For all those trying to characterize Zionism as akin to Nazism:
Excerpts from 'Palestine's forgotten "Hitler Youth": Al-Futuwwa and the youth programs of Hamas' by Jan Kapusnak, November 1, 2026 (translated from mthe German version)
"In 1936, Palestinian-Arab nationalists founded a youth movement that was partly modeled on the Hitler Youth of Nazi Germany.
Its founders openly admired Hitler's rise to power and wanted to mobilize a new generation to fight against Zionism and British rule in Mandatory Palestine...
On February 11, 1936, as Adolf Hitler consolidated his power in Nazi Germany, Palestinian Arab nationalists founded a youth organization aligned with his regime. Initially known as the "Nazi Scouts," it soon received the Arabic name Al-Futuwwa, which can be roughly translated as "youthful knighthood."
At the founding assembly, Jamal al-Husseini, chairman of the Palestinian Arab Party, invoked Hitler's extraordinary political rise. As the historian Yehoshua Porath writes in hisIn his standard work , "The Palestinian Arab National Movement, 1929-1939: From Riots to Rebellion," al-Husseini described how Hitler's movement grew from six followers to six hundred and finally to sixty million. He hoped that the newly founded Arab youth organization would also become the nucleus of a powerful national movement.
This admiration was expressed at a time when Nazi Germany had already abolished democratic freedoms, which he had enshrined antisemitic discrimination in law and begun preparations for his territorial expansion. However, some Palestinian-Arab nationalists saw Hitler's ability to mobilize an entire nation as a model to be emulated...
...Emil al-Ghuri, Secretary-General of the Palestinian Arab Party, initially attempted to mobilize existing Arab scouting associations. However, their independence hampered political control. Therefore, the party founded Al-Futuwwa.
According to Porath, Al-Futuwwa took theThe Hitler Youth served as an organizational model. The movement emphasized uniforms, military discipline, and public ceremonies designed to demonstrate strength and unity. At the same time, its members were to be trained to pursue nationalist goals, if necessary by force of arms. Nazi Germany's appeal also had political underpinnings. Hitler's hostility toward Great Britain made Berlin a potential ally for Arab nationalists who opposed British rule. Furthermore, Nazi antisemitism resonated with pre-existing anti-Jewish prejudices among some Arab nationalists. This hostility had existed in the Middle East long before Hitler's rise to power, but Nazi propaganda provided it with renewed ideological reinforcement.
...When Al-Futuwwa was revived after World War II , its founder, Jamal al-Husseini, who also headed the Palestinian Arab Party, remained closely connected to his relative, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem had by this time spent nearly a decade in exile. He had fled Palestine in 1937 during the Arab Revolt after the British authorities banned the Arab High Committee he led. He initially found refuge in Lebanon before moving to Iraq, where he supported a pro-German coup in 1941. After its failure, he finally arrived in Nazi Germany.
In Berlin, the Mufti became an active collaborator of the Nazi regime. On November 28, 1941, he met with Adolf Hitler and requested German support for Arab independence and for preventing a Jewish national home in Palestine. He also broadcast his message on the radio.He spread antisemitic propaganda in the Arab world and participated in the recruitment of Muslims for the Waffen-SS. His activities are extensively documented by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. After the German defeat, he was detained in France but escaped to Egypt in 1946. From there, he continued to exert considerable influence on Palestinian-Arab politics.
Meanwhile, a new paramilitary organization had emerged in Jaffa at the end of 1945.Inspired by a Lebanese movement of the same name, Al-Najjada emerged from members of a local Muslim sports club. Under the leadership of Muhammad Nimr al-Hawari, a lawyer and former employee of the British Mandate administration, it developed into a nationwide movement that combined Arab nationalist education with physical training and military-like activities. Unlike Al-Futuwwa, Al-Najjada presented itself as politically independent...
The founders of Al-Futuwwa had taken Hitler's rise to power as a model for building a powerful national movement. A decade later, their organization had vanished, while the Jewish state, whose creation they had sought to prevent, was fighting for its survival..."
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