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Special Division in Nazi Embassy in Turkey Fosters Revolt Among Palestine Arabs

June 19, 1942
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Existence of a special division in the Oriental department of the German embassy in Turkey devoted to anti-Jewish and anti-British espionage and agitation among the Arabs in Palestine, is revealed in an article on “German Preparations in the Middle East” by Cyrus L. Sulzberger, appearing in the current issue of the quarterly, Foreign Affairs, issued today.

The Palestine section of the German espionage set-up in Turkey is one of several devoted to fostering revolt in the Arab lands: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Afghanistan, Mr. Sulzberger says. He further discloses that the exiled Grand Mufti of Jerusalem has established a far-flung and efficient espionage system among the Arabs throughout the Middle East and is working hand-in-hand with the Nazi officials in their attempt to pave the way for an invasion of the Middle Eastern countries by an anti-British Arab uprising. Iraq, Mr. Sulzberger writes, is still the center of the pro-Axis Arab intrigues, for here the Grand Mufti established his organization most firmly before the British occupation.

Commenting on the form that pro-Axis propaganda takes among the Arab peoples, the article reports that these are the notes most frequently struck in pro-Axis Arabic broadcasts and in leaflets and other material illegally circulated among the Arabs: Britain and America have promised to give the best Arab land to the Jews; the United Nations are preparing for Jewish domination in the Middle East in the advent of an Allied victory; the Jews have put Lebanon out of business; a band of 100 Jewish gangsters from Chicago and New York have settled in Palestine and are operating there in terroristic fashion; and finally, a call to the Arabs to continue the fight against England as the “English-Jewish yoke” will soon be lifted.

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