Arabs to Blame

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 936, 1 April 1930, Page 9

Arabs to Blame

PALESTINE DISTURBANCES Wanted Self-Government COMMISSION REPORTS TO COMMONS British Official -Wireless Received Noon. RUGBY. Monday. THE report of the Commission on the Palestine disturbances of August last was presented to Parliament today. The commissioners have come to the conclusion that from the beginning the outbreak was an attack upon the Jews by Arabs, for which no excuse has been established. A few attacks by Jews upon Arabs were mostly retaliatory.

“There is no proof,” the report says, | “that the Grand Mufti or the Pales- j tine Arab Executive premeditated or organised the disturbances, as has been ; alleged. The outbreak neither was, nor was intended to be, a revolt against British authority.” The commissioners have no serious criticism to make of the action taken by the Palestine Government, either immediately before or after the outbreak. They consider the Government has throughout discharged to the best of its ability the difficult task of maintaining impartiality between the two peoples, whose leaders have displayed little tendency to compromise. commission considers the Jewish enterprise and immigration, when not exceeding the country’s absorptive capacity, have conferred material benefits on Palestine which the Arabs have shared, but with regard to immigation, they consider the Jewish authorities departed from the doctrine laid down in 1922 and accepted by the Zionist organisation, and that the Zionist claims have been calculated to create among the Arabs apprehensions of the loss of livelihood and political subjection. TURNED OFF LAND Attention is drawn to the number of evictio’ | of Arab cultivators upon land they occupied without alternative land having been provided. Complaint is not made against Jewish land companies, who in some cases paid cash compensation and acted with the Government’s knowledge, but an acute situation has been produced and a discontented class without land is being created, which is a potential source of danger. It is urgent, the Commission points out, that some remedy be found for this situation. The Commission’s conclusion is that Palestine cannot support an increased agricultural population without radical changes in farming methods. It is believed the difficulties of the Palestine Government are aggravated by Arab resentment at having no measure of self Government, and having, unlike the jew r s, no direct access to His Majesty’s Government. The reduction of the garrison in Palestine and trans-Jordan is considered to have been carried too far. The commission considers the fundamental cause of the disturbances was the animosity of the Arabs toward the Jews, arising from disappointment of their political and national aspirations and fear for their economic future. INFLUENCE OF WAILING WALL The immediate causes were re peated incidents in connection w'ith the Wailing Wall, provocative Press articles on both sides, propaganda among less educated Arabs, the inadequacy of military forces and police and the belief among the Arabs that the Palestine Government’s decisions could be influenced by political considerations. The primary recommendation of the commission is that the Government should issue immediately a statement of policy and make plan* its intention of carrying out that

policy with all the resources at its command. Such a statement would be more valuable If it contained a clearlydefined interpretation by the British Government of passages in the mandate safeguarding the rights of nonJewish communities, and laid down more explicit directions for the guidance of the Palestine Government in policy on vital issues, such as immigration and land. These recommendations are based largely on the assumption that the proposed definition of policy will clearly state that the rights of nonJewish communities will be fully safeguarded. It recommends that a clear statement be issued of future policy for the control of Jewish immigration, and that the administrative machinery be examined with a view to preventing a repetition of the excessive imr ~ ~ : nn of the years 1925 and 1926. IMMIGRATION PROBLEM Machinery should be devised for consulting the non-Jewish interests on immigration questions. It is proposed that a scientific inquiry be held into projects of improved methods of cultivation being introduced. A land policy could then be regulated in the light of results of the inquiry. Meanwhile, measures should be taken to check the present tendency toward eviction of peasant cultivators. The Government should consider means of providing poorer cultivators with credit facilities. No formal recommendation regarding constitutional developments is made, but attention is drawn to the view already expressed in the report that resentment of the Arabs at their failure to obtain any measure of selfgovernment is aggravating the difficulties. The commission recommended that a commission be appointed to determine the rights and claims in connection with the Wailing Wall; that more effective control of Press propaganda be considered; and that the British Government reaffirm that the special position assigned to the Zionist organisation does not entitle it to have a share in the government of Palestine. The existing garrison should be maintained for the present, and an independent inquiry he made into police organisations. MORE SERIOUS VIEW Attached to the report is a note of reservation by Mr. Snell, a member of the commission. He takes a more serious view of the responsibility of the Arab leaders for the disturbances, and criticises the action of the Palestine Government in certain respects. He does not endorse the criticisms of the Jewish authorities regarding immigration limits. Mr. Snell recommends more extensive land inquiry than that contemplated by his colleagues, emphasising the necessity of co-operation between the Jews and Arabs. He proposes that a few; men of both races, of high character and influence, should meet and discuss the possibility of a common j effort as the first step toward racial I co-operation.