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London Admits Some of Mufti’s Followers Permitted to Return to Return to Palestine

February 12, 1942
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Authoritative circles in London today admitted that some Arab leaders who were attached to the ex-Mufti’s entourage and who escaped with him first from Iraq and Later from Iran have been permitted to return to Palestine.

Disclosing that a large number of the ex-Mufti’s followers fell into the hands of the British military command when the British troops entered Iran, these London circles emphasized that only a small number of them have been allowed to reenter Palestine, and only those who are considered “politically harmless.”

“The other followers of the ex-Mufti who were captured in Iraq have been deported by the British authorities for internment in a place the name of which cannot be divulged,” it was stated here today.”The decision to allow harmless followers of the ex-Mufti to return to Palestine does not denote any change in the British policy towards Palestine or towards the Arab people there, ” it was added.

The same authoritative circles today emphasized that permission to return to Palestine has not been given to Jamal Husseini, the ex-Mufti’s nephew who is notoriously anti-British, anti-Jewish and pro-Axis. It was definitely stated that Jamal Husseini is now being held by the British. A report from Moscow yesterday that Husseini had been arrested by the Turkish authorities on the charge of pro-Nazi espionage, apparently referred to one of the numerous nephews of the ex-Mufti who was rounded up together with other Arab leaders by the Turkish authorities, it was explained here.

Anti-British propaganda broadcasts for the Arab countries which are now supervised by the ex-Mufti from Berlin and Rome have been greatly increased during the past few days with the Italian-controlled radio station in Athens sending out the major broadcasts in Arabic. It is believed here that though the ex-Mufti is not in Athens, he has set up powerful propaganda machinery there, making Athens the center from where be keeps in contact with his illegal groups in various Arab lands.

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