born American Zionist leader (and future
uS Supreme Court justice) Felix Frankfurter, Faisal wrote of his belief
that “the Arabs and Jews are cousins in race.” As such, he continued,
“we Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest
sympathy on the Zionist movement.” Indeed, deeming the Zionist pro-
posals submitted to the peace conference as “moderate and proper,”
Faisal offered to support them. upon the success of the Zionist project,
Faisal assured Frankfurter that he and his fellow Arabs “will wish the
Jews a most hearty welcome home.”^20 In emphasizing the connection
between Jews and Arabs, Faisal was obviously seeking Jewish support
for his political ambitions in Syria and the broader Arab world. How-
ever, regardless of the sincerity of his expressions of commonality with
and support for the Jews and Zionism, that he framed these expressions
through the language and logic of race is significant.
(^18) Cited in Johnson, Islam and the Politics of Meaning in Palestinian Nationalism, 45.
(^19) Feisal- Weizmann Agreement, January 1919.
(^20) Emir Feisal and Felix Frankfurter Correspondence (March 3– 5, 1919) in Laqueur
and Rubin, eds., The Israel- Arab Reader, 19– 20.