PALESTINE HAS A NAME FOR IT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 186, 15 January 1943, Page 12

PALESTINE HAS A NAME

FOR IT

New Zealand Banker Diseusses The Jewish Co-Operative Settlements

NEW ZEALAND soldier who has recently returned from the Middle East told The Listener last week that nothing had interested him more during all the time he had been overseas than the co-operative settlements of Jews on the Palestine coast. No one had any money, but no one lacked any of the things that money could buy. No one could look forward to the accumulation of wealth, but everyone was happy. "When I say that no one has any money I mean, of course, that no one has money as an individual. No one works for wages, or makes a money charge for any service; but the community as a whole is on the money system. It must buy what it cannot produce, -and sell its surplus. So it must maintain money relations with the outside world.’ "The residents of each settlement live in a village community, and the land they cultivate lies round about. In some cases it may be a mile or two away from the village, and then there may be a kitchen or cook-house on the spot. But in general the domestic and cultural life is centred in the village." These are of course abnormal times, he added, and each village therefore arranges its own protection. As a rule Patrols go in pairs to guard the crops and orchards by night. Women have also learnt to shoot for

protection in an emergency. They Were Happy He did not suggest that New Zealanders would be happy under the same conditions — husband and wife in a single room, and their children separated from them in public dormitories; but he was certain that the Jews he saw were happy, and that they were well on the way to the solution of a problem that had troubled the world for centuries,

Nor would he agree that these Jews were happy merely because they had escaped from great tribulation. "Some have never known tribulation-they were born comfortable, and could have remained comfortable. Some have spent most of their lives where they are today. Although many of the others are refugees from countries where Jews are persecuted, it was more than escape that I saw on their faces. They were enthusiastic about their work." "Wouldn’t you be," we asked, "if for the first time in your life you were safe?" But he would not_be put off with that. It was true so far as it went, but only half the story, or less. "All these people," he argued, "had | confidence. They were building something new. It was not the new Jerusalem

of history, but something that even the Jews themselves had not in the past thought about." "Community of Co-operators" We asked him to be more exact. It was easy to make large claims, but if he was going to suggest that the Jews of to-day were not the men they used to be, he was putting a strain on our credulity. "I know that," he said, "and I-find it difficult to express what I mean. But: it would be something like this. The first Jews we know about left the world two legacies-the Bible and idea of God as the head of the State. The Jews of TelAviv are like the Jews of history in that respect, but they have also solved an economic problem that no other community has mastered so well. They are neither capitalists nor communists, but a community of co-operators. They pool their resources without loss and without strife or confusion." "But you said that married people live in one room, and are separated from their children?" "They are separated from their children, but their children are not lost. I have never seen children so well looked after. Nothing is too good for them if the community can provide it-the best . medical attention, the best food, modern teachers, excellent hostels, play,

music, everything. You must realise, too, that parents can, and do, see their children every day. Most parents in fact cole lect their children for an’ hour or two in the evening and take them round the settlement, and these visits are looked forward to by both sides. Many parents go along at night and put their children to bed, and they also nurse them in sickness." The Cicdren Are the Centre "In other words, the Children’s Home is a (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) home-a place in which parents place their children while they themselves work?" "Precisely. And remember that it is a better home than they themselves could provide. Remember, too, that the standard of living in these settlements is low only if the test is what the individual possesses. I have said that married couples live in single rooms. They | have no private sitting rooms of their own, no easy chairs and carpets and radios and pianos. But the community centre has all these things, and they are freely available to everybody-including libraries and other advantages that few individuals would have in New Zealand. The standard of living of the parents is low, because they are building a new world, and have not got very far.. But already the children are the centre of the whole structure. Their parents look at the future through them." "Besides," he went on, "Palestine-I mean Jewish Palestine-is a very small piece of the earth. If you plant 500 people on 500 acres, no one is going to be very rich, especially during the first 20 years. It is to be emphasised that these communities began on borrowed money, with which everything was provided to begin with. This money is eventually paid off, and the settlement is free. But there is still no notion of accumulating individual wealth. The goal remains the fuller life of the community as a whole. Of course these Jews have not enough land but the. world will not give them any mote. They have to squeeze a living out of rocks and sand, and they are doing that and all these things besides. Spend a year in the Nile Valley where nature has provided everything but humar energy, then visit these irrigated farms of the Jews and you will see what I mean. In 20 years the Jews have done bigger things than the Egyptians in 20 centuries; and they have done everything in this new, this absolutely unprecedented, spirit of co-operation. I am not a Jew, or a Communist, ‘or a Socialist; I am born and bred in New Zealand; and in civil life I am a banker. But I remember what happened after the last war to most of our soldier settlements, and I felt as I wandered through Tel-Aviv and in the orchards surrounding it that the new Palestine might be part of the answer to those who wonder how to avoid catastrophe @ second time."

"You think that what is happening there should be studied seriously by our economists and politicians?" "T think that experts should be studying it now. Half a dozen specialists should be extracted from the Middle East Army and sent to Palestine to report. There are planners and economists among the soldiers, and those who have been a year or two in the Middle East would be the most suitable."

"What about yourself?" ‘Don’t be rude. I said specialists-~ men of science: agriculturists and agricultural economists, town-planners, architects and engineers. Why do you journalists think that everybody has an axe to grind?"