The Syrian Social Nationalist Party

by Salim Mujais

  32 “The establishment of an Arab front was and continues to be one of the great aims of the SNP. This idea was on our mind before we founded the SSNP and continues to preoccupy us until this day. The absence of such a statement in the original text of the Aim of the SNP was merely because of the prioritization of the imperative issue of our national renaissance and independence.”

  33 “The SNP does not focus its efforts on the dismantling of the internal political structures as hoped for by proponents and feared by opponents of such activities. Rather, the SNP focuses on national survival in the arena of nations. The SNP considers that some forms of government in geographic Syria can be considered national when appropriate, but that these forms need to evolve in conformity with national interests and the establishment of the concept of nationhood. All that concerns us in current governments is that their existence does not impede or thwart our major national interests”. The issue of existing governments relates directly to the question of federalism discussed above. It was by this time clear to the SNP that any realistic political plan had to take into account the semi-permanence of the existing political entities, the proto-states in geographic Syria.

  34 Saadeh, Antoun: Complete Works, volume 2, pp366-367.

  35 The meeting took place after his release from his second imprisonment. Nida’ ila al-Umma as-Souriyat (A Call to the Syrian Nation), Complete Works Volume 3, p 364.

  36 On February 3, 1936, Kieffer is quoted in the Palestine Post, page 2, in reference to the arrested demonstrators in the disturbances and strike in Damascus “that he sympathizes with the imprisoned youth, but looks with contempt upon those leaders who exploit the patriotism of the innocent for their own ends”. On February 21, the Palestine Post reported (page 1) that Kieffer met for several hours with several notables from Damascus to discuss the process for the resolution of the strike.

  37 Kieffer was in Paris for the negotiations between the Syrian delegates and the French representatives of the Quai d’Orsay as reported by the Palestine Post, April 12, 1936, page 1. He was again in Paris in mid June, Palestine Post, June 22, 1936, page 1. He also represented the French side in the negotiations for the Franco-Lebanese treaty in October of 1936 where Kieffer was the principle negotiator dealing with the Lebanese president. The Palestine Post, October 19, 1936, page 2, and October 29, page 2.

  38 Fadia Kiwan: La perception du Grand Liban chez les Maronites dans la période du Mandat in Nadim Shehadi, Dana Haffar Mills (editors): Lebanon: A History of Conflict and Consensus. I.B. Tauris, London, 1988, pp pp 124-148.

  39 The Lebanese Union Party (LUP) was founded by Toufic Awad a nephew of the Maronite Patriarch. Awad was a vehement supporter of the Mandate and Lebanese separatism. Both President Eddeh and the French supported the LUP and even instructed civil servants to encourage people to join the party.

  40 The description of the events is summarized from Shafiq Jeha: Ma’rakat Masir Lubnan fi ‘Ahd al-Intidab al-Faransi (The Battle for Lebanon’s Destiny during the French Mandate), Maktabat ras Beirut, Beirut, 1995, volume 2, pp 554-558.

  41 Labaki’s article reproduced in Gibran Jureij: Min al-Ju’bah, volume 3, pp 16-18. It was published in al-Jumhour.

  42 In his editorial Dam al-Ghawgha’ (The Blood of the Mob), Saadeh writes: “The slogans Independence of Lebanon and Unification of Syria are weapons drawn not for the independence of Lebanon or the unification of Syria but to serve the nefarious interest of corrupt politicians, interests that are concordant with those of the religious establishments and their internecine activities”.

  43 Sanjaq is a Turkish word equivalent to province. In the Ottoman period, it was the administrative unit in much of the Near East.

  44 Peter A. Shambrook: French Imperialism in Syria, 1927-1936, pp291.

  45 Time magazine June 13, 1938.

  46 Antoun Saadeh: Complete Works, volume 2, p 58.

  47 Time magazine Jan 18, 1937.

  48 Antoun Saadeh: Complete Works, Beirut, 2001, volume 2, pp 95-98.

  49 Ibid, pp 99-100.

  50 Philip S. Khoury: Syria and the French Mandate: the politics of Arab Nationalism, 1920-1945, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1987

  51 Firro looking at the political history of the Alawis in the north and the Druzes in the center offers the following observations: “although the intellectuals of the two communities formulated the ideological arguments which would facilitate the adoption of nationalism together with Islamism, they were wary of the linkage between Islam in its Sunni form and nationalism. They preferred secular nationalism clearly separated from religion, or a nationalism that looked upon Islamic culture as a nationalist culture, without accepting Islam as the religion of a national state. Such tendencies explain the attraction of the Syrian Nationalist Party founded by a Greek Orthodox, Antun Sa’ada, or of the Ba’th (“renaissance”) party, which had been formulated as an ideology of Arab nationalism by an Alawi, Zaki al-Arsuzi, and organized as a political party by a Greek Orthodox, Michel ‘Aflaq.” Kais Firro: The Attitude of the Druzes and Alawis vis-à-vis Islam and Nationalism in Syria and Lebanon, in Syncretic Religious Communities in the Near East, edited by K Kehl-Bodrogi, B Kellner-Heinkele, and A Otter-Beaujean, Brill, Leiden, 1997, pp 95-96.

  52 Antoun Saadeh: Complete Works, volume 2, pp 59-63

  53 Antoun Saadeh: Complete Works, volume 2, p64.

  54 Philip S. Khoury: Syria and the French Mandate: the politics of Arab Nationalism, 1920-1945, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1987, p 525.

  55 Antoun Saadeh: Complete Works, volume 2, pp71-73.

  56 Ibid., pp105-109.

  57 Jureij, Gibran: Min al-Ju’bah, volume 3, p 222.

  58 Saadeh to George Murad, May 12, 1938, in Antoun Saadeh: Complete Works, volume 9, pp 25-28.

  59 Jureij, Gibran: Min al-Ju’bah, volume 3, pp706-709.

  60 Ibid, pp281-282.

  61 See report in J.N. Moore (ed.), The Arab-Israeli Conflict, volume III: Documents, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1974, p150.

  62 Meron Benvenisti, Maxine Kaufman Nunn: City of Stone: The Hidden History of Jerusalem, University of California Press, Berkley, CA, 1996, p209.

  63 Benny Morris: The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, pp 47-48.

  64 Antoun Saadeh: Memorandum of the SSNP to the League of Nations in Response to the Report of the Royal Commission Regarding the Partition of Southern Syria, July 14, 1937”, in Complete Works, volume 2, pp 133-137.

  65 Saadeh to Jureidini, October 2, 1937. Rasa’el Hubb, pp23.

  66 an-Nahda, issue 1, October 14, 1937.

  67 an-Nahda, Issue 1, p1.

  68 Saadeh: Ared Sari’ lil-Ahzab as-Siyasiyah al-Munhallat fi al-Jumhuriyah al-Lubnaniyah (A Rapid Survey of the Disbanded Political Parties in the Lebanese Republic – Part 1), Complete Works, volume 2, pp 322-326.

  69 Saadeh: Ared Sari’ lil-Ahzab as-Siyasiyah al-Munhallat fi al-Jumhuriyah al-Lubnaniyah (Part 1), Complete Works, volume 2, pp 322-326.

  70 In private, however, National Bloc leaders were not unified on their policy vis-à-vis the SSNP. In a letter from Paris in March 1936, Jamil Mardam advocates to his colleague in the National Bloc Fakhry Baroudi initiating contacts with the SSNP and supporting its activities in “coastal areas” (a euphemism for Lebanon and the Alawite region) and expressing doubt about any foreign connections with the SSNP. Letter from Jamil Mardam to Fakhri Baroudi dated March 27, 1936 published in Souria al-Jadidah, July 15, 1939.

  71 Quoted in Saadeh: Complete Works, volume 2, p28-30.

  72 Quoted in Jean Dayeh: Saadeh wan-Naziyah, page 31.

  73 Saadeh to Vice President of the National Bloc, June 15, 1936. Complete Works, Volume 9, p11.

  74 Tafakuk al-Kutlah an-Niha’I wa I’tizal Mardam (The Final Collapse of the National Bloc and the Resignation of Mardam), in Complete Works, volume 3, pp350-353.

  75 Complete Works, volume 2 pp362-365.

  76 I’tiqalat Dimashq (The Arrests
in Damascus). Complete Works, Volume 3, pp172-174.

  77 Naqed jadeed (A New Currency). Ibid., pp205-206.

  78 Siyasat al-Batch fi ash-Sham (Tyranny in the hinterland). Ibid., pp217-219.

  79 Philip S. Khoury: Factionalism among Syrian nationalists during the French Mandate. Int. J. Middle East Stud 13:441-469, 1981.

  80 Eliezer Tauber: The Formation of Modern Syria and Iraq, Translated by J.A. Reif, Routledge, London, 1995, pp56-57.

  81 Commins, David Dean: Historical Dictionary of Syria, Scarecrow Press, 2004, pp. 142, 236-37.

  82 The articles Antoun is referring to were published in al-Muqattam in 1934.

  83 Complete Works, volume 2, pp269-270 and volume 3, p173.

  84 Complete Works, volume 3, pp238-240.

  85 Complete Works, volume 11, p128.

  86 Complete Works, volume 3, pp315-316.

  87 Complete Works, volume 5, pp257-258.

  88 Ayam May al-Akhira (The Last Days of May), Complete Works volume 4, pp 320-332.

  89 The mental hospital was built in 1898 by Theophilus Waldmeier on a hilly suburb of Beirut known as al-Asfourieh. In the 19th century, there was no modern asylum for the mentally ill in the whole of the Middle East. Waldmeier set out for Europe and America, spending two years in pursuit of financial backing and information on the latest methods of treating the mentally ill. In 1898, he returned to Lebanon and purchased 34 acres of land on a hillside overlooking the city of Beirut. The Hospital at Asfouriyeh was officially closed on 10 April 1982.

  90 Pamphlet is reproduced in Salim Mujais: Saadeh wa al-Ikliruss al-Marouni (Saadeh and the Maronite Ecclesiasts), Beirut, 1993.

  91 al-Rad ala Khitab al-Batrayrek al-Marouni (Rebuttal of the Speech of the Maronite Patriarch), Complete Works, volume 2, pp 339-361.

  92 Complete Works, volume 3, pp408-412; volume 8, pp318-320.

  93 Complete Works, volume 4, p55.

  94 Kamal Maalouf Abou-Chaar: Memoirs of Grandma Kamal: Unique Personal Experiences and Encounters. World Book Publishing, Beirut, 1999, p 94.

  95 The narrative of Antoun’s stay in Trans-Jordan is derived principally from a letter Antoun wrote to Fakhri Maaluf on June 25, 1938 upon his arrival to Cyprus. Complete Works, volume 9, pp32-33.

  96 Maan Abu Nowar: The Jordanian-Israeli War, 1948-1951: A History of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Garnet and Ithaca Press, 2002, pp 67. Joseph Andoni Massad: Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan. Columbia University Press, NY, 2001, p 91.

  97 Saadeh does not identify the Chief Minister’s name in his letter, but Hashim was the Chief Minister from 1933 to September 1938. Mary C. Wilson: King Abdullah, Britain and the Making of Jordan, p 217.

  98 The New York Times called it “the biggest barbed wire fence in the world”. See article “The Problem of Palestine”, New York Times, August 24, 1938, page 20.

  99 See the article “Tegart’s Wall” in Time magazine, Monday June 20, 1938: “Britain’s most ingenious solution for handling terrorism in Palestine was revealed in Geneva last week to the League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission ... Following a suggestion of mail-fisted Sir Charles Tegart, now adviser to the Palestine Government on the suppression of terrorism, a barbed wire barrier to keep out terrorists is being strung along the entire Palestine frontier at a cost of $450,000. This includes a nine-foot barbed wire fence between Palestine and French-mandated Lebanon and Syria, which border Palestine on the north and northeast. A lot of Palestine’s tougher Arabs come from those two mandates. The fence will be completed in August, announced Sir John. Almost as he spoke, a band of Arab terrorists swooped down on a section of the fence, dubbed Tegart’s Wall, ripped it up and carted it across the frontier into Lebanon”.

  100 Letter to Fakhri Maaluf, June 25, 1938. Complete Works, volume 9, pp. 32-34.

  101 Letter to Fakhri Maaluf, July 2, 1938. Complete Works, volume 9, pp. 40-45.

  102 Letter to Abdallah Qubersi, July1, 1938. Ibid., pp. 38-39.

  103 Letter to Fakhri Maaluf, June 28, 1938. Ibid., pp 35-37.

  104 Letter to Fakhri Maaluf, July 12, 1938, Ibid., pp. 55-58.

  105 Letter to Fakhri Maaluf, June 28, 1938. Ibid, pp. 35-37.

  106 Letters to Fakhri Maaluf, July 2, 9 and 12, 1938, Ibid., pp. 40-58.

  107 Letter to William Saba, July 2, 1938, Ibid, pp 46-47.

  108 Letter to Fakhri Maaluf, July 9, 1938, Ibid, p. 48-54.

  109 The periodical named al-Rasa’el (Letters) was still in publication in 1941. Letter to William Bahliss, April 8, 1941. Complete Works, volume 10, pp.66-67.

  110 Fawzi Razeeq: Kayf ta’araftu ela Saadeh (How I met Saadeh), first published in al-Rasa’el, a publication by the SSNP branch in Berlin and republished in Souria al-Jadida April 26, 1941.

  111 Complete Works, volume 3, pp 455.

  112 Francis Nicosia: The Third Reich and the Palestine question, I.B. Tauris & Co., London, 1985, pp170-171.

  113 Letter to William Bahliss, August 6, 1941. Complete Works, volume 10, p.126; and September 24, 1941, ibid., pp.168-172.

  114 Reported in Souria al-Jadidah October 21, 1939.

  115 Daoud Mujais was a social reformer and political activist. He was a distant relative of Saadeh and active in Syria before World War I and in Chile and Mexico after.

  Exile and Repression (1938-1947)

  After completing his visit in Germany, Saadeh returned to Italy and sailed from the port of Genoa to South America. Earlier in the century, the Syrians in South America had shown a commitment to the Syrian cause, particularly when nationalist thinkers like Saadeh’s father Dr. Khalil Saadeh were in their midst. Saadeh would later describe his stay in South America as the most odious prison sentence he had ever experienced, but such were not the indications when he embarked on his voyage. He left Syria as the leader of the foremost organized political movement, an embodiment of Syria’s salvation and future. His trip was to secure the implements, financial and political, for the national liberation movement. He carried with him a legacy of struggle, a vision of lofty ideals, and the foundations of a new school of thought. He was bringing to his fellow Syrians in the diaspora the opportunity to join the ranks of a transformative political-social-cultural movement that would restore their dignity and hope.

  Dr. Khalil Saadeh had died in 1934 and the flames of Syrian nationalism and militancy had weakened. The propaganda of the Mandate and separatist and confessional causes awakened old hostilities and contradictions. The Mandate authorities had contrived with separatists to defame the cause of the SSNP and to raise suspicions in South American states against the activity of Saadeh.

  On arrival in Brazil at the end of November 1938, Saadeh rapidly initiated public activities to support the cause of his party and to bring information about the Syrian National movement into the mainstream of public opinion through interviews with Brazilian newspapers. The Syrian community in Brazil knew Saadeh because of his prior residence there and by his reputation. He had lived in Brazil for ten years from 1920 until 1930 and had participated in the cultural life, not only of the Syrian community but the broader Brazilian community as well. Saadeh wasted no time in embarking on a very active and dynamic range of activities in the Syrian community.

  With the advent of 1939, Saadeh saw the opportunity to publish a weekly newspaper in São Paulo. The first issue of Souria al-Jadida (The New Syria) appeared on March 11, 1939 and the journal was one of the enduring achievements of Saadeh’s visit to Brazil. Saadeh used this vehicle to convey to the Syrians in the diaspora and back home in Syria the history of the struggle of the SSNP and its approach to international and national events. The newspaper was the sole public forum and mouthpiece of the SSNP at that time given the draconian suppression of freedom of speech in Syria by the French. Saadeh’s efforts in São Paulo progressed well and many elements in the Syrian community were showing favorable responses to the principles that laid the foundation of a strong union in the Syrian nation and eliminated all causes of sectarian discord and socio-economic
injustices. On Saadeh’s 35th birthday, a banquet was held in his honor during which he continued the tradition of using the occasion to expand on the teachings and program of the SSNP.

  The publication of Souria al-Jadida was a clear indicator of the success of Saadeh in making inroads into the political life of the Syrian community in Brazil. It also signified that the SSNP had now acquired a platform of considerable reach since the closure by the Mandate authorities of an-Nahda the year before. Saadeh’s success must have alarmed the enemies of the SSNP and galvanized them into plotting a counter campaign centered on slander and innuendos. Taking advantage of the Brazilian laws prohibiting political activities on behalf of foreign powers, Lebanese separatist elements in the community, in collusion with French diplomatic representatives, advanced to the Brazilian authorities accusations that Saadeh and his companions were agents of European Nazi and Fascist regimes. On March 23, 1939, the Delegacia de Order Politica e Social issued a warrant for the arrest of Saadeh and his two closest aides. During his incarceration, Saadeh was kept mostly incommunicado and treated poorly.1 Saadeh was subjected to a detailed interrogation and one can surmise that it must have involved queries about the nature of his organization and any associations with foreign powers.

  It is clear from subsequent developments that he succeeded in demonstrating to the Brazilian authorities the independence of his activity from any allegiance or cooperation with foreign powers. He was released on April 30, 1939, five weeks after his arrest. The Brazilian authorities, however, still had to deal with the French request for extradition. To avoid an uncomfortable diplomatic squabble, the Brazilian authorities invited Saadeh to leave the country by the date of the expiration of his original entry permit, two weeks after his release.