newacctidk
Mandatory Palestine was effectively a 3 sided civil war. Groups like the Irgun committed terrorism upon the British Mandate the "Palestine Police" who are colonial cops effectively, because they felt the Mandate was going to create an eventual pluralistic state. The Palestinians and other Arabs began militarizing in response to several massacres by Jewish settlers. Over a hundred British police, many being conscripts stationed there, joined the Arabs or the Zionists
It is difficult to be certain of their number, and reported figures have varied. For the pro-Jewish group of deserters, one article put the number at twelve, while a Jewish veterans’ association estimated that there were around 20. 2 We have identified 17 deserters by name, all of whom joined the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The pro-Arab deserters were more dispersed, with individuals joining the irregular Palestinian Arab militia al-Jihad al-Muqaddas (Holy War Army), led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husseini and Hasan Salama, as well as the Arab Liberation Army (ALA), a force established by the Arab League, with Fawzi al-Qawuqji as its main commander. 3 Deserters were also witnessed fighting with Transjordan’s professional and effective force, the Arab Legion, commanded by the seconded British officer, John Bagot Glubb.4 A low estimate of this pro-Arab group of deserters was put at 53,5 while the highest estimate set their number at around 200.6 After analysing numerous reports on and mentions of these pro-Arab deserters, a figure of between 100 and 200 spread across all three forces seems correct.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26987027
Some for very overtly antisemitic reasons though, like those of the British League - Palestine Branch which was an off-shoot of Mosely's British League of Fascists. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2739222
You also had professional British soldiers like Glubb and his Arab Legion which officially served Transjordan and fought against the Zionists in the 48 war. Glubb is cool, he and his wife adopted a Bedouin girl and then adopted two Palestinian children orphaned in 1948. His white biological son converted as soon as he was of age, and was part of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman, and other leftist Arab-Omani organizations. It is funny how the "going native" stereotype simplifies things in such a way that it can ignore or dismiss British people who genuinely felt a shared humanity with Britain's subjects/victims.
Reminded of this convo from "The Alliance that never was"
The Soviet press attaché, A. A. Smirnov, was at the German foreign ministry on July 31x and met the deputy head of the press bureau, B. von Stumm. Germany had “no aggressive plans against the Soviet Union,” Stumm said.
“We haven’t forgotten what Hitler wrote in his book [Mein Kampf],” replied Smirnov.
“Ach, that,” exclaimed Stumm, “there’s a big difference between what is said and what is done in practice. The book was written in prison, a long time ago, hastily ... what’s written in that book is out of date, and we shouldn’t take it seriously.”?? But Mein Kampf with its visions of eastern conquest was never far from the Soviet mind.
I think her complaint then is irrelevant to anarchism vs communism. It was not the existence of a state that led to Russification, it was chauvinism and absolute assumptions about what development looks like. Anarchists can make the exact same mistakes. Greater autonomy could help, but that autonomy would only be able to stem the pressure if the Kazakh polity has power and is organized well.
No matter what one thinks of Russification, it is just not an issue that can be chalked up to statism