ANTI-SEMITISM.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 305, 12 September 1929, Page 1

ANTI-SEMITISM.

PALESTINE TROUBLES. The Hostile Arab.

Commenting on the cabled reports of Arab rioting in Palestine a prominent member of the Jewish community in Christchurch said that the principal disturbing factor seemed to oe jealousy on the part of the Arabs. Clashes seemed to occur when religious celebrations weie being neld. Modern Palestine had been founded as a Jewish colony by Britain, and the Jews had transformed the country by their economic and social ad- 1 vances.

Some light on the situation in Palestine was given in a speech by Liuatenpnt-Coinmander Kenworthy in toe British House of Commons uu.ing the Colonial Office Estimates debate in April last, in the course ol' which he said:—

“ Somewhere a spark of antiSemitism is smouldering, and its j smoke is seen in incidents like that of the Wailing Wall. I want to take | this opportunity of protesting | against what I consider the unsym- • pathetic treatment of tiie Jews. The I Wailing Wail of the Temple is one of I the most sacred spots to the Jewish ■ race the world over, and on their most sacred feast, the Day of Atonement, we had these regrettable incidents in which, because temporary shelters had been placed against the Wall, the Arab police* were allowed to driye the worshippers away. lam told that it never happened under Turkish lule—the Turks as between one religion and another keeping the peace very well indeed —but that something is wrong somewhere in the Palestinian administration. We are in honour committed to carrying ; out the p edge that was given in the j Mandate by Lord Balfour and, when | we feel that the spirit of that pledge | is being violated, it is our duty to ' protest. Let us have fair play all round. If we mean to keep the status j quo strictly, let it be done on both I sides, and, if the Moslems are infringing the status quo, they must j kindly and sympathetically be made ; to desist also.

“ For some nine years the Conservative Party has been very hostile to the declared policy of successive British Governments in Palestine. Certain Conservatives have lost no opportunity of hindering, first of all, the l!u----tenberg Concession. Mr. Rutenberg is one of the most remarkable electrical engineers of this age. He is doing a tremendous work in the Middle East in electrical development, and both in another place and here certain members have lost no opportunity of pinpricking and obstructing Mr. Rutenberg. Jewish Pioneers.

“It is Ilia'll time to tak"> a step forward in Palestine. The ‘ clear out ">f Palestine ’ cry has been stopped. The Government can with safety show a leather more friendly attitude to the Jewish settlors there. In say-

•'n.g ‘ fr : o”db' at+Pude ’ T am speaking at first hand. I revisited Palestine two years ago, and I was amazed at the wonderful progress that had been made. There was a country that had not only suffered from centuries of Turkish misrule and oppression, hut was devastated by a very hardfought campaign during the war. Now, in a short space of seven years, wonders have been worked. “How has it been done? It has been done by the energy and devotion of a small number of pioneers who went to develop our mandated territory in Palestine with nioney that they had raised from all over the world. They raised £19,000,000 in hard cash, and it has been put into our mandated territory bv those neople. They have picked the finest of the young men and girls in their early twenties—physically strong well educated, often with university degrees—and they have gone out as pioneers, drained swamps. built roads, cultivated the country, and transformed the whole face of the mandated territory. “ Not only is Palestine to-day paying its way, including the cost of the British garrison or Air Force, hut it is the only part of the formt Ottoman dominions that is paying its share of the interest on the Otto-

man debt to this country. The country has a growing trade which is the result ot the efforts of these Jews who wish to restore their ancient national home in what was the land of their forefathers. The policy of the Government’s administration should be far mere generous.” “Detestable Anti-Semitism.”

Colonel Wedgwood said: “ 1 hope ! we shall put an end to that deLotable attitude of anti-Semitism which i ljS at l,ie bottom of the v.hcle k-ck of l co-operation that we see in Palestine. ! Every religious sect in Palestine has I settled down with a vested interest . in preserving the particular formula of each church, with the result that you have in Palestine more antiSemitism than can be seen. I will not say in Hungary, hut more than you have in tnis count,y or in America. lake the atmosphere of hostility in regard to roads. The two most important citicus in Palestine are Haifa and Tel Aviv. Road making has been going on all over the country. The road which is most needed is from Haifa to Tel Aviv, fiut the Jews say that,' when the Government builds roads, they go through all the Arab towns and villages, but that any roads that suit the Jews arc not made.

“ Take the ease of taxation. No one could conceive of more unjust taxation than prevails in that country to-day. It is directed against the Jews—a survival of Turkish times, of course.

“ Another difficulty is that the Jews are in Palestine the higher civilisation. I am confident that the Under-Secretary is determined to make Palestine develop into a selfgoverning countiy which shall take its place as one of the free self-gov-erning dominions of the British Empire. We are risking this goal by allowing this dissatisfaction with British administration to grow. The British administration know that they have no friends among the Arab intelligentsia. Whether in Palestine,

or Egypt, or India, or Iraq, the Moslem and the Arab do not want British rule. Are you going to allow the other element in the Palestinian population gradually to grow into the same attitude?” Setback to Zionism.

In connection with the recent riots in Jerusalem between the Jewish and Moslem factions, Mr. T. JJoddiligton, who represents the Christadeipliian.s in Christchurch and for thg past 20 >oars has been actively associated with the Zionist movement, stated to a reporter of the Christchurch Press that the trouble which had arisen meant a great setback to the Zionist movement. The riots would undoubtedly temporarily disorganise the tourist traffic upon which the Jewish community was largely dependent. It would also projudice immigration. Mr. Haddington stated that th« trouble was not, as had been stated, a long-standing one, in support of which lie quoted an extract from the “ Christadelphian” magazine of April last, in which Commander Kenworthy, of the Seventh Dominion League, said: “ The idea that the mass of Arabs

living in Palestine were hostile to the Tews and that the Jews were hostile to the Arabs was absolute nonsense. There was no foundation for it whatever. The Arabs were sending their children to the Jewish school.-, where they weie obtaining instruction from Zionists, who in the troubles cf

Europe had been glad to go to Palestine as refugees. The Arabs sent their sick to the .finish in . piuil. o 1,

what was most important of ail, the Arab and Jewish workmen were organised in the same trade un.io.v-'. They had the same economic interests, and the only cause of any ki id of trouble was the agitation o'" a few professional agitators and tl • ir dupes in that country.”