Palestine Salama was born in the village
Qula in 1913 during the
Ottoman rule over
Palestine. He was one of the leaders of armed Arab groups who fought against British authorities and the
Yishuv. He participated in the violent 1933 Jaffa demonstrations during the
1933 Palestine riots, and became a leader of the
1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine. At the beginning of the Revolt in early May 1936 he was assigned to command the Lydda - al-Ramla - Jaffa area. He planned and led a number of successful operations against the British mandatory forces and the Yishuv. These operations included blowing up railway tracks and electrical power poles, severing lines of communication, and burning Yishuv orchards. In 1938 Salama was wounded when he blew up a train on the Lydda-Haifa line. Salama fought under
nom de guerre Abu Ali.
Kingdom of Iraq After the Arab revolt collapsed in Palestine and the breaking of World War II, in October 1939, Salama fled via
Beirut and
Damascus to Baghdad, together with the mufti of Jerusalem
Hajj Amin al-Husseini,
Arab High Committee members
Jamal al-Husayni,
Rafiq al-Tamimi and the revolt military leaders
Fawzi al-Qawuqji and Arif Abd al-Razzaq. When he was in Damascus, Syria in 1939, according to British records, Salama
"approached indirectly" the British and offered his services to round up his past comrades. The British declined. In Iraq Salama had graduated the Military College at Baghdad together with other
Army of the Holy War commanders including
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and 'Abd-al-Rahim Mahmud. The military training was possible due to the special relationship between the mufti and the Iraqi government. Salama supported
Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and led a group of 165 Palestinian fighters. He participated in the
Rashid Ali coup of 1941 and the subsequent
Anglo-Iraqi War.
World War II and Operation Atlas Salama followed the grand mufti al-Husseini to Nazi Germany and became his senior aid and a virtual covert operative of the Germans." Salama fled to Berlin from Iraq as a member of the mufti's entourage which included also
Fawzi al-Qawuqji. The mufti and his aids were put on payroll by Nazis and were provided with office and living space for the duration of the war. Salama took a German wife and went through commando and sabotage training, and served a member of a special commando unit of the German foreign intelligence organization
Amt VI. He participated in
Operation ATLAS: on the night of October 6, 1944, Salama and four other commandos (three
German Templars and one Palestinian Arab) parachuted from a German plane into mandatory Palestine over
Wadi Qelt. Their equipment reportedly included explosives, submachine guns, dynamite, radio equipment and 5,000
Pound sterling. They had some poison capsules intended to liquidate locals believed to be collaborating with the mandatory authorities One of the Germans and Salama evaded capture, and he took refuge in
Qula, where a physician treated his injured foot. The operation was intended to supply local Palestinian Arab resistance groups with resources and arms, and to direct sabotage activity primarily at Jewish (rather than British) targets.
1947–1948 Palestine War in 2015 In 1947 Salameh re-emerged as second-in-command of the
Army of the Holy War, a force of
Palestinian irregulars in the
1947–48 Civil War associated with Grand Mufti al-Husseini. The force has been described as
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni's "personal" army. Salama had retrieved Nazi arms that had been hidden in the Egyptian desert during WWII, and on December 8, 1947, used them to attack
Tel Aviv's
Hatikva Quarter.
Haganah had prior information and were expecting the attack. After three-hour battle Palestinians retreated, Salama lost about one hundred men killed. The mufti assigned Salama to the Lydda district, the appointment acknowledged by the Military Committee of the
Arab league, however after Jaffa's commander Al-Hawwari, who was appointed at December 1947, had openly met with Haganah intelligence service officers to discuss cease-fire, Al-Hawwari was abolished from Jaffa. At January 22, Salama had arrived at
Jaffa commanding forty Bosnian Yugoslavian troops, who were experienced soldiers familiar with preparing, using explosives and building fortifications, probably veterans of the Muslim division of
Waffen SS recruited by the mufti for Nazis. Salama remained in Jaffa for ten days. Salama was partially successful in organizing militia of five hundred men from the armed groups active in Jaffa, though some joined
"only nominally". As a regional commander Salama organised activity along the roads in his region along Al-Ramla - Jaffa road. About five hundred Bosnian volunteers joined Salama and Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni ranks. Salama may have known Bosnian
Waffen SS 13th Handžar (’Knife’) veterans who joined from his training in Germany during World War II. Foreign volunteers were important part of Salama force, since local Arabs avoided taking part in fighting. During March 1948 Haganah intelligence had learned that Salama together with Iraqi commander of Al-Ramla established command headquarters in a four-storey building near al-Ramla. On April 5,
Givati Brigade's company infiltrated and destroyed the compound, 25 Arabs were killed. Salama was not harmed, however his escape was deemed
"disgraceful". However Salama returned to the destroyed building, retrieved the equipment and established his new command headquarters at
Yehudia village. There are reports that Salama used ex-Nazi advisors in his fight in Palestine. Salama was a member of the
Palestine Arab Party. Salama was injured in the battle of
Ra's al-‘Ayn and died on 2 June 1948. He was the father of
Ali Hassan Salameh, chief of
Black September and the man chiefly responsible of the
Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympics. ==References==