Hostile Arabs

PALESTINE*

Hale and hearty at the age of 76, Arthur James Balfour, Earl of that name, descended from his bedroom one bright foggy morning into his electrically lit study in his electrically lit house in Carlton Gardens, London. He sank agedly into a chair before his writing desk, took up a bunch of letters, sorted them, opened a cablegram from Palestine sent by the Arab Executive, political agency of the Arabs, read:

"Realizing that the Balfour Declaration contains a policy that is fatal to Palestine, and on motion of the district branches of the Moslem and Christian Association of Palestine, the Arab Executive has passed the following resolution:

" 'Inhabitants who are victims of the aforesaid policy will withhold the reception otherwise due to Lord Balfour. On the day of his arrival, meetings will be held in places of worship for protest and prayer. Representatives of Arab bodies, recognized or unrecognized, and other national bodies and notables, will refrain from meeting him publicly or privately. The authorities responsible for the Holy Places and national institutions will withhold leave of access to them. Arabic papers will appear with black borders and brief comments in English on the Balfour Declaration. Political authorities in Arab countries will associate themselves with the said protests and prayers. The Palestine Government is notified that it will be responsible for consequences resulting from Jewish demonstrations, public or private, authorized or unauthorized."

Why this hostility? The Balfour Declaration of 1917, referred to in the cable, declared that "His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people . ," but specifically stipulated that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish [chiefly Arab] communities in Palestine. ..." The letter and the spirit of this agreement have been carried out, according to British and Jewish sources.

But the fact remains that the British Government has tacitly undertaken to reconcile irreconcilable peoples and policies. Within Palestine, which is about the same size as the state of New Hampshire, there are about 757,182 people (1922 census), of whom 77% are Moslems, 11% Jews, 9% Christians, and 3% other religions. The Moslems are practically all Arabs who view with considerable alarm the infiltration of the thrifty Jews. The issue is essentially between the Arab and the Jew; and since Britain tries ineffectually to side with both, a further issue between Arab and Britisher is created.

The Arab, as he has been in possession of the country for centuries, regards himself as a national of Palestine and consequently is opposed to the Jews coming into the country and considering themselves equally Palestine nationals. This resentment is heightened by the fact that the Arabs, although owning most of the land, are poor; while the Jews seemingly have unlimited wealth behind them, which comes in from the officially recognized Zionist organization.

The Arab is opposed, as he always has been, to change; and the one thing that the Jews are doing is changing the whole aspect of the land. The Jews, for the most part, settle on the swamps and the dry sand belts. The swamps they drain and the sand patches they fertilize and irrigate. With much money at their disposal, the Jews are often able to buy good land from Arab proprietors over the heads of the Arab tenants; and in the hands of the Jews the land is more efficiently cultivated. In these things the Arab finds good material for a constant stream of propaganda against the Jews, whom he charges with pursuing a policy calculated to drive the Arab from the country.

In the past five years, the British Administration under Sir Herbert Louis Samuel, who is allegedly retiring shortly, has built many first-class roads, improved the railways, installed telephones in the cities, built many houses, carried on expensive irrigation and drainage schemes, reforested much land, increased the agricultural living by a large figure. These are some of the benefits that accrue alike to Christian, Jew and Arab; but the latter uses these signs of change, particularly in reference to the taxation levied to meet the cost of such improvements, to foment trouble. The Arab Executive, the mouthpiece of the educated Arabs, tells the mass of its less fortunate brethren that if it were not for taxation they, too, could do what the Jews are doing; that taxation is levied for the purpose of oppressing them. Therefore, so long as the Balfour Declaration remains in force, all good Arabs must refuse to cooperate with the British Administration.

*British Mandate.