The Waikato Times TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1939 ARABS' CASE IN PALESTINE

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20730, 14 February 1939, Page 6

The Waikato Times TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1939 ARABS' CASE IN PALESTINE

statement of the Arabs’ case at the Palestine conference has laid bare the real cause of the grievances and opened the whole subject for unbiassed examination. The difficulties of reaching a settlement by compromise have not been lessened, if it is still intended to establish a national home for the Jews in Palestine. It may be that the Arabs will recognise a Jewish minority, but it is plain that they Mill not agree to the Jews over-running (he country. Prince Hussein emphasised that the Arabs had nothing in common with anti-Semitism and were not inspired by hostility towards the British or any other people, but they maintained the right to remain in undisturbed possession of a country which they had occupied for 1300 years and to safeguard their national existence. That claim is difficult to refute.

Fearlessly the Arabs attacked the British Administration of Palestine. They declared they had beeD denied the independence promised by Britain’s pledge in 1915 in return for the Arabs’ share in the allied victory. They said the terms of the mandate had proved a flagrant violation not only of promises, but of the right of political independence specifically recognised by the Covenant of the League of Nations. They claimed that the real issue was whether the Arabs should be evicted in order to provide a national home for the Jews. It is well that neither party should mince matters, for the aim of the conference is to reach a settlement on a basis of justice.

Britain had hoped that under the partition scheme Jew? and Arabs would settle down side by side in the peaceful development of a backward country. The Arabs have raised the question whether Britain in the administration of the mandate has not overlooked the Arabs’ moral claims to Palestine in the Balfour Declaration, which promised the Jews a new national home. The Jews’ reply and Britain’s yet undisclosed alternative scheme will be awaited with interest. If the greatest concession that can be expected from the Arabs is a recognition of a Jewish minority under Arab sovereignty, settlement on the lines previously envisaged by Britain seems almost impossible.

If the reply to the Arab case does not shake Prince Hussein’s argument a new line of approach may be necessary. The Jewish need is desperate, but Britain will not desire to press forward with their settlement in Palestine in violation of the Arabs’ established rights. The whole problem bristles with difficulties, and it may be necessary before the conference has proceeded far for Britain to reveal its alternative proposals. Mutual agreement- between Arabs and Jews is imminently desirable, but the parties still seem very far apart, and. sympathetic mediation by Britain seems likely to be the determining factor.