ABSTRACT
Much has been written about the role of the International Brigades (hereafter IB) in the Spanish Civil War. Very little attention, though, has been given to Arab volunteers who fought alongside the Republicans in a demonstration of international solidarity. Arabs were drawn from across the Middle East to fight a war far away from home. This chapter is devoted to the virtually unexplored histories of Arab Palestinians who joined the struggle against the nationalist forces. Despite their willingness to fight and die for their ideals in “other people’s war,” they were confronted, as this chapter shows, both by the racism and distrust of some of their Republican and communist brothers in arms and by the incomprehension and rejection of conservative and nationalistic Arab Palestinian culture. This extends to their marginalization in Palestinian historical memory even today.
