The Muslim National Associations (MNA)Among them was ''al-Jam'iyya al-Islamiyya al-Wataniyya'' ( ar, الجمعية الاسلامية الوطنية), founded in 1921, and was active until 1923. was a

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

-inspired and funded organization founded in

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...

in the 1920s. It had branch offices in a number of Palestinian towns, and was led by the mayor of Haifa,

Hassan Bey Shukri Hassan Bey Shukri (; 1876–1940) was the mayor of Haifa and the president of the Muslim National Associations. Biography Hassan Shukri was born in Jerusalem and moved to Haifa as a child. The Turks appointed him mayor of the city in 1914. In Ju ...

and Sheikh

Musa Hadeib Sheikh Musa Hadeib was the head of Mount Hebron farmers' party and a founder of the Zionist-supported Muslim National Associations. He was from the village of Dawaymeh near Hebron. Cohen, Hillel '' Army of Shadows: Palestinian collaboration with ...

, head of the farmers' party of Mount Hebron. According to the Israeli historian

Benny Morris Benny Morris ( he, בני מוריס; born 8 December 1948) is an Israeli historian. He was a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Beersheba, Israel. He is a member of t ...

, the organization was Zionist-supported and formed as a counterweight to the nationalistic and

anti-Zionist Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine ...

Muslim-Christian associations which had been formed in opposition to the

Balfour Declaration The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman regio ...

and the creation of a

Jewish National Home A homeland for the Jewish people is an idea rooted in Jewish history, religion, and culture. The Jewish aspiration to return to Zion, generally associated with divine redemption, has suffused Jewish religious thought since the destruction o ...

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

.The Tangled Truth
by Benny Morris, ''The New Republic''; 7/5/08

Members

The organisation consisted of Arabs who were employed by the

Palestine Zionist Executive The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. ...

and was organised by (1868–1947)He was a Jewish representative on a three-member Land Commission appointed in August 1920 by Herbert Samuel, the first British High Commissioner of Palestine, to assess state land in Palestine. Kalvarisky was a senior, European-born Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PJCA) official who settled in the Galilee in the mid-1890s
Chaim Margalioth Kalvarisky (Kalvaryski)
/ref> who headed its Arab Department. According to Huneidi, Kalvarisky had sought elements among the Arab political elite who opposed the Arab Executive Committee based on running personal and family feuds. Hassan Bey Shukri was the mayor of

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

and became the president of the Muslim National Associations. Musa Hadeib, from the village of Dawaymeh near

Hebron Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after East J ...

, was also head of the Mount Hebron farmers' party. Cohen, Hillel '' Army of Shadows: Palestinian collaboration with Zionism, 1917–1948''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. p. 15–17

Notes

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References

History of Zionism

Muslim supporters of Israel Muslim supporters of Israel refers to both Muslims and cultural Muslims who support the right to self-determination of the Jewish people and the likewise existence of a Jewish homeland in the Southern Levant, traditionally known as the Land o ...

Organizations based in Mandatory Palestine History of Palestine (region) Zionism in Mandatory Palestine