In 1922, right after he completed his medical studies in the
University of Vienna, Weisl immigrated to the
Holy Land and received a Palestine passport. When, four decades later, he was asked by the Austrian ambassador to Israel why he had not returned to the "beloved Vienna" after the war, Weisl answered: "When I was a medical student in Vienna
graffiti on the walls and doors of the toilets called: "Jews out!". And I always read toilet literature seriously." In 1924 Wolfgang von Weisl launched a career as the representative of
Ullstein, the publication house, to the
Near East and the Islamic countries. His articles were translated and published all over the world. He was considered a world specialist in Islam and was listed in The Statesman's Year Book year after year. In 1925 Weisl was a founding member of the
Revisionist Party. Weisl was welcome at kings' and shahs' courts: He was received by
the Khalif, Hussein, the Hedjazi king – when he was a king, and was the only European to have dined with the Khalif at his last royal meal, before his
forced exile. He was a guest of King
Ibn Saud, stayed at the home of
Sultan al-Atrash, the leader of the
Druze's insurgency, was in the palace of the
Emir Abdallah of
Trans-Jordan and his personal doctor, he was the personal and official guide and
dragoman of
King Fuad of Egypt during his state visit in Germany, and visited
Jebel Druze during the
rebellion. He could have made a great difference in what would later become the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: He offered
Feisal, King of Iraq, a
transfer of
Palestinian Arabs to cultivate his vast unpopulated lands, received the king's blessing but encountered British objections. In
Egypt he befriended
Zaglul Pasha who hoped that the Zionists would sit on the Eastern shore of the
Suez Canal understanding what the British refused to understand ...
Sinai did not belong to Egypt then. In 1929, at the time of the Feast of
Purim, Dr. von Weisl was invited on the legendary
Zeppelin trip from Berlin to the Mediterranean. On board were five German ministers, an Egyptian journalist, Graf Zeppelin's widow and other international public figures. Dr. Herman Badet, of the
Prussian Interior Ministry, a religious Jew, read together with Weisl from the
Esther Scroll while the Zeppelin hovered above the city of
Tel Aviv to the excited cheers of the crowd below. Above the
Dead Sea Weisl opened a
Carmel Mizrahi bottle of wine and the travellers toasted the "People of Israel and their homeland". A few months later, during the
bloody disturbances of August 1929, Weisl was stabbed by an Arab and was thought dead. Eulogies are published around the world and in one of them he is mentioned as the
Mark Twain of the German language, postcards with his picture are sold, trees are planted in his honour and prayers are given for his recovery. He survived and testified in front of the
Shaw Commission. In 1931 von Weisl called to prepare for
world war and predicted the rise of
Hitler, calling on the Jews to save themselves. During this time he was active against the partition of what was left of the
Land of Israel – after a
great portion was separated and given to Hussein. In 1935 Weisl proposed
illegal immigration to Palestine and, overruling Jabotinsky's opposition, raised the funds needed for the first "illegal" immigrants' ship
"Af Al Pi" (Despite). On 1 September 1946, jailed in
Latrun, Weisl wrote to the British High Commissioner: "… I have the honour to inform you that I shall abstain from taking food for a period of 28 days… I am well aware of the fact that neither my fasting nor that of anybody else will influence the attitude or the decisions of the men who rule today over Palestine and who, apparently, regard it as their duty to hinder by all means the return of Israel to its Home…" and turned from an unusual and controversial leader – even in his own party – to a national hero. ==Death and legacy==