THE RAPE OF PALESTINE by William B. Ziff pages 230-400 out of 525
The Jews were the
British excuse for being in Palestine Palestine
230 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
nationality" between
the nationals of all States Members of the League, as in the East Africa
Mandate. Suavely, London Palestine South Africa
The Jews were
equally useful as an instrument for rejecting the demands of the Arabs
themselves for self-rule, at a time when Britain Syria
There was also the
fact that in order to get its fingers on Palestine Britain League of Nations , as a trustee for the Jewish people. In the earlier days while the
League still had some untested strength, it did not hesitate to uphold its own
authority, and here England
231 BUREAUCRACY
LOOKS AT JEWS
merely the right
to criticize and lay down generalities of policy.
The Mandates
Commission did not hesitate at various times to lock horns with the British
Government in no uncertain terms. Had Zionist leaders themselves played
anything but an acquiescent role, it is quite certain that the League would
have supported them and forced the English into a most difficult position.
"If the matter were looked at impartially from the point of view of the
Mandate as it stood," observed the Commission in 1930, "the
Government's method of encouraging immigration had been to limit it . . . [and]
that the result would be as negative if an inquiry were made as to the State
lands and waste lands on which the settlement of Jews had been encouraged. . .
The special situation," it continued dryly, "granted by the Mandate
to the Jewish element in Palestine
On the face of it
the proposition was a well-nigh impossible one, making it necessary for London Britain England
232 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
attitude the
Zionist hierarchy itself would take.
Jewish spokesmen,
lost in this welter of intrigue, inexperienced, inexpert and totally unable to
distinguish between sincerity and clever dissembling, did not prove too
troublesome. They appealed to the facts, which they marshaled systematically,
to fundamental law and to justice. Their arguments were presented in the
circumspect language of a barrister drawing up a brief on some learned
obscurity of law and were presented without fanfare. Though the whole
fundamental framework of their enterprise was plainly crumbling before their
eyes, they continued to issue reassuring statements to their following. They
claimed with reverse pugnacity that "the Government wants to be loyal to
its duties" ; and were as outraged "over the speculation that the
Government is making an effort to encourage the antagonism between Arabs and
Jews" as if they were employed in Downing Street . Dr. Weizmann retreated gracefully to keep
pace with the wishes of Whitehall Palestine Egypt Palestine England India Egypt Palestine Palestine
233 BUREAUCRACY
LOOKS AT JEWS
Jews make any
effort to face political realities.
Until 1936 Whitehall Palestine
Just what that
'something more fundamental' might be was soon disclosed officially by Colonial
Secretary Ormsby-Gore, addressing Commons on July 2, 1936 . Leveling his shafts directly at Jewish
nationalists, he acknowledged darkly his awareness of the "character of
Zionist propaganda," booming that the British Government accepted the
Palestine Mandate 'without subscribing to any declaration that the country
belongs to either Jews or Arabs, but that it is a British Mandated territory.
The Government, he warned, did not intend countenancing any action
"inconsistent with the Mandate" and this interpretation of it.
The British had
been nineteen years working up to this denouement, but at last the cat was out
of the bag. The Zionism of Herzel and Balfour was now an "action inconsistent
with the Mandate" for Palestine Palestine
CHAPTER IV
WELCOME HOME!
THE JEW TRIES TO
ENTER PALESTINE
Article VI of the
Mandate makes it obligatory upon the Administration of Palestine to
"facilitate Jewish immigration." The British made a convincing start
on this by making the Immigration Department a part of the Department of Police
and Prisons.
It has been
shifted around like an unwelcome cat which refuses to stay lost. Once it was
hidden in the Department for Travel. At another time it had been shunted over
to the Permit Section of the Secretariat.
The Immigration
Department is more of a Secret Service Department than anything else. Its
principal function seems to be that of preventing Jews from entering the
country in any numbers. The attitude toward the Hebrew migrants was pegged by
Duff, who wrote that "we had to be seemingly harsh and unfriendly towards
them; it did not pay for one's seniors to think that one had any undue sympathy
for the returning Jews... 1 A decade later another Englishman, Josiah Wedgwood,
recounted the same story of ugly animus, to Commons. "Why," he asked
bitterly, "is this done by Englishmen . . . against all the traditions of
our race? If the Jews trying to go to Palestine
Under the
regulations, only capitalists may enter Palestine
234 Pics
235 WELCOME HOME!
The truth was that
while huge sums were being dumped into the Jewish Homeland, Jews were being
kept out of it with all the customary rigor of anti-Semitic formula. Some idea
of the situation can be gained from Senator Austin's estimate that
"measured on a per capita basis, each of the two hundred and fifty
thousand Jewish immigrants [man, woman and child] who entered Palestine
The distorting
political and economic minority life which had stratified the Jews into a class
of petty capitalists and traders, found itself dishearteningly duplicated in Palestine Europe to join them in building the new nation.
Factories and enterprises of all kinds were started. The result was a critical
scarcity of labor in which the entire economy of the country went lunatic.
Workers were drained out of the farms to take the more lucrative positions in
the cities. In the towns the same process repeated itself in favor of the 'boom
trades' which could afford to pay wages far out of line with those of normal
occupations. Employer competed desperately with employer for the available
labor supply. Industries had to curtail their activities, factories shut down
altogether. Palestine
The condition is
partially glimpsed in a semi-official report of August 27, 1934 , admitting that the entire Palestine Jaffa Haifa Haifa November 16, 1933 that it was unable to proceed due to
"acute scarcity of labor." In Tel Aviv £1,000,000 worth of building
236 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
had to be held up
for the same reason. The story repeated itself everywhere.
At the identical
time that it was beguiling world Jewry with the fiction that all was well in
the National Home, the Executive of the Jewish Agency, irritated over the small
grant of labor certificates, formally accused the Mandatory in a private memorandum
of deliberately sabotaging the Home, finding it "impossible to reconcile
this restriction of immigration with the declared policy of the Mandatory Power
that immigration will be regulated in accordance with the economic absorptive
capacity of Palestine
The British had
their authority in London Palestine
The demand for
labor was so urgent as to overpower even this evasion, forcing additional
subterfuge on the Authorities. An instance is the demand of the Jewish Agency
for 24,000 certificates to cover the period from October to March 1933-34. In
their petition they appended the result of a painstaking survey, showing, in
detail, jobs awaiting each of the new arrivals. As usual, without explanation,
the Government agreed to allow only 5500 certificates, of which 2000 were
summarily deducted as having "been used in advance." With other
deductions following on one plausible excuse or another, all that was left was
the usual face-saving handful. Far from manfully refusing this beggarly
schedule, on the date this announcement was made Weizmann was capitalizing on
the German excitement to raise funds for the
"Zionist-German
relief drive" of which he was head, and issuing a program full of
high-sounding generalizations including "cooperation with the Mandatory
Power . . . and the establishing of peace and understanding with the
Arabs." 4
237 WELCOME
HOME!
As the 'absorptive
capacity' of the country increased so tremendously under the stimulus of Jewish
investment that any effort to deny it became ludicrous, the Government produced
still other cards out of its sleeve. It announced in 1936 that seventy percent
of the thirteen hundred immigration certificates available for the following
six months were ear-marked for bachelors, ten percent for maidens, and twenty
percent for men with families; thus cutting down immigration without appearing
to do so. Another able device was the refusal to allow the wives and families
of employed residents to enter without the precious labor visas, though in many
cases they were an actual charge on these same residents, who sent money abroad
to maintain them. 5 Such an obvious attempt was made to restrict the entry of
women that the Jewish Agency flatly accused the Government in November 1934 of
a mischievous and willful attempt "directed against any considerable
development of the immigration of women into Palestine
Many of the
Administration's reasons for refusing entry permits would do credit to Herr
Hitler, as witness the refusal to grant a visa to a refugee Russian rabbi on
the excuse that "there were enough rabbis already in Palestine November
14, 1933 , allowed
only 250 immigrants "to enter Palestine Palestine
ports could make a
payload out of such a small number of travelers, forcing the cancellation of
sailings.
Perhaps the
outstanding example of official artifice was the schedule announced for the
period between October 1, 1935 and March 31, 1936 . 4350 visas were granted, over which the
Jewish world press made the usual congratulatory ballyhoo. What was not
mentioned were the following deductions made from this schedule in advance: 1000
certificates 'advanced' during the previous six-month period; 250 reserved by
the Government (for non-Jews); 1200 taken off to cover 'illegal' immigrants who
could not be apprehended; 6 and 1900 for dependents of employed residents (who
in any other country would have entered as a matter of course). If these
deductions are
238 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
added up they are
found to equal exactly the number of certificates granted; so that the
Administration was only perpetrating a crude joke on the Zionists and in effect
issuing no certificates at all.
In the face of
this ruinous procedure the Zionist spokesmen periodically issued reassuring
statements to their followers, gloating over the increasing numbers of Jews
entering the Homeland. They listed impressive figures to bolster their
publicity.
Actually,
something like 12,000 certificates was the greatest number ever allowed for
workingmen in one year; and from this pitiful number the most unconscionable
deductions were made on one excuse or another. An example of how the Zionist
publicity bureau treated the matter is given in its handling of the entry
figures for 1933, which according to official statements, came to 64,110.
Stimulated from this source the world Jewish press headlined: "64,110 Jews
Entered Zion during 1933? Giving the impression that there had been that many
immigrants. An analysis shows that the balance of recorded arrivals over departures
during this period was 38,656 Jews, including 10,236 residents returning to the
country after visits abroad and 27,862 actual immigrants. Of these, 'persons
living on income,' minors, dependents, etc., totaled 15,653; and working people
constituted a mere 2,434 men and 568 women. Juggled around in the official
figures somewhere, were 26,002 tourists who came to enjoy the sights, and
non-permanents of other kinds. Of the 61,743 Jews who came to remain in the peak
year of 1935, only 14,653 belonged to the working class group.
It is perfectly
obvious that capitalist immigration will not serve the purposes for which
Zionism was originated. It cannot relieve the centers of pressure in the pogrom
areas of Europe where Jews are now in a state of
starvation and panic. It can only serve to build Palestine England
239 WELCOME HOME!
should she make the
admission of the Jews dependent upon £1,000?" 7 Even neighboring Syria
by the Powers. 8
Everything in this
business is made subject to cash. Even the boasted Hadassah Aliyah, by which a
few hundred Jewish children were brought in from Germany, were made conditional
on a substantial money deposit, much as would be charged if the children had
entered a boarding school. The Department of Immigration is a paying business,
showing in a typical year a net income of £333,200 against an expenditure of £209,100.
Not nearly so
docile as the Zionist hierarchy, Palestine Jews have often made their
resentment as plain as men living under a knout are able to. Irked to fury,
they went out on general strike in May 1930, a matter which the Administration
handled expeditiously, as it invariably does when it has only Jews to deal
with.
In 1937 the Palestine
The new stand
taken by the Administration was indicated by Immigration Director Eric Mills,
who informed the Peel Commission on November 18, 1936 that "immigration into the Holy Land involves political as well as economic
issues." Just what these 'political issues' are may be learned from the
astonished comments of Farago. Ignoring his statement that he was a Hungarian,
port officials had demanded to know whether he was a Mohammedan, Christian or
Jew. Long before, Colonel
Wedgwood had also
noted that "the first question an immigrant is asked by the
240 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
immigration
inspectors in Palestine
TOURISTS
The Holy Land is perhaps the most magnetic spot on earth
for sightseers, a circumstance which is probably its greatest single asset. It
seems natural to suppose that tourists would be encouraged in every possible
fashion and that every inducement would be offered to cause them to remain as
long as possible. A large share of the national income of many states depends
on just this source; and countries such as France Italy
The tourist is at
once bewildered to find that exactly the contrary view is held in Palestine Egypt France
On paper, every
tourist visiting Palestine July 9, 1935 .
Its actual
workings are illustrated in the violent protest of Warsaw Jewry on March
20, 1934 because
the English Consul issued visas to all Polish Christians bound for
WELCOME HOME! 241
the Holy Land , and at the same time refused permits to
Jewish tourists even though the required £60 was deposited. Going beyond its
own written measures, the Government often refuses admission to whole parties
of tourists, even though their papers are strictly in order and they have made
the required deposit. Instances are plentiful. On March 5, 1933 , sixty such visitors were refused
admission without explanation and were not permitted to leave their steamer. A
few days earlier, a group of twenty-three sight-seers from Poland Istanbul Haifa Palestine Warsaw Istanbul Palestine
Not altogether
satisfied with results, the Administration attempted to put through a
prohibitive tax on tourists in 1933, only frustrated by the indignant threat of
Palestine Jewry to carry the whole business to the attention of Christian
churches in every country. The Government now plans a drastic increase in the
required tourist deposit; and has, since the middle of October 1936, enforced a
complete ban on the general run of Jewish tourists, making exceptions only for
those whose outraged squawk might draw attention to what is going on.
Even visitors of
unimpeachable standing are refused permission to overstay their leave. A useful
example is provided by the case of Weizmann who, though President of the Jewish
Agency was according to reports, picked up in Haifa
The natural result
of this determined persecution is that even Egyptian Jews who have
242 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
always, since
Turkish times, spent their annual vacations in Palestine
It is worth noting
that before the arrival of the British 'liberators,' Turkish law allowed Jews
to come as pilgrims without restriction. When in 1887 Turkey, alarmed by the
boasts of the Russian Consul that he "had more 'subjects' in Jerusalem
than those of all the other consuls combined," attempted to limit the stay
of foreign Jews in Palestine to a short period, the British Government led the
procession of States whose vigorous denunciation of these regulations caused
them to be abrogated in short order.
HUNTING DOWN
ILLEGALS
A highly placed
official once informed Horace Samuel, with evident relish, that
"Jew-baiting was the sport of kings." To more or less degree, this
remark is representative of the tone of His Majesty's Service in Palestine
It is true that
these homeless creatures, hounded from border to border and rigidly kept out of
their National Home, did attempt to enter in any way possible. Lacking the £1000
required to buy their way in, they often sneaked their way through without
benefit of British sanction. Desperate men attempted to swim ashore from far
outlying ships under cover of night. Some came nailed up in boxes of
merchandise on the backs of camels, enduring indescribable suffering.
Delicately raised girls braved the trip through the desert wastes, placing
themselves at the mercy of savage Bedouins in an effort to cross unnoticed at
some wild place. They came from everywhere, a horde of stranded, terrified Jews
who arrived by steamer, by canoe and on foot. Most of them were young people in
their teens or early twenties, desperate, hopeless creatures who were taking their
last gamble in life. Many were drowned,
243 WELCOME HOME !
died of their last
gamble in life. Many were drowned, died of starvation, or were murdered on the
way by the very Bedouins they hired to transport them.
The most
heart-rending events took place daily. One such story is of five hundred
Russian Jews who escaped from the Soviets to go to Palestine Baghdad Persia Palestine Acre . Another typical case held the fate of 318
young German and East European refugees, all under 25, who were marooned on the
British steamer Velos in 1934. The Palestine
locked below
hatches like so much contraband, which could neither be unloaded nor destroyed.
Finally, after ceaseless wandering from port to port, these luckless outcasts
were given temporary asylum by Poland
Just how a Jew
under the Mandate could be in Palestine Holy
Land is to be
facilitated by every means possible, then the Mandate has no reason for
existence. Ormsby-Gore admitted as much in 1925 when he informed the Permanent
Mandates Commission that they "should remember that it is after all the
Balfour Declaration which was the reason why the
British Government
is now administering Palestine Palestine
Coincident with
the advent of Hitler the business assumed the proportions of an out and out
Jew-hunt. In a nice piece of collusion between the Colonial Secretary, Sir
Phillip Cunliffe-Lister, and an M. P. named MacDonald, the Government 'admitted'
that 'illegal' Jewish immigration existed but stated in assurance that
"practical steps
244 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
would be taken to
deal with the matter." The very next day Cunliffe-Lister announced stringent
measures to prevent 'illegal' Jewish immigration into Palestine Syria
Showing the extent
of its pre-organization, the campaign at once assumed the proportions of a
large-scale pursuit of Jews over the length and breadth of Palestine Beirut
The pursuit of
'illegal' Jews was on in earnest, one of the great witch-hunts of modern times.
Jews were picked up like dangerous animals everywhere and hauled to police
stations. Weeping Jewish women were thrown into cells together with
prostitutes, subjected to the obscene taunts of Arab jailers. The situation is
made pitifully clear in the case of thirty-two young girls, arrested while out
on a hike near Tiberias because an Arab boy denounced them. Thrown into the
overcrowded jail at Bethlehem Palestine Haifa Palestine Italy Jerusalem
244 WELCOME HOME!
M5
as an act of
international courtesy, to take them off the ship-captain's hands. Says the announcement:
"They are now imprisoned in the Bethlehem
Jews were expelled
for any trivial reason the anti-Semitic mentality could improvise. Men were
torn from their jobs and businesses and thrown like common offenders into the
prison at Acre , a dank, forbidding structure ranking in
terror with the famous French Bastille, where they were regularly beaten by
Arab overseers. The attitude is shown in the case of one Isschak Kupetz, a
respectable working man who was sentenced to the Central Prison in Jerusalem
Hunting 'illegal*
Jews became a major game, with thousands of illegal Arab newcomers enlisting
gleefully in the chase. Savage Bedouins joined in under promise of a reward for
any Jewish man, woman or child they could catch. Palestine
Bad as existing
regulations were, the inhuman meticulousness with which they were interpreted
made them infinitely worse. A fair example is the case of a woman and six small
children, who had arrived legally with the proper passport and visa, from Turkistan . On the way her husband had been killed at
a railway station. The whole
246 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
family was
arrested on the ground that the passport provided not for a woman and six
children, but for a man, a woman and six children. On this pretext the woman
and her children were ordered to prison.
The heat had grown
so scorching that it was beginning to drive even the patient Jews mad.
Nationalist groups rioted in protest. Serious clashes took place when Arab
gangs invaded the Jewish colonies themselves in search of victims. After some
of these invaders had been beaten within an inch of their lives, the use of
civilian Arab bloodhounds was discontinued.
While all this was
going on, the Jewish Agency, which had been to such pains to create a
world-wide impression that "new Jewish arrivals were being eagerly
welcomed," put out a timid protest. It verbosely pointed out that all this
was a clear departure from the MacDonald Letter, which expressly guaranteed
that no immigrants "with prospects of employment" would be excluded.
The High Commissioner "took the matter under advisement" and
immediately buried the 'protest' along with some ash-barrels of others, in the Jerusalem
THE ARAB COMES IN
LIKE A GENTLEMAN
Lured by stark
evidence of labor scarcity and big pay, peoples from all surrounding states
began to drift into Palestine Syria Transjordan "are free to enter the corresponding
districts in Palestine July 4, 1934 gives the circumstance more lucidly than
247 COME HOME!
pages of
reference. It reads: "Five Jewish women coming overland from Damascus
Not only is
immigration from Syria Iraq Egypt Yemen Poland Mosul May
16, 1935 that Syrian
Jews be given a special distinguishing passport when proceeding to countries on
the Palestine
Though the
Government solemnly estimates in 1937 a total Muslim increase by immigration of
only 22,535 since the time of the British occupation, 11 evidence of a vast
influx of desert tribesmen is obvious everywhere. As early as 1926, Colonial
Secretary Amery
cautiously conceded that despite the growth of the Jewish element "the
increase of the Arabs is actually greater than that of the Jews." 12
Figures presented before the Peel Commission in 1937 showed the Arab population
to have more than doubled itself in fourteen years. This admitted gain in half
a generation must either be attributed to outside immigration or to the most
astonishing philo-progenitiveness in medical history.
Forgotten in its
archives, the Government itself acknowledged in 1922 the immigration of whole
tribes "from the Hejaz
and southern Transjordan into the Beersheba Syria Palestine
248 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
Whole villages in
the Hauran have been emptied of their people, who are drifting into Palestine Syria Damascus Palestine Beirut Palestine
It is of course
difficult to attain any adequate idea of the extent of this flood of non-Jewish
immigration since officially it does not exist. In the absence of accurate
canvass its size must be pieced together and surmised. Such calculations as are
available show an Arab immigration for the single year 1933 of at least
sixty-four thousand souls. Added to the acknowledged Hauranese infiltration are
some two thousand who arrived from Damascus Sinai Peninsula alone.
To these must be
added considerable groups of Numidians and even Abyssinians, and a vast
uncounted army from Trans-Jordan about whose movement into Palestine not the
slightest pretense of legality is maintained. The figures on this latter group
must be very high, since economic conditions west of Jordan Palestine
249 WELCOME
HOME!
Farago, puzzled by
these contradictions, calls attention to the fact that "one always finds
in Palestine
in the cry: 'Out
with the Jews.' " 17
Exasperated by the
Government's lack of good faith, which was illicitly converting the Holy Land into an Arab country, groups of courageous
Jewish youths volunteered in 1934 to point out what apparently the Authorities
were unable to see. Fourteen hundred of these Illegals were quickly shown to be
working at Petach Tikvah; and 1 200 in Haifa Palestine December 23, 1936 showed that only 50 of the 750 workers
were Palestinians. The remainder included 200 Egyptians and 500 Hauranis. 18
Whole hordes of these people were demonstrated to be in the employ of the
Government itself.
Without deigning
to make a reply, the Administration pointedly told the Jews to mind their own
business. When Jews picketed Jewish employers of this alien labor, the
Government bared its teeth and sentenced the demonstrators to six months at
hard labor for their pains. Undeterred, Jews again picketed a Haifa
Once in a while,
for purposes of the High Commissioner's report to the League, a few Arabs are
apprehended for being in the country without permission. Though bail, even in
large amounts, is refused Jews held for the identical offense, Arabs are let go
for £10. Considering this trifling sum a sort of premium for high wages earned,
they invariably skip bail.
On one excuse or
another every effort has been made to legalize non-Jewish immigration. The
Administration had sent up a number of trial balloons in this
250 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
direction. Their
first feeler was made on December 18, 1934 , when unexpectedly they granted 150 labor
immigration certificates to Arabs from Syria Egypt Palestine Syria Palestine
In Syria Beirut Syria Palestine Beirut Palestine Syria Paris Syria May 3,
1934 that Jews
might be allowed to buy land anywhere except along the Palestine
Pressure of the
British legation at Athens Holy Land by way of Greece
251 WELCOME HOME!
1934, forbidding
all foreign Jews henceforth to enter Greece Athens Greece Palestine
Hitler's Mein
Kampf was allowed a free sale.
Jews were expelled
from the border towns of Mazar, Ankhoi and Maimane, and thrown homeless in the
desert. In May 1935 these persecutions were heightened by regulations
compelling Jews to wear special clothes with red flags across their breasts and
a rope around their hips. They were forbidden to shave or to ride in the
streets. Jewish women must not appear in public markets and, like common
harlots, must not wear stockings. In 1938 Jews were forbidden to engage in any
business activities, the only occupation left open to them being that of
bootblacks.
252 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
Persia Palestine
Yemen Arabian Peninsula , prohibited the emigration of Jews to Palestine London Palestine Britain
Palestine Palestine
The attitude may
again be seen in Egypt Egypt Britain Cairo Iraq
A confirming view
is given in Aden England Palestine
253 WELCOME HOME!
Many were
arrested, and many more deported to Hodeida Yemen Aden Aden Palestine
Lying off the
coast of Palestine Island of Cyprus Cyprus Palestine Palestine Palestine Palestine Cyprus Island started to boom, and the stream of Jewish
immigration began to swell.
Soon after, the
Colonial Office sent down General Storrs (who had had some experience with
similar problems in Palestine Island .
Acting expeditiously, Storrs December 13, 1934 announcing that in future no more
foreigners could buy land in Cyprus
CHAPTER V
CLOSE SETTLEMENT
ON THE LAND
SOIL HUNGER
The early Zionist
thinkers instinctively grasped the direct relationship between a sound peasant
class rooted in the soil, and the project of a national renaissance. The British,
too, understood that a National Home without ownership of the soil was
a misnomer. Their
Peace Handbook on Syria Palestine Palestine Palestine
The early
colonists found the park-like country their ancestors had left, a treeless
desert. Epidemics made even the raising of cattle impossible. The mountain
slopes, once covered with a never-ending succession of vineyards and orchards,
were now bare rock, washed clean by the torrential rains. The rest of the
country alternated between swamp and desert. Crawling like dull maggots over
these dried bones was a scanty population, scarcely less haggard, wild and
unkempt than the land itself.
Land hunger rode
on the shoulders of the returning Jews, driving them like a man with a lash.
They came from the ghettos of the Russian Pale, men with soft hands,
intellectuals, lawyers, writers, doctors and shopkeepers, inspired by the passionate
dream of turning this pestilential desert into a blossoming countryside. They
themselves, the dreamers of Zion
Their hardships
were almost insupportable. Epidemic pestilences killed off so many that it
became a byword that the graveyards of these settlements were more populous
than the villages themselves. Undeterred, the new settlers pressed on doggedly.
254 Pics
255 CLOSE
SETTLEMENT ON THE LAND
They were living
an epic; and their eyes danced with it long after their bodies grew worn from a
ceaseless struggle with a sick earth. This blazing emotion is beautifully described
by the Hebrew poet, Uri Zvi Greenberg:
"In a
sunburst of love we went up,
Boys and girls to Zion
Passionate faith
from the roots of our hair
To the tips of the
nails of our feet:
A boundless love
for the mother earth of the Jews
That agonies could
not quench,
Nor the teeth of
the foxes destroy. . .
Unlike the advent
of European capitalism throughout the East, the only privilege these colonists
asked was to be allowed to work the soil with their own hands. They consciously
understood that the body of the Jewish nation had been maimed by a cruel
destiny which had driven the Jews from the soil, had closed manual labor to
them, and had crowded them into one thin stratum of the social pyramid. The
renaissance of Jewry lay in this astonishing attempt to reverse a process
consciously taking place in social adjustment, abjuring personal ambitions, to
erect again by the national will what history had destroyed.
These Jews from the
vitiated air of ghettos, men and women whose psychology and muscles alike were
better adjusted to the counting room and Yeshiva than to heavy labor, made themselves
over by the sheer force of their own idealism into the finest scientific
farmers in the world. Their neat, well-painted houses went up surrounded by
thriving green vineyards, healthy young orchards, flowers and shade-trees. In
the eyes of believing observers it was a miracle, only to be explained in the
light of Biblical Prophecy.
There has been no
braver colonizing group in history, nor any who operated under more
disheartening conditions. With a song on their lips these determined young
people laid the groundwork for an agricultural prosperity which was to be the
backbone of the coming Jewish nation. Their magnificent accomplishments were
unhesitatingly acknowledged by the English after the War. "Every traveler
in Palestine
256 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
between these
pleasant villages, with the beautiful stretches of prosperous cultivation about
them, and the primitive conditions of life and work with which they are
surrounded." 1 Beverley Nichols remarks: "As I walked around, I
became more and more astonished that any race of men, let alone intellectual
Jews, could possibly tackle such an unfriendly soil. . . Yet over this wilderness
the ex-clerks, ex-doctors, ex-shopkeepers swarmed like ants, staggering under
the weight of the stones they were removing, panting as they wielded their
spades." 2 Father Alfred Sachetti exclaims in admiration: "What had
been up to six years ago a wild unproductive waste land has been transformed
into a fertile and productive country?" 3 And the Rev. Dr. W. M. Christie
reports: "When you see a green spot in Palestine
When with
premature gratitude the enthusiastic Jews welcomed the British overlords who
were taking the place of the Turks, they had no reason to suppose that in the
near future the further acquisition of land by them was to be considered in the
nature of a crime against humanity. The British were pledged to their cause. London Palestine
How far the Jewish
position has actually retrogressed since the English came, may be estimated
from the simple fact that the per capita land possession of Jews in Palestine
257 CLOSE
SETTLEMENT ON THE LAND
These figures mean
that Jews numbering 33% of the population are sequestered on 5% of the land,
forcing into existence a queer economy by which the Jewish farm population must
mathematically decrease with the growth of the Jewish national structure. Even
in the short period between 193 1 and 1935, we find the proportion of Jewish
farmers decreasing from 18% to 13.9%, making the Palestine Jews the most highly
urbanized national group on earth.
Here you have the unhealthiest
of all possible conditions: a land-hungry people attempting to build a sound
national economy and owning, after decades of struggle, less than three hundred
thousand acres altogether. 6 On this fact is shipwrecked the basic principles
on which Zionist planning was constructed. For all reasonable purposes, it
forebodes the creation not of a free economy but of a new ghetto, this time in
an Arab instead of an Aryan land.
The causative
factors behind this condition are not hard to find. In the early period of
Jewish settlement, around 1885, prices averaged ten francs, or eight shillings,
per dunam for good agricultural land. By 1900 the price had risen to around
six-teen shillings. By 1935 it was anything that anyone cared to ask. Taking
1932 as an illustration, we find 18,293 £ an (£ transactions concluded by Jews;
whereas in 1926, when more than twice the area of new land had been acquired, there
were only 11,821 such transactions. 7 This meant that land-hungry Jews, caught
in a trap, were reduced to buying land from each other, the price skyrocketing
in accordance with the inevitable law of supply and demand. During the fiscal
year 1933-1934, when practically no new land was acquired by Jews, the
Palestine Government received from them close to £200,000 in registration fees
for land transfers. In many instances a parcel of land passes through eight or
ten hands a year and its price is pyramided to the most unbelievable heights.
"Nowhere in the world," comments the Royal Commission of 1937,
"were such uneconomic land prices paid as by the Jews in Palestine
The parent of this
distorted condition was none other than the Government itself. A series of bold
expedients flowed from Jerusalem
258 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
from buying land. Jerusalem
British Authorities directly formulated to prevent Jews from acquiring the soil
of the country. As fast as one artifice proved inadequate, newer and more
offensive ones were invented. The English set themselves up as the protectors
and patrons of the Arabs, much as though Palestine were an endowed institution
for the improvident and the inept for whose benefit all competitive factors
must be excluded.
The keystone to
the British arch was the alleged landless Arab situation. In his report, French
had listed some thirty-seven hundred claimants. The extent of this fabrication
was later conceded when, despite the prodding of the Administration, only five hundred
Arabs could be discovered who even had a provisional claim. Just how there
could be any landless' people in an under populated country suffering for years
from an acute labor shortage, the Administration never attempted to explain.
Major Cecil Quinlan answered the best part of the question with the laconic
remark that "the so-called 'landless' Arab does not exist, except in
disordered imaginations." 8
The Mandate
provided that Jews be given State lands for the purpose of "close
settlement." Nowhere in that document is there anything mentioned about an
opposed obligation to Arabs; but the Government, making its own interpretation,
decided that this must have been a typographical error. It early handed the
Arabs 1 40,000 acres of its most fertile holdings. Later to appease the Jews it
gave them a consolation prize of some 18,000 acres, of which only 962 were
actually cultivable.
The
Administration's Annual Report for 1920-21 gives figures of 942,000 dunams of
State land and two or three million dunams of waste lands. When the Zionists,
grown restive finally, put a fierce demand on the Government to fulfill its
obligations, it was dismally discovered that the two or three million dunams of
waste land referred to had now vanished in thin air.
The technique
under which this piece of legerdemain was accomplished was not involved. It
consisted of simple nostrums and a characteristic method of dealing off the
bottom of the deck. In reply to a pointed question by the Mandates Commission
in
1926, His
Majesty's spokesman, Ormsby-Gore, represented that "the delay of the
259 CLOSE
SETTLEMENT ON THE LAND
grant of
Government land to Jews is connected with the question of survey which has not
yet been effected." 9 A Vaad Leumi Memorandum notes in disgust that
despite this excuse, "hundreds of thousands of Government lands . . . have
been distributed among Arab fellaheen, in lots of such size that they could not
work them properly." All Jewish demands for land were rejected — "even
the claims of the discharged Jewish soldiers who had participated in the
British military conquest of the country being disregarded." At the very
moment Ormsby-Gore was offering his explanation to the League, a special Land
Commission was carrying out a liquidation of the Government estates,
"apparently instructed to hand them over to Bedouins."
Again in 1931, a
Vaad Leumi protest to the League notes that the Government was distributing
State lands to Arabs "in parcels of thousands of dunams per family/' while
Jewish demands were studiously ignored.
Pleased with these
outright gifts, the Bedu had little intention of demeaning themselves by manual
labor. They at once offered their new-found acreage to Jews at prices only
limited by Bedouin ability to count. The indignant Administration put an end to
this practice by attaching a string to further gifts, prohibiting sale of the
land for thirty to fifty years. In other cases the Arabs were beneficiaries of
paternal loans, never intended to be repaid, placing the Jews in the unenviable
position of financing activities aimed directly at themselves. All a Bedouin
had to do, to blackmail this singular Government, was to threaten to sell to
Jews and a subsidy would be forthcoming.
The
Administration's sympathy for 'landless' Arabs went an amazing distance. Four
days before the 1936 riots broke out it gave the Dajani family 10,000 dunams in
the rich Jordan Valley Palestine Damascus Beirut
160 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
dunams went to a
family group of four brothers and sisters living in Egypt
Even when Jews
bought areas on which the Government felt it had a lien, it exacted its pound
of flesh. A case in point is the Huleh basin, consisting of 12,000 acres of
miasmatic swamp.
This suppurating
area had polluted the country, for generations back, with malaria and
dysentery. The job of draining it would ordinarily be regarded by any other
government as a task incumbent on itself. Instead, the Palestine Administration
granted concession rights for reclamation of the area to two Syrian merchants,
renewing the concession in 1924 and again in 1927, though the Syrians made no
attempt to proceed with the work and were evidently not in a position to
undertake a development project of this magnitude. It was only after years of
procrastination on the part of the Government that the Jewish Palestine Land Development
Company was able to secure official approval to take over the concession
rights. As the price of its consent the Government stipulated that when the
work was finished, one-third of the new land would have to be handed over for
Bedouin settlement. It was necessary to pay the original foreign concessionaires
£200,000, a sum which could only be considered in the light of a gift. This was
in 1935. In 1938 the Government was still quibbling over the text of the
concession. It also has mysteriously withheld decision on a number of minor
points arising from an engineering report made several years previously. These
dilatory tactics have effectually prevented any progress being made in the work
of reclamation, which is thus shunted into the indefinite future.
The huge task of
draining this quagmire will take at least a decade. It will involve an outlay
of over £1,000,000. To this must be added interest on investment, and
amortization of principal, plus such baksheesh as must be paid to petty
officials who would otherwise find a way to throw a sabot into the machinery,
even after the work has been started. When the 16,000 dunams which must be
given free to the Arabs are deducted, some rough idea is secured of what this
much-touted enterprise will cost the Jews. 11
261 CLOSE
SETTLEMENT ON THE LAND
A FAMINE IN LAND
Having devised the
'landless Arab' thesis, it was only a short step to the principle that the Arab
must be protected against himself and saved from exploitation by the Jew who
would take his land away from him. For this purpose there was introduced a
series of ordinances so plainly meant to prevent Jews from acquiring land in
their National Home that were ten percent of them introduced into England
But Zionist
spokesmen had been used to the rope's end too long to be able to react with
anything resembling normal indignation. They recognized helplessly that they
were being victimized, but saw nothing else to it but to smirk ingratiatingly
on their tormentors. Once more it is grizzled old Menachem Ussishkin who growls
like a lone wolf to the British Government: "Since you have given your
consent to the establishment of a Jewish National Home, you must have realized
that it is impossible to build on anything but on the land. We have paved every
field and marsh with gold, but you, instead of helping us, have piled stones in
our way and have made the country into a hell." 12
As early as 1920 a
Land Transfer Ordinance already read that "any person wishing to make a
disposition of immovable property must first obtain consent of the
Government," a statute which the Shaw Report frankly admits was introduced
to prevent the easy sale of land. This was followed in 1929 by the Cultivator's
Protective Ordinance, which demanded that buyers make an additional payment to
tenants who might be occupying the land as well as to the owners. 1931 saw a
new edict which provided that irrespective of any provision in the contract,
land could not be transferred if there were "any tenants" cultivating
it. A tenant was described as anyone who has access to the land by "right
or custom, usage or on sufferance" 13 a person hired for agricultural work
who is paid in kind, squatters of any and all types; anyone who cultivated the
land by either express or implied permission, or who had been cultivating the
land on the assumption that he had the right to do so for a period of two years;
or any one who comes and grazes on the land or cuts reeds for
262 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
basket-making, or
one who is a descendant of a would-be tenant under the ordinance.
This startling
piece of legislation derived its full force from the primitive nature of
Bedouin life. While the Bedouin grazed his flocks wherever he pitched camp, he
always made the same general circle of travel, returning year after year to the
identical spots. Thus he automatically became a 'tenant' under the regulation.
Most of the land purchased by Jews came from the tremendous estates of absentee
landlords, a handful of land-barons who owned, for example, eighty percent of
the soil of Galilee and at least half of southern Palestine
The other claw of
the pincers lay in the fact that all the archaic Turkish land and tax laws were
still operative. 15 This meant that the verification of title went back to the
old Ottoman religious law. The British had made no attempt to determine title,
and the footnote to every Kuban
(title deed) contained the phrase: "The title is not deemed to be
guaranteed." Under the new Cultivator's Ordinance all titles were placed
in jeopardy as having been gained illegally, since they were subject to
tenant's rights.
It now transpired
that tenants' could be evicted only by the High Commissioner himself. This transfer
of discretion to a political appointee, rather than to the courts, prevented
any appeal and gave the frankly anti-Jewish officials of the Administration
arbitrary powers of decision. These powers were further increased by the Land
Disputes Ordinance enacted in March 1932. This remarkable edict empowered the
District Commissioner, should he find that a trespasser was forcibly evicted by
the rightful owner, to regard the dispossessed party as the possessor. Granted
magisterial status, no appeals against the findings of this petty functionary
were possible. The enactment additionally forbade interference with the
'rights' of invaders coming to graze, cut wood or reeds, or for any other
purpose (even if the owner's fences had
263 CLOSE
SETTLEMENT ON THE LAND
Palestine
Palestine Jaffa Holy Land is literally flooded with goods from a
large number of countries, sold at a price with which no industry depending
entirely on its own resources can hope to compete. Much of this dumping is
accomplished through organized cartels which are able to maintain their home
prices at such a high level that they can accept payments on export goods
barely sufficient to cover the cost of
Turkey Palestine Palestine Palestine
Rumania Bucharest Holy
Land had to be
shipped in Rumanian boats. To obtain the present import licenses for two
hundred thousand cases of fruit, Palestine Rumania
Egypt Syria Syria
Britain Palestine England Palestine Palestine Germany Japan
Haifa Harbor Haifa Bay
been cut down and
his crops destroyed), until in each case "a competent court ruled on the
matter."
On July
25, 1933 the
Administration released the Statutory Tenant Law, effectually freezing the
ownership of large vacant areas in their present hands. Anyone who occupied or
grazed the land for a year, with or without permission, became a "statutory
tenant/' He could not be evicted without being given a new piece of land in a
nearby area approved by the High Commissioner.
These restrictions
made it next to impossible to purchase lands on which claim could not be made
by tenants.' The inevitable result was that Jews buying land had to pay for it
twice: one payment to the owner and the other to his 'tenants/ in order to
obtain their voluntary consent to leave the property. In many cases the sums
given the tenants' were larger than the already inflated prices paid to the
sellers. The whole intent behind this singular legislation is shown in the law
affecting tenants where the land is not sold. Here the tenant is not protected
in any fashion whatsoever, and may be evicted at the landlord's pleasure.
Even on land long
owned by Jews, here is how this 'advanced' legislation operates. 'A' owns a
piece of land; 'B' squats on that land, claiming the right to cultivate it. In
the ensuing conflict, 'B' is not ejected from the parcel and allowed recourse
to the courts, but instead the cultivation of the land is stayed by both
parties until the determination of the courts. Since land cases are known to
sleep through the judicial chambers for five or six years, and appeals are
seldom, if ever, heard less than one year, the result is apparent. Nor does the
final settlement of one trespassing case protect the owner against new ones. As
fast as new trespassers may appear, new court orders must be obtained against
them through the same lengthy litigation.
Here was an
obvious invitation to blackmail which the Arabs were not slow to take advantage
of. False claims were regularly manufactured against Jewish land with the
object of extorting money from the owners. Arab tribes, often as not under the
fatherly advice of the District Commissioners, turned this situation into a
profitable business. They squat in the Jewish colonies, taking over a piece of
land by main force
264 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
if necessary,
claiming it on the basis of prior possession ; and then compromise on some
compensation from the owner, who usually prefers a limited loss of money to
prolonged litigation. The Bedu then drive their herds further on, looking for
another opportunity to repeat this agreeable adventure. There are Arab attorneys
in Jerusalem
A few actual cases
will show how these measures operate in practical application. A large parcel
of land, in Jewish hands for forty years, was disputed by Arabs on the basis of
an alleged document signed five hundred years ago granting the land to the Muslim Church Galilee , Bedouins brought their cattle to pasture
in the colony's fields, destroying the crops. They claimed to be in possession
of a document entitling them "to pasture anywhere." A fight ensued,
the police were called, and the usual order issued to both parties to cease
work in the colony "until the title to the land was established." At
Hedera, where the land had been in Jewish possession for forty-five years,
Bedouins came in, uprooted the crops, injured workers and killed a watchman. The
police ordered all cultivation to cease "until the Court decides the
dispute between the Jews and the Bedouins."
A typical case is
that of the Wadi Hawareth land. After paying liberal baksheesh to the tenants
and after reams of red tape had been unwound to secure title, the Jews were
unable to take possession: the land had already been ploughed by Arab squatters.
Similarly, at Haifa Bay
265 CLOSE
SETTLEMENT ON THE LAND
armed force. At
Tulkarm, in a regular pestilence of squatter suits, the courts decided that
thirty-six hundred dunams of land had been "purchased illegally" and
directed that they be given, without compensation, to the squatters. While
ignorant Bedouins
were more than
willing participants in this hilarious game of plaguing Jews, what lay behind
their actions can be judged from the Kuskustabun case, where three Jewish
farmers were badly injured by armed Arab invaders. Here it was conclusively
proven that the Arabs "undertook to trespass and plough the land upon the
advice of District Officer Lees." 17
Not satisfied with
its previous measures in which Jewish ingenuity discovered more leaks than the
Government considered supportable, it announced in 1936 a brand new principle
in pro-Arab paternalism, this time swinging back to the Middle Ages for its
inspiration. The present purpose is to anchor the peasant in the land
irrespective of his will to change his status. In future "no land-owner
shall be permitted to sell any of his land unless he retains a minimum
subsistence area. As a safeguard against collusive sales this minimum area
shall be inalienable and shall revert to the Government if it ceases to be
cultivated by the owner-occupier" 18
Many other,
pettier schemes were originated by the British Government of Palestine in its
campaign of harassment. The Jews, urgently needing a source of cheap fertilizer
for their groves, had been buying it from Arabs whose every village was
literally built on an accumulation of century-old dung. Arabs are rarely known
to even remove this filth from the vicinity of their dwellings, much less use
it. In September 1937 the Administration published a Draft Animal Manure
Ordinance vesting the ownership of manure in the proprietor of the land on
which it is dropped. Any attempt to remove or sell it without official permission
henceforth becomes an offense punishable by fine of £2$ or six months'
imprisonment, or both.
Another edict
stipulates that the amount of damages which may be demanded from a seller who
breaks his contract, cannot be included in the contract itself, but must be
fixed by the court.
266 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
This 'Order in
Council' was intended as a staggering blow to Jewish land purchases, since the
only effective way of preventing Arab owners from changing their minds under
pressure was to include in the contract a provision for damages to be paid together with the return of the buyer's
deposit. Another decree released early in 1936 was "designed to protect
water supplies from interference by private individuals." Special
permission had now to be obtained from the District Commissioner before a well
could be constructed or enlarged. Jews might own the land, but the water
underneath it belonged to the Administration in Jerusalem
When other
artifices proved inadequate, the Government has followed a system of loans' to
Arab owners, in themselves often greater than the market value of the land.
Sometimes its money is passed over outright on the score of 'relief,' whether
owing to poor crops, damage caused by the elements, or the characteristic
laziness of Arab tillers. It frankly finances and operates Arab agricultural
cooperatives in competition with those of the Jew; and it maintains nurseries and
other agricultural services of which Arabs are the sole beneficiaries.
The unremitting
campaign of Arab leaders, clearly abetted from Government House, thundering
against the 'crime' of selling property to Jews will be discussed again in
Chapter I Book III. It may be remarked, however, that without the Zionist the
market for Palestine Syria Transjordan it is worth only a dollar or two a dunam.
Holding a monopoly on the soil, the Levantines are having a royal holiday.
"No one can doubt," says Broadhurst, "that the Arabs have
exploited the Jews for all they are worth, fattening their pockets in the process."
19 Despite the current campaign against land sales, Arab owners have been
keeping a canny eye fixed on the price barometer. As we shall see, the very
leaders of this
267 CLOSE
SETTLEMENT ON THE LAND
agitation have
proven themselves as anxious, privately, to circumvent the Government's
restrictions as the Jews. There is ample evidence, also, that Government
officials themselves have not been above surreptitious speculation, while at
the same time being a party to driving the prices up out of sight by radical
legislation.
That official
restrictions were designed to force Jews to pay through the nose for such land
as they were able to acquire is conclusively shown by official figures. Buying
in the open market for the purpose of "resettling landless Arabs,"
the Government paid £72,240 for 17,240 dunams, or an average of £4 per dunam.
In the same period the Jews purchased in the same market, 62,114 dunams for
which they paid £1,647,837, an average of £25 per dunam.
DOUBLE STANDARD OF
TAXATION
In vivid contrast
to this flood of radical legislation is Palestine
There were two
basic taxes. One was the Werko, based on land valuations. The joker lay in the
fact that the last appraisement, by which the tax was set, had been made in the
nineties of the last century. New valuations were only made in cases of change
of ownership. This meant that the old owners were paying a tax based on pre-War
values, while the new owners were assessed on the basis of crazily inflated
post- War prices. Thus the new proprietor paid twenty to thirty times more for
each dunam in tax than the previous owner used to pay for the same land before
it was sold, and continued to pay for the adjoining acres still remaining in
his possession. "This unjust and abnormal position," complains the
Jewish Agency, on March 10, 1935 , "expressed itself in the creation of
two classes of taxpayers paying different rates for similar property," of which
"the only sufferers were Jews." The relative difference in this levy
was often literally enormous. An illustration of the whole taxing scheme is
268 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
provided by the village of Shattah
The other main
grouping was the Osher or tithe, amounting to 10% on all agricultural income.
This was usually canceled in the case of Arabs, sometimes by personal decision
of the High Commissioner himself, though District Commissioners were also authorized
to grant remission at their discretion. The extent of this practice can be seen
in the announced remission of seventy percent of the tithe due the Government
in 1932, amounting to £173,000. In 1933 the total remission of tithes to Arabs
was £193,500 out of an assessment of £1,245,000; and in 1934, £130,000 out of a
total tax of £245,000. In 1935 the High Commissioner reported that of a tithe
of £171,021, only £19,750 had been collected. The fellah's contribution to
Government revenues (tithe, land tax and all other agricultural taxes)
diminished annually, falling from 25% of the total in 1921-22 to 4.8% in
1934-35.
Though after
eighteen years of effort the Government was seemingly unable to complete the
survey for land registration purposes (which would have put an abrupt end to
the plague of squatter suits), it had not the slightest difficulty in finishing
the survey for taxation purposes within a year after deciding that a remodeled
system was in order. The new Rural Property Tax Ordinance was placed into
effect in 1935, substituting a single basis of levy for the multiple Turkish
tithe, house and land taxes.
Says the Royal
Commission of 1937, pointedly: "This effected 1 a large reduction, in some
cases up to seventy percent, in the taxes payable by the [Arab]
peasantry." 20
Though hailed as a
simplified system it was, on the face of it, an intricate maze. It involved
some sixteen brackets of taxation, varying from the highest to the lowest by
several thousand percent, the brackets themselves divided into innumerable
blocks in the various districts. Providentially, the highest tax brackets coincided
exactly with Jewish enterprises and holdings and the lowest with those of the
Arabs. As the lower grades of ground crop land pay only a nominal tax or no tax
at all, the holdings
269 CLOSE SETTLEMENT
ON THE LAND
of the fellaheen
are practically exempted from impost of any kind. This type of acreage,
coinciding with Arab agricultural undertakings, is divided into eight grades,
the highest of which pays twenty-five mils per dunam, while the sixth grade
drops to eight mils per dunam. The seventh and eighth grades pay no tax.
Irrigated land was
divided into nine grades, seemingly in accordance with the districts where Jews
may or may not be found, and was assessed accordingly. Fallow land, owned entirely
by great Arab landlords, pays no tax whatsoever, putting an actual premium on
land speculation and completely reversing every known process by which land
policy in other nations is guided. In any other country infant industry is
nursed along and protected. It is the pioneers who are relieved of taxes; and
in places like Italy Spain Holy Land 's chief competitors in citrus, growers are
directly subsidized. Under this latest arrangement it was the citrus industry,
on which the entire export trade of the country depended, which was placed in
the highest tax division, not even non-bearing groves being excepted. The tax
here vaulted to 825 mils per dunam, the highest rate of taxation on this type
of plantation in the world. 21 excluded specifically from this category, the
all-Arab citrus district of Acre 'pays' 410 mils per dunam. 22
Under the same
law, taxation on urban property is similarly gerrymandered. House property,
including valuation of the site, pays a tax of 12-1/2% of the net annual value.
Premises with an annual value up to 20, invariably Arab, are exempted from
levy. In industrial buildings the Ordinance says that "the tax shall be at
such a rate, not exceeding fifteen percent of the net annual value, as shall be
prescribed by the High Commissioner. The High Commissioner is empowered to
apply the Ordinance by order to specific areas" One may easily presume
that it is the Jewish sections alone which pay the fifteen percent, a circumstance
glaringly evident in the exemptions granted in a list of mixed cities, which on
examination turn out to affect only Arab blocks. Not even schools, clinics or
village councils are exempted from these crushing levies.
270 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
The theory behind
this entire performance is made unmistakably clear in the assessments charged
to the German colony of Sarona, thoroughly Nazi in sentiment since the coming
of Hitler. Almost surrounded by the continuously growing city of Tel Aviv Jordan
There are still
other tax schemes directed without too much disguise at the Jewish pocketbook,
such as the Land Transfer Tax, Government Inspection Tax, and Animal Tax, all
of them cut from the same cloth as the land taxes and all brilliantly successful
in mulcting this stricken people who by international consent are returning to
their homeland.
CHAPTER VI
BRICKS WITHOUT
STRAW 1
SABOTAGING
INDUSTRY
Practically all
countries today take an eager if not anxious interest in the development of
their own prosperity. It is invariably the government which points the way to
methods for developing business, which seeks to attract capital and enterprise
and to enlarge its commerce in every way possible. As backward as the Turks
were made out to be in matters of government, they were happy enough to assist
new industry in their domains. Under the Industrial Act of December 1912, newly
established factories in Palestine
The present
mandatory for Palestine
That the Palestine
Government is well able to understand this matter of elementary economy is
shown plainly enough in the concessions granted to the Iraq Petroleum Company in
an agreement signed January 14, 1931 , to run for a period of seventy
years. This
convention between a private corporation and the Government of Palestine Palestine Transjordan shall derive any revenue from the pipeline
passing through their territory. The Government agrees that
271 Pics
272 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
"no import
tax, transit tax, export tax, or other tax or fiscal charge of any sort shall
be levied on petroleum, naphtha, ozokerite or natural gases, whether in crude
state or any form or derivatives thereof, whether intended for consignment in
transit or utilized for the industrial operations of the undertaking." The
Company is given the far-reaching right to bring in, free of duty, all stores,
equipment, materials, etc., required for its undertakings, "including all
equipment for offices, houses or other buildings," directly or indirectly
required for the development of its business in Palestine
Article VII of
this compact gives the concessionaire the privilege of constructing one or more
private ports in the region and of levying port, harbor or other taxes, as well
as authority to determine who shall have the right to entry at such a port ;
and the
if the Company
cannot come to agreement with the owners. The Company may bring in cheap labor
at its own discretion to compete with the higher-priced local labor. Finally,
this document frees the Company from any kind of land tax, income tax,
or any other toll
or liability. Thus this foreign corporation is presented with all the benefits
of a tax-supported community, and is at the same time released from any
possible levy or demand, in what is altogether the most amazing concession ever
granted by a modern State. On February 11, 1933 the Palestine Government handed this
concessionaire, free of charge, 2250 dunams of valuable land in the industrial Haifa Bay
In return for all
this, the Company did not even allow casual favors to the local market, so that
a four-gallon tin of gasoline, which might sell for .40£ in Iraq Palestine
oil tankers which
sail from Haifa
273 BRICKS WITHOUT
STRAW
marketing, is in
the hands of foreign trusts. 2
When it comes to
the Jews, for whose benefit the Mandate was supposed to have been framed,
another view is taken entirely. Their industries, instead of being welcomed,
are discouraged. Practically nothing is done to assist them. The Government's
attitude can hardly be described as being other than antagonistic. Tariffs and
duties are levied in topsy-turvy fashion, as they would be in a lunatic asylum
; and whatever caters to the needs of industry, such as mail service,
telegraphic system, railways, ports and roads, is maneuvered so as to place it
at a
disadvantage.
The Government has
a tariff on old shoes imported into the country ; but bases its customs policy
on the theory that tariffs lead to a high cost of living. It considers it
immoral to deprive its citizens of the benefits of low-cost merchandise dumped
in
from everywhere by
subsidized foreign trusts ; yet it does not hesitate to levy prohibitive import
duties on all raw materials required by its own industry.
The only authority
the Administration regards as competent to dictate the needs of business is the
Customs Department, headed by a pompous official who starts with the idea that
the local manufacturer must prove that he is producing a superior article at a
lower price than those dumped in the Palestine Tel Aviv-Jaffa
the public."
3
By what is at
least the strangest of coincidences, whenever a Palestine
274 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
bulk materials and
machinery necessary to turn its finished products out. These
cramping tactics
may even go the lengths of a carte blanche refusal to allow the contemplated
enterprise to operate on any terms.
An example of this
condition is contained in the several attempts to establish brewery enterprises
in the Holy Land . The first project was started by a man
named Delfiner, who intended to produce, besides beer, certain chemical
products out of the waste materials of alcohol production. A capital investment
of £80,000 was made, a location bought near Mikveh Israel
In the meanwhile a
group of French capitalists, headed by a Mr. Dreyfuss, leased a portion of the
wine cellars in Rishon LeZion and started reconstruction for brewery purposes.
Turned wise by Delfiner's experience, before going into production they
applied to the
Government, asking that the existing excise tax on spirits of five mils per
liter and the customs duty of twenty mils per liter be not changed after the
setting up of their business. On receipt of this request the Administration
immediately did
the opposite. It
decided to raise the excise tax on spirits (which had not yet been begun to be
manufactured) to fifteen mils per liter and committed itself to an arrangement
admitting Syrian beer, on which not even an excise tax was levied, free of
duty. Reconstruction work was stopped and negotiations entered into with the
Government, which stated off the record that it considered this enterprise an
unwarranted attempt to compete with the import of English beer. So in March
1934 the Dreyfuss group, having had an object lesson in Near Eastern politics,
gave
up the ghost. 4
In every branch of
trade the same tactics are to be seen. A fair illustration of what takes place
is given in the iron wire in dustry, a business calling for a great outlay
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of capital. Here a
heavy tariff is slapped on raw material, which Palestine
produce, and no
duty whatsoever placed on the finished article.
Another example is
that of the aluminum industry. Imported raw aluminum was taxed at the rate of
three cents per pound; while the levy on finished aluminum goods was six cents.
When a factory was set up in Haifa
three cents a
pound.
An even more
graphic illustration is provided in the tax on automobiles. A newly
industrialized land is bound to develop a voracious appetite for cars and
trucks of all kinds. But the Jews made the mistake of showing a preference for
American cars, which they considered more suitable to the terrain than the
lighter English makes. 5 The Government then placed a per pound tax on incoming
motor vehicles of forty mils per kilogram. 6 This enormous impost would add to
the normal cost of
a small American
car the fantastic sum of $2700 for duty alone, with the same toll on old cars
as on new. In a desperate effort to circumvent this assessment, the Jews opened
up a car-assembling plant in Tel Aviv. Jerusalem
a duty on bodies
and parts, twenty-five to fifty percent higher than that on complete vehicles.
The attitude of
the official Zionists to all this is incredible. It is reflected in Weizmann's
declaration that "one hears complaints of alleged injustices with regard
to protective tariffs. People do not want to realize that if a Jew from
Schnepeshok [a touch of humor] comes to Palestine Palestine Europe . There were not wanting individuals who
declared themselves boldly. One of them was the silk manufacturer, Sachs, who
found himself paying a prohibitive duty on ra
276 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
raw silk, with no
protection whatever against the dumping of Japan
countries. 8
Shortly before he was compelled to shut down his factory, Weizmann and the High
Commissioner Wauchope strolled through.
"How do you
like it here ? Masked Sir Arthur politely.
Sachs: "Very
much indeed — but I would like it better if we had a decent Government/'
Weizmann,
hurriedly: "Excuse him, Excellency — Mr. Sachs cannot ably express himself
in English."
"Pardon
me," replied Sachs, looking straight at Weizmann, "but I speak
English very well ! "
Part of the situation
this manufacturer referred to showed glaringly on the cost sheets. A meter of
Japanese cloth sells for 12-1/2 mils, while the labor alone costs 15 mils in Palestine
article like cotton
sports shirts came to a total of 150 mils in Palestine Haifa Palestine Germany Austria
Agricultural
products found their competition fully as severe. Syrian shipments are able to
consistently undersell locally grown vegetables in all Palestine Syria Holy Land . Syrian eggs retail in the Palestine Palestine
Adding to the
miseries of business, the Government's immigration policy caused all industrial
plans to become a matter of hazard due to labor uncertainty. In all Jerusalem
wait interminable
periods for even the simplest installations — yet
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the Authorities
refuse to grant visas to skilled workmen now refugees from Germany Rumania Poland
The transplanting
of a higher standard of life into the medieval setting of the Near East has invited still other troubles. In Egypt Palestine
low wage scales in
the surrounding agricultural countries of the Near East .
In such a
thoroughly destructive situation, industry can only hope to secure and hold
isolated and unique markets, and even these, as we shall see, are not safe from
attack. Though Palestine Holy Land imported £7000 of Japanese goods. By 1935 this
figure had skyrocketed to £646,000, while during this same period Japanese
purchases from Palestine
Certain favored
groups are saved from a portion of this disabling condition by Governmental
exception. All of the various missionary institutions and enterprises are
exempted from tax or toll of any kind. Under this immunity the churchmen run
hotels, farms, manufacture wine on which no excise duty is levied, and engage
in other flourishing businesses under favorable conditions. Also relieved of
tax and imposts are "all members of His Majesty's forces" and all
officers of the Palestine Government. So is the great Iraqian-owned
trans-desert transport service between
the Holy Land and Iraq
Specific Arab
industries are also shown generous consideration. An eloquent token is the
exemption of the Arab soap industry of Nablus
278 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
industrial
purposes; and the grotesquely contrasting customs protection given olives themselves.
Study of the agricultural products protected by Government impost discloses
them to be almost exclusively Arab. Such fellaheen crops as wheat, barley and
seminola are safe-guarded by high duties and a rigid regulation of imports
under a system of licenses.
On scattered
occasions Jewish industry participates unavoidably in these advantages. One
such instance concerns the shoe industry. After dumping practices almost
succeeded in wiping this business out of existence, the Arabs made such a howl
that
the Government was
moved to remedy the situation in 1932 by protective duty. The net result shows
in sharp relief the viciousness of the open door system: there was an immediate
decrease in imports, dropping in two years from £80,000 to £40,000,
and an equalizing
increase in the sale of local manufactures.
The Jews have also
been the beneficiaries of other favors not meant for them. The result of
glutting the Palestine Japan Germany
East, ousting Britain Britain Japan Palestine London Germany Palestine
This dangerous
piece of backfire shocked the Bureaucrats into action. As a result, quickly
imposed tariffs have bettered the situation considerably and a number of closed
Jewish factories have been able to reopen.
It is an error,
however, to assume that Whitehall
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enthusiastically supported
crusade was a considerable factor in enabling Jewish industry to survive, and
bespeaks the almost unique patriotism of Palestine
Palestine
Products' were hustled off to police stations to explain why they preferred to
limit their wares to those made in their own land.
BANKING AND
CURRENCY
Due to all the
disabling uncertainties, the credit situation in Palestine Palestine
developed into
something like a roulette game, with all bets called when the wheel stops.
Apart from trivial
quotas, the banks grant no real long-term credits. No security market is in
existence, a particular blow to moderate-sized new undertakings. These are, in
general, precariously financed, the limited capital of the owner being eaten
up early by
bloated land prices and building costs. The Near Eastern expert, Dr. Alfred
Michaelis, states that consequently "numerous moderate and small-sized
factories are in danger of closing down for financial reasons." 11
The legal interest
rate is 9%, but this is vastly exceeded in practice; while the banks pay 1-1/2%
interest on deposits. Despite the favorable circumstances provided in Palestine
280 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
agricultural
mortgages most difficult to obtain, even at the gouging interest rates
prevailing. The establishment of adequate mortgage banks is hampered by the
Administration's land legislation and attitude generally, frightening off
interested financial institutions in London New York
The Palestine Palestine
them an
immeasurable advantage in all markets.
Due again to the
Administration's own strictures, the banks of Palestine London Jerusalem
The Ottoman Bank
(Anglo-French) has five branches, and the Italian Banco di Roma, four. In Tel
Aviv is found the Polska Kasa Oszczednosci (Polish). There are a few local
Jewish institutions but, with little exception, they are of trivial importance.
This circumstance
is all the more remarkable since the great bulk of the money on deposit everywhere
belongs to Jews. The savings of the Arab fellaheen are usually kept in jars and
similar hiding places.
It is apparent
here, too, that the British are determined to hang a millstone around the neck
of Palestine
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uncomfortably
clear during the unsettled condition which followed after Italy Ethiopia Palestine
In February 1936
the Government published notice of impending legislation which speaks volumes.
This regulation proposes that "no company or cooperative society shall
carry on a banking business without obtaining from the High Commissioner
a license to do
so, and the High Commissioner may grant, refuse, or revoke such license without
explanation."
CITRUS
Pride of the Yishuv
is the Jaffa Paris Jaffa
Before the advent
of the Zionists, oranges were scarcely a factor in the Palestine Holy Land was producing five percent of the oranges
for sale on world markets, jumping in 1938 to the unbelievable
proportion of
eighteen percent. Nowhere else in the world is scientific farming brought to
such a high
point
Citrus is the
heart of Jewish agricultural enterprise and the keystone to the National Home's
prosperity. In 1934 it represented eighty-three percent of all Palestinian
exports. Unlike competitor countries, where a healthy home consumption provides
a secure back-log for this industry, Palestine
282 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
bone of the
country's commerce. Here is an imperative which would automatically dictate the
commercial policy of any other government. But in Palestine
like a fatherless
child, whom everybody is free to kick and exploit and whom nobody will
protect." 12
In the Old World , oranges come within the luxury category.
The arc of production is, moreover, rapidly climbing everywhere, making
competition for existing markets very difficult. The acuteness of this phase is
amply demonstrated in Palestine
At Jaffa Haifa Haifa
wagons ordinarily
used for the transport of manure. Since the orange is highly perishable, many
thousands of boxes are lost annually at the railway stations. Fruit is
inspected outside rather than within the dock warehouses, adding to the
spoilage, in a
scene of
indescribable congestion and confusion. Galling delays frustrate every step in
the attempt to export. The net result is that full shiploads often reach their
markets with as much as fifty percent of waste fruit.
The alternative
possibility of truck hauling did not exist until recently. Over the sixty
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miles of sand dune
between Haifa Tel Aviv-Jaffa
In practically all
European countries, quotas, currency restrictions, or prohibitive duties make
the situation more precarious with every passing year. The principal competitor
nations, Spain Italy
treaties and
clearing agreements negotiated with the countries in which they market their
fruit. Such intercession as the Palestine
count more than
one hundred to the box. The Administration refuses to introduce any uniform
inspection system and calmly ignores the demands of distracted Jewish growers
for compulsory spraying and smoking of disease-ridden groves — practically all
of them Arab. The desperate Jewish growers have had to establish their own
inspection service on roads leading to the Colonies to keep their trees from
being ravaged by the black scale and other destructive pests.
Over the objection
of the Arabs, also, Jews are making a strenuous effort to create a voluntary,
all-inclusive citrus exchange for the maintenance of high standards of sizing,
packing and shipping. They hope to win the better prices fetched by well-
selected,
well-advertised and well-marketed fruit. The Government, however, seems to
regard this effort as an extravagant irritation of Arabs who wish to keep to
their old ways.
In the matter of
trade agreements the Administration lays exaggerated stress on formal
difficulties, which it pretends cannot be overcome. Yet Great Britain Palestine West Indies , whose sole export amounts to twenty
thousand cases. The desperate Palestine
284 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
attractive prices
in exchange for relief — but their offer met with no response.
A reasonable
reading of this mystery is offered in the deliberate British effort to develop Cyprus Palestine Jaffa Cyprus Palestine Island
is now being systematically advanced as "a place of settlement for retired
Colonial officials of all ranks" and other Britons looking for a good
thing. In the official British press it is provocatively described as
"practically undeveloped." 13
That the tragic
troubles besetting the citrus growers cannot be credited to merely
lackadaisical administration is shown by a host of other circumstances. An
illuminating example concerns the boxes in which the fruit is packed, which the
growers had been buying in Poland Rumania Palestine Palestine
tariff on
box-wood, so that they could not be produced locally except at prohibitive
cost.
The result of this
official persecution is not slow in showing itself. Jewish groves, established
at extravagant prices, bearing the entire cost of advertising and marketing Palestine
even in Palestine
In his 1935
Report, the High Commissioner candidly calls attention to this end result of
his policies, saying; "A decrease of investment in citrus plantations was
also
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observed owing to
decline in profits and fear of over-production. Arab farmers, how-
ever, with little
or nothing to pay for their land and their larger margin between receipts and
costs, have placed large additional areas under citrus" 15 The simple
figures tell the rest. Citrus, once a Jewish monopoly in Palestine
ECONOMIC INSANITY
Practically all
countries today maintain a strict control over their exchange transactions, and
also supervise the search for new markets. Their rulers are prepared to bargain
for each minute advantage at the drop of a hat. This is accomplished by a
direct manipulation of currency, noteworthy in the case of Germany
Without exception,
industrial nations follow the rule of buying only where they can sell, and view
with serious misgivings even the slightest upset of their trade balance. The United States
Schacht, each with
a different value and all manipulated to Germany
On June
10, 1937 , Commons
listened to Lieutenant-Colonel Amery, former First Lord of the Admiralty,
threaten a sharp increase in duty against American products. "It is
impossible," he said, "to get back to the gold standard as long as
that great
creditor nation
still is forcing us to take an excess of imports." Echoed by the whole
British Cabinet, Foreign Minister Eden stated that an agreement with the United States
286 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
glowing
gratification because Cyprus June 30, 1936 , with imports of £305,087 against exports
of £305,351.
Alone in the
world, Palestine
countries as the
sole means of establishing satisfactory trade relations. Though it seems to
levy tariffs and imposts as it pleases under the less imposing name of 'taxes,'
the Government officially takes refuge in the position that its
"obligations under the Mandate" prevent it from 'discriminating'
against countries belonging to the League, from whom the Administration of
Palestine theoretically derives its authority.
It is obvious that
Germany Japan Syria Germany Japan
materials and
transport. Recent years have witnessed a vast in crease in the dumping
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of goods by highly
organized countries, effected through export premiums, subsidies to industry,
etc., by which the State endeavors to balance its payments without reference to
the home cost. In the case of Egyptian sugar, prices in Cairo Alexandria Palestine Czechoslovakia
All nations,
without exception, enjoy preferential treatment in regard to Palestine Holy Land has consequently fallen heir to a dangerous condition where it
buys infinitely more abroad than it sells. The result of this policy showed in
1935 when Palestine
Under some
circumstances these huge arrears might not be cause for overwhelming anxiety.
It could be argued that in the development of a young and progressive country
the import of large quantities of production equipment is a vital necessity,
which must be
considered as a capital investment rather than an expenditure. It is
undoubtedly significant that the largest single import in 1935 was industrial
machinery, valued at £992,000 as compared with £967,000 in 1934 and £467,000 in
1933. Other items of producers' materials showed similar pleasant increases.
Despite this optimistic circumstance, the facts as we have seen them are not
conducive to so liberal an interpretation. State policies which allow for a
constriction of foreign markets, and make possible a condition where a locally
manufactured blouse costing 270 mils to make, has to compete with an identical
blouse imported from Austria which retails for 250 mils, hardly make an
assumption of this sort acceptable.
288 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
A picture of what
is occurring can be gained from the increase in egg imports from 11,000,000
eggs in 1929, to 76,000,000 eggs in 1935, a frightening clue into real condition,
when it is considered that Palestine is still in the main an agricultural
country. The import value of food, drink and tobacco alone in 1935 was
£3,646,877, while manufactured articles were £10,789,934. These are certainly
forbidding enough figures, fully justifying Jabotinsky's dour warning that
"the Jews are not settlers in Palestine
Certainly nothing
but ruin can come to the infant industry of this small land by turning it into
a stronghold of free trade while all the countries, including Great Britain
The actual fact is
that the four hundred thousand Jews in Palestine Palestine Israel
289 BRICKS WITHOUT
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pouring into this
tiny area abated. That Jewish ingenuity has succeeded in partly circumventing
these determined disabilities is of little real importance, as it can be
assumed that new restrictions will constantly be invented to take the place of
those which have proven ineffective.
In the matter of
currency alone, imports from such countries as Germany Rumania Poland Palestine
be taken in lieu
of money; and it is a long time, if ever, before the exporter collects on his
debt. Such a condition would be laughable in any other country, which would
insist at once on being paid in local currency under pain of excluding the
offending States from its markets.
All these signs of
economic insanity are the more remarkable since the mere existence of a great
excess of imports over exports should place the National Home in an ideal
bargaining position. The very weakness of her trade position would provide a
club with which to secure important concessions from foreign nations the
instant a quota system was set up. Under an interested Government, Palestine Egypt Syria Iraq
290 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
fruit was forced
on Palestine Russia Russia Poland Palestine Warsaw Holy Land £400,000 annually, and buying £40,000 in
return.
Another of this
unending list of examples is Hungary Holy Land in the neighborhood of £ 1 20,000 every
year, and buys about £ 1000 worth of its goods in return. Like many of her
neighbors, Hungary France Belgium Palestine Palestine Germany
Whatever specious
legality the Administration might take refuge in to justify its present course,
Article XVIII of the Mandate specifically empowers it to conclude special
agreements "with any State the territory of which in 1914 was wholly included
in Asiatic Turkey or Arabia ."
One of these States is Iraq Palestine Iraq Palestine Syria Holy Land . Syria Palestine Palestine Near East amount to only seventeen percent of its
imports from these same States, showing a deficit of £2,290,000 in 1935. This
may be compared with the
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Iraqian balance of
trade for the same Near Eastern countries including Palestine
coming to 890,000
dinars in imports against exports of 1,113,000 dinars. In the identical sphere
of Near Eastern trade, Syria
Under the stimulus
of an interested Government, Syria Palestine Palestine Holy Land . Syrian industrial export to Palestine Palestine Syria
exports
practically balanced each other.
As if playing a
practical joke, the sole trade arrangement approved by the Administration was
made with Germany Palestine Palestine Palestine Germany
The whole sum and
substance of the Government's attitude can be seen in its failure to provide
for a Palestine
292 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
name of Palestine Iraq Iran Haifa Iraq Iraq Iraq Palestine
a collective zero.
19 The result of this 'agreement' has merely been to aggravate Haifa
The effect of this
stultifying process was recently described by Dr. F. Rottenstreich, Palestine Palestine
He flatly accused
the Government of boycotting Palestinian products, asserting that it even went
abroad for goods not manufactured in Great Britain Europe such articles as "a thermometer, for
instance, at PT10, when similar thermometers of the same sort, manufacture and
patent, are sold in Jerusalem
While everything
connected with Jewish interests is being booted around like a football, the
usual solicitousness for Arabs continues. This is shown handsomely in the case
of the Arab specialty of wheat growing. When a high tariff proved ineffectual,
the flour trade was placed under a system of rigid licenses, with Jews allowed
an annual import of only ten thousand tons though the Tel Aviv demand alone was
estimated at seventeen thousand tons. Finally the High Commissioner stopped the
imports of wheat altogether during May, June and July of 1935.
This policy was
continued to the actual point of an acute flour shortage, notwithstanding the
fact that it represented a 'discrimination* against members of the League of Nations anxious to dump their excess produce into
the Holy Land . 22
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'HEADS, I WIN —
TAILS, YOU LOSE'
Though Palestine London Britain
It is significant
that Imperial preference has been accorded all other mandated territories
assigned to Great Britain Togo Cameroon Tanganyika October
13, 1928 , that
these areas should be considered part of the British Empire for tariff purposes under Article VIII of
the Finance Act of 1 91 9. International precedent is also offered in the preferential
tariff granted by France Tunis United States Hawaii Cuba
All authorities on
international law agree that the Covenant and the Mandate were devised for the
protection of the mandated areas, and not for the benefit of foreign powers.
Even the open door, in principle, is primarily intended to prevent the exploitation
of these territories. That economic isolation was certainly not meant by the Powers
is proven in the Mandates Commission's demand that Mandatory rulers and all
other States "which have concluded special treaties or conventions with
the Mandatory Powers . . . extend the benefits of such treaties or conventions
to the Mandated territories." 23
294 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
Anglo-German
payments agreement, in which Palestine Germany Palestine
The shrewd
hypocrisy of London Stockholm Holy Land grapefruit to "promote trade
relations between Palestine Sweden Palestine Britain Holy Land .
At the same time London Palestine Poland February 27, 1930 . In the Anglo-Lithuanian Treaty, signed
to maintain a
balance of trade between the two countries, the same business was repeated.
Here, too, the British claimed credit for all Lithuanian goods sold in the Holy Land . 26
ON AIR AND SEA
The irresistible
force which drew the city-bound Jew to the hard, challenging soil, also beckons
him to the sea. Zionist thinkers saw in advance what the Asiatic hinterland is
rapidly discovering — that the sea borders of Palestine land of Israel
The Nationalist
leader Jabotinsky was among the first to grasp the full significance of this
situation. There has long been a Revisionist marine school at Civitavecchia , Italy Haifa
the sea.
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In 1934, goods to
the value of £17,000,000 were transported to and from Palestine Palestine Africa .
Several Jewish
companies have made determined efforts to capture a part of this sea traffic
for the Jewish people. When the first Hebrew steamer, the Atid, made its maiden
voyage in 1933, manned by a Hebrew-speaking crew, observers commented wonderingly
that "there was an air of unreality about this venture." Today there
are three Jewish shipping corporations in Palestine Mediterranean . For the most part these craft are of low tonnage but the new Jew
looks at them with pride.
The difficulties
faced by Jewish shipping are far greater than those usually connected with an attempt
to establish a new merchant marine. It must compete unaided against the
subsidized shipping industries of other nations. More, it suffers from the
actual animus of its own home government. It does not even get preference in
port clearance and wharf facilities. It is handicapped by its inability to get
itself included in the pacts between shipping companies, so that a balanced
payload of merchandise could be arranged for its vessels between their various
ports of call. Since the amount of shipping originating in Palestine Egypt Palestine Cyprus Syria
The Administration
has declared Sundays and Christian holidays the only days of rest in Palestine
296 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
extremely limited.
Employees engaged in it must be paid 'overtime.' The Jewish
Sabbath and
holidays are not recognized. This obviously places Jewish shipping under costly
duress, causing it to lose patronage and cargoes.
In 1936 the
largest of the Jewish steamers, the S.S. Tel Aviv, finally had to throw up the
sponge due to State-subsidized competition of foreign companies, and the ship
was sold to a corporation in Japan
A growing number
of Jewish vessels are engaged in deep-sea fishing, though local fisheries are
discouraged by special legislation prohibiting trawling, and by the granting of
"exclusive licenses to fish." The High Commissioner dictates the
industry
personally, with
powers to issue licenses as he sees fit. It is note-worthy that foreign
fishermen are subject to none of these disabilities when operating in Palestine
No appropriation
exists for the fisheries service, even though Palestine Iraq Tigris to the markets of Palestine Newcastle
cycle of sardines
takes them all the way from South Palestine to the Syrian coast. Were the Government's attitude not a factor,
a great export of sardines, packed in native olive oil, could easily
materialize.
This
uncompromising indifference to the fate of its entire maritime industry on the
part of a Government, is, to say the least, unique. Not even in the section of
the coast around Jaffa Harbor Palestine Jaffa
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overcrowded that
arriving steamers often have to stand by for a week or more before they can
unload. Sometimes in the height of the orange season the situation becomes so
impossible that the whole import and tourist traffic has to be rerouted through
Haifa
The ideal spot for
a harbor which would relieve this congestion is Jaffa-Tel Aviv, with a combined
population of well over two hundred thousand and the great bulk of Palestine Jaffa Harbor
predictable.
Steamers must anchor at least a mile out, and in bad weather have to stand by
and pray for calm.
Unable to enlist
Government support, the city of Tel Aviv
298 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
the right of a
city situated on the seashore to build its own harbor at its own expense
has ever been
contested ; but Palestine
For years the Jews
tried to secure at least unloading rights, and for years their petitions were
ignored. In 1936, after four weeks of violence and isolation had sealed up Jaffa Port Tel
Aviv
load. What the
Government agreed to, in view of the emergency, was that the Jews be allowed to
build a temporary jetty one hundred yards long with money raised by private
subscription. 29 It not only refused to participate in the financing of the
'port' but also expressly forbade the Municipality of Tel Aviv Haifa
With usual
exuberance, the Zionist press over the world hailed the moment as historic and
the 'port' as a great concession. However, what exists at the present day is a
board pier with a couple of wooden shacks serving as customs houses, and a big
sign, "No Admittance to Port Area." 30 Certainly present omens are at
least dubious. One appeared on the jubilant 'Sea Day' which Tel Aviv arranged
to celebrate the triumphant opening of its 'port' in June of 1936. The great
event of the day centered on three Jewish steamers which were to sail proudly
into harbor as living evidence of Jewish might on the sea. Jerusalem
unloading cargoes,
not for display purposes."
Actually there is
no deep-water harbor in Tel Aviv, nor has the Government granted any permission
to construct one. The 'port' has none of the rights which are granted even such
minor places as Acre and Gaza Jaffa
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United States
its wharves and
quays, the Government takes all the income from wharf age and
storage fees in
addition to the revenue derived from customs duties. The Mandatory's attitude
is well covered in the Report of the Royal Commission of 1937. It comments in
regard to the projected harbor that "this would undoubtedly be disastrous
to the prosperity of Jaffa
In that more
modern type of navigation, over the air lanes, the story is much the same.
Private flying is practically forbidden. When a young Jewish aviator who had
been a former executive in the Fokker Airplane Works attempted to lay out a
field he
was all but
ordered out of the country.
There are three
important air bases, at Haifa Gaza Sea of Galilee is also being used as a permanent landing base for Imperial
Airways flying to and from India Australia Palestine
and West service
as well as the Italian Ala Lot ,' connecting it up with the most important
airports of Europe , Asia and Africa .
A number of years
ago, Tel Aviv with usual enterprise suggested that a piece of ground could be
acquired at the northern end of the city for a commercial airport. It brought
forward the fact that the existing civil airport, located at the extreme
southern tip of the country in the Arab town of Gaza Tel Aviv
It must be noted,
however, that recently a company in which Jewish as well as prominent English
figures are interested has been allowed to use the airport at
300 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
Lydda for civil
aviation purposes. 33
ROADS AND
RAILROADS
The question of
roads, touched on briefly before, is well worth additional examination.
The major part of
Jewish investment is made in the coastal plain and in the valleys around Haifa
Despite the
frequent pleading, practically no roadways have been built to relieve these
colonies of their isolation. Colonel Wedgwood called the turn in Commons.
Replying to his "honorable friend Mr. Isaac Foot" who thought
"the roads were
beautiful,"
he observed that "if he goes there and looks again he will see that the
roads which he mentions are all roads leading to Arab villages and that it is
very difficult to get to the Jewish villages." In January 1930, S. Ettingen , lecturer on road and railway engineering
at Jewish Technical College in Haifa Jerusalem London
In striking
contrast are the beautiful highways existing in all parts of Palestine
301 BRICKS WITHOUT
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1936 at breakneck
speed from Gaza Red
Sea over a
sparsely settled region where any kind of wheeled vehicle is a rarity. Another
is the really brilliant engineering feat involved in the great broad artery
constructed in 1937 to serve British military needs along the thinly settled
northern border.
At the same time
that Jewish towns were wallowing in surrounding mud, Imperial self-benefaction
announces that two main roads are to be extended from Palestine Baghdad Palestine England Mosul
commercial value
will be to give Iraq Haifa
Military
necessities have also given the Jews a left-handed benefit, through the
construction during 1937-38 of the coastal road between Tel Aviv-Jaffa Haifa
memoranda that would
fill a library. In 1936 Mussolini inadvertently became the Jew's good angel.
The Government realized that the need for facilitating speedy movement of
troops was more pressing than its strictures against Jews. Without
further ado, the
highway was completed with such dispatch as to come under the head of an
engineering miracle. Jewish growers will now be able to transport their fruit
and vegetables overnight to Haifa
The Palestine Palestine
The main line is
largely a war-time product, and exhibits all the short-comings
302 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
of its improvised
military origin. Instead of continuing on a straight course down the coast, the
line loops suddenly inland at the very point where the barren stretches of
the south give way
to the economically important citrus belt with its great urban centers of Tel
Aviv and Jaffa Sinai Peninsula , 323 kilometers in Trans-Jordan, and 477
kilometers in Palestine Palestine Palestine
One of the
characteristics of these railways is their varying gauges, requiring a
multiplicity of reloading operations to reach different parts of the same Lilliputian
country. The personnel consists of inept political appointees of the
Government, who
treat this
business with all the sporadic glee that a spoiled child does a mechanical toy.
The management does not bother to coordinate and adapt its services, so that
shipment by rail is liable at any point to turn into a comedy of errors.
An analysis of
revenue demonstrates that Jewish freight and passengers supply at least
two-thirds of the income of these roads.
Since these lines
were constructed they have always been in bad shape. The Mandatory's 1920
report to the League
of Nations
describes them as "entirely un-ballasted, scantily bridged, needing
repairs to earthworks, drains, fences and ditches . . . and liable to be closed
to traffic by washouts." For their length the Palestine Railways are the most
expensive in the world. From year to year the losses of these hungry white
elephants increase, aggravated by the growing preference for highway transportation
where Jews are relieved of Governmental incompetence and
BRICKS WITHOUT
STRAW
obstructive ness.
The railway deficit charged to Government expenditure in the fiscal year
1935-36 was £124,159, as compared with £33,805 in 1934-35.
When the roads
were taken over, more than £500,000 was paid to the Jerusalem-Jaffa Line
concessionaires alone. The Palestine Palestine
tax-payer per
kilometer of line is conservatively estimated at £ 10,000. 35 The cost of
constructing a modern railway system with full equipment, in other countries
with similar traffic, does not average over £4500.
To reduce
effective competition, the Government puts every possible obstacle in the way
of motor traffic. Some of these have already been mentioned. Others are a
drastic restriction on driving licenses, and such curious devices as an
ordinance which allows only one person to ride in the front seat of a touring
car.
To cap the strange
state of affairs, Tel Aviv, the most important metropolis in the country, does
not have a railway terminal. It has only a little way-station, a small,
ramshackle wooden shack suited to some obscure Arab village. To catch a train
its people must go by motor to the little Arab town of Ludd British Empire is there a town half of Tel Aviv's size
which has to contend with such a condition. And nowhere in known creation is
there another public utility which could deliberately avoid the chief
commercial city of the country without having its management made the subject
of a lunacy commission.
CHAPTER
VII
DUAL OBLIGATION TO
TWO PEOPLES
THE TAX MONEYS
Before the
Zionists threw themselves into the picture, Palestine Europe . The British Exchequer itself was being
bled white by incessant demands from every possible quarter.
Soon Jewish money
began to gravitate toward the National Home. This was one part of the Zionist
adventure the London Palestine Great Britain
speaks of the
Zionist Organization as a "hen that lays golden eggs." It was evident
that in the Mandate for Palestine
Despite generous
squandering, the public moneys flowed in like a golden river. Nothing like it
has ever been seen in the modern world. A deficit of ,£41,000 in 193 1,
converted itself into a surplus of ,£6,267,810 in 1935. By the beginning of
1936
this accumulated
hoard was already equal to more than two years' normal expenditure and was
piling up rapidly.
This was far and
away the most respectable surplus that any Government in existence could show ;
but nothing daunted, the Palestine Administration went about the
304 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES 305
business of both
expenditure and taxation as if it were skating on the thin ice of bankruptcy.
In 1934, though the Treasury was already groaning under the weight of a huge
accumulated reserve, with income gaining over expenditures with every passing
month, the Administration attempted to put through an income tax, and was only
deterred from this measure when it was discovered that the Arabs refused to
keep books. 1
Now began a
performance which Lord Strabolgi sarcastically described as "the policy
and economics of bedlam." The Palestine Government, its pockets already
bursting with unused money, commenced to borrow huge sums in London Ceylon Natal , Uganda Guiana , an investment whose collectibility is
more than doubtful, if only in view of the defaulted amounts Great Britain
It is interesting
to examine one of these loans to discover just what purposes the Palestine
Administration had in mind. A typical borrowing was made in 1934 for £2,000,000.
Included among its items were £133,000 for Arab schools (no provision at all
for Jewish schools), £250,000 for the resettlement of 'displaced' Arabs; and £200,000 for agricultural credits (Arab).
£210,000 is asked for a berth and reclamation scheme at Haifa Jerusalem Haifa
306 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
The final item in
this loan was £407,000 for public buildings and post offices. In the
application of this provision the Jews were again ignored. Tel Aviv, bearing by
far the heaviest part of the country's tax burden, was not given a farthing out
of the total loan and went along as best it could with its antiquated telephone,
postal, sewage and drainage facilities.
Analysis of the
Government's expenditures for any period shows a good deal of marauding in the
interests of the Mandatory itself. The League's Council had ruled that
"while a mandated territory may be expected to pay its own way, it may not
be burdened with obligations not directly connected with its own
administration." We have already seen surreptitious violations of this
principle in the amazing deals made with Iraq Palestine Sinai Peninsula . At a time when London Palestine Palestine
The great bulk of
all expenditures made by the Palestine Government are conditioned directly on
the military needs of the Empire. Says Broadhurst without mincing words,
"Troops have to be kept somewhere, and although it costs more to keep them
in Palestine Egypt India
the military and
armed forces of Great Britain
In addition to
sums handed directly to London
307 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES 307
One has only to
compare the disproportionate figure of £842,487 for military and police during
1935, with £313,597 allowed the combined Departments of Health and Agriculture,
the latter amount itself hiding such expenditures as those for military roads.
Just as Jewish money was used to build the best military harbor in the Mediterranean at Haifa Britain India Britain Palestine
An inkling of
where this sweet flood of golden rain comes from was given by the Colonial
Secretary in Commons on March 24, 1936 . The fat Palestine
The figures from Jerusalem King David Hotel
308 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
PUBLIC
EXPENDITURES
"I
think," said Colonel Wedgwood, his stern blue eyes snapping, "the
feeling is that the Jews ought to look after the Jews and the Government ought
to look after the Arabs. . . Under this bill we are providing for a post office
in Jerusalem
already put up
with national money, not municipal money, a magnificent post office in Jaffa
the Government
should provide post offices for Arab towns and leave the Jews to provide the
public buildings in their own towns."
In thus referring
to the postal situation as a symbolic example, Wedgwood did not overstate the
case. Jews contribute seventy-four percent of all postal revenues, most of it
from Tel Aviv. When the palatial new post office was erected in Jaffa
was already
posting eight letters to Jaffa Jaffa
long as that at a
Labor Exchange, waiting for stamps." 4
It takes three
days for a letter to travel the thirty-five miles from Jerusalem
All public
services can be measured by the same yardstick. The work of drainage and
reforestation, so vital to the needs of an enlightened European community, has
been dumped into the lap of the Jews themselves. Expenditures on health,
education and agriculture are limited mainly to administration costs with the
exception of small subsidies to the Arabs to keep them quiet. If the Jews
themselves had not drained the malarial swamps, the land would still be subject
to pestilence and disease. One of the
309 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES
learned reproaches
of the Jewish Agency informs the Government that "in most countries the
protection of public health, the promotion of education, the construction of
highways and drainage of large areas, are regarded as governmental
functions." 5
Considering the
fact that in Palestine Israel
There is little in
Palestine
generally conceded
to the Municipalities by the most highly socialized States. Despite this, they
maintain no offices in the chief commercial city of the country. Citizens of
Tel Aviv in need of Government services are compelled to go to Jaffa Jaffa
compelled to go to
Tel Aviv to collect its taxes, the Administration plastered an increased assessment
on the Jews for this 'convenience.' In the temporary Customs Clearing Office,
for example, an additional surcharge of two hundred and fifty mils was levied,
apparently, as one observer remarked, "for the privilege of not having to
penetrate into the closed port area of Jaffa
CHEATING CHILDREN
WITH COCKLES 6
Since the
educational system is generally considered to be the foundation of the State,
it is important to see just how this public institution operates in Palestine
Official reports
for 1935 show the number of Jewish school pupils as 52,030; Muslim, 45,894; and
Christian, 18,175. This unexpected proportion is due to the peculiar age
brackets of the Jewish immigration, as well as the aversion of Muslims
310 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
to education,
which they consider destructive to the true faith. If it were left up to the
British alone, the Jewish National Home would be the most illiterate spot on
the globe. Only 6.2 % of the Government's budget goes into education, and of
this small sum, the great bulk is deflected into Arab channels. The attitude
toward Jewish schooling is something like that found in some of our Southern
States toward Negroes. Roughly, the State allots $5.45 for the education of
every Jewish child, and $26.68 for every non-Jewish child. 7 Of the ,£900,000
spent from 1921 to 1929, less than £60,000 went to the Jewish school system.
For the school year 1935-36 the expenditures of the Department of Education ran
to £237,000, of which £37,916 was allocated to Jewish schools. These
comparative figures are even more striking than they appear, since they do not
contain other amounts which must be credited to the Arab side such as
expenditures of the Public Works Department in building of schools, and general
administrative overhead.
With no exception,
the Government School System is purely Arab in character. The language of
instruction is Arabic. Hebrew is not even taught as a foreign tongue. When in
1937 a rumor circulated that the study of Hebrew was to be introduced,
it only evoked
incredulity and rendered the Government's hasty denial superfluous. "Apart
from scientific subjects," the Peel Commission acknowledges, "the curriculum
is almost wholly devoted to the literature, history and tradition of the Arabs;
and
all the school
masters from the humblest village teacher to the head of the Government Arab
college, are Arabs." 8 Arab school masters in Palestine
During the whole
period of British occupation there has never been a single Jewish school built
in Palestine
311 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES
national institutions,
"the entire burden of the education of the Jewish children is laid on the
shoulders of the Jews themselves." 10 In the year 1933, which may be taken
as an example, the Jewish educational budget was £250,000. The Governments
grant was the ludicrous sum of £23,626. The balance of the money had to be
provided by opulent Americans, and by the many poor European Jews who were
cajoled into donating their meager possessions to the various Zionist funds.
The Administration nevertheless does not hesitate to impose its will on the
Jewish-supported system even in small matters. An instance, more than amusing
under the circumstances, occurred in February 1933, when it informed the Vaad
Leumi that it considered the salaries paid to Jewish teachers excessive and
demanded an immediate reduction.
These marauding
operations show even more cruelly in the handling of the Kadoorie legacy.
Kadoorie was a Baghdad Jew who died in China
HEALTH AND
SANITATION
The attitude
toward public health is substantially that man must not presume to interfere
with the inscrutable will of Allah. Only inadequate attention has been given to
the needs of the Arabs, and none at all to those of the Jews. Determined to
build their land so that civilized human beings could live in it, the Zionists
have diverted
312 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
tremendous sums,
desperately needed for other purposes, to sanitation work, meeting as they went
along not the gratitude of officialdom but its undisguised resentment.
Though it bars the
municipal corporations from acting on their own, the Government has not made
the slightest effort to develop adequate sewage systems in the cities. There is
no serious milk and dairy inspection ; and nothing but the sketchiest
provisions for
controlling epidemics or isolating contagious disease. No provision is made for
tubercular patients and little more for the insane. The single small Government
hospital for mental diseases is reserved for Arabs. Broadhurst mentions that
lunatics "wandered loose about the streets, ignored by the passers-by. If
they frightened people, or attacked them, the nearest policeman was
called" 11 and the lunatic was jailed in great cells containing thirty or
more, together with illegal immigrants, and criminals of all descriptions. Even
lepers are not segregated.
Says Duff, "I
can show you a half dozen any day in the Suq" (the general market place).
12
We find the Jewish
Agency remonstrating with the Government in 1930 because it was "steadily
reducing its expenditures for health" despite the great growth in population
and revenue. 13 Again, in 1936 the Hadassah Report bitterly informed the Peel
Commission that appropriations for public health, meager as they were, had
declined materially since 1922.
Taking the
initiative, the Jews have done a magnificent job. "Next to the great
sanitation work carried out in Panama Palestine Near East .
313 DUAL OBLIGATION
TO TWO PEOPLES
As a result of
their effort, infant mortality in Tel Aviv fell to £74.75 per thousand,
compared with £209 per thousand in neighboring Jaffa Gaza
Out of the anemic
amounts which constitute the country's health budget, a scarce ten percent has
been spent on Jews. The Government's preventive medical services are carried on
exclusively for Arabs. All hospitals it has built or supports are in Arab
centers. In Jerusalem Central Government Hospital Amman
The matter of
national health is one of the innumerable crises with which the Yishuv is
faced. Despite the great achievements of voluntary health work, unsettling
world conditions have diminished the funds once so willingly donated by
Diaspora Jewry.
As these shrink,
the old perils revive in proportion. Such enterprises as the draining of
Esdraelon's great swamps rid Palestine
Even in sickness
and death the malice of officialdom pursues the belabored Jews. Jerusalem Hadassah Hospital
314 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
built and
subsidized by the Government itself, do not pay for water at all. A sorrier
state of affairs was recited in Commons on July u, 1935 by Captain Strickland,
referring to the condition of Municipal Hospital
The reply of the
King's Officer was the usual skillful evasion — "It would be very unwise
for me to forward ex parte statements to the High Commissioner, who as the
House knows, gives most careful consideration to these matters." Here we
have something approaching the ultimate in human enormity: though the
Government's Department of Health contributed almost nothing to the support of
Jewish hospitals, the Municipality of Tel Aviv
In matters of
health, too, the British relentlessly squeeze this little country for profits.
When the Municipality of Haifa England Jerusalem Jerusalem
teeth with soda
water. 16 It has been reliably estimated that the entire reserve supply would
not last three weeks in emergency and that most of it is totally unfit for
drinking purposes. 17
A perverse
pleasure seems to be taken in keeping all abominations intact. One of
315 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES
these is an open
sewer which runs from North Jerusalem down the whole valley, poisoning the air with a nauseating stink.
This plague-spot has been in existence for
at least fourteen
years. Despite protests, not the faintest attempt has ever been made to cover it.
However, on occasion the Administration can take an aggressive interest in
'sanitary' measures. One of these, announced in July 1930, was a drainage
project for Jerusalem
LAWS, BENEFITS AND
PUBLIC SERVICES
There are more
useless officials quartered on the back of this unfortunate country than can be
found in any other administrated area on earth. Officials crawl over the land
like flies. In 1925, when they were not nearly so numerous, an Arab Congress
did not hesitate to declare that "the Turkish regime administered Palestine
an assisting horde
of native politicos who need no introduction to the somnambulant venality of
the East.
It is a normal
experience to go to one of the Government offices day after day seeking some
small service, such as having the water turned on in a newly leased apartment,
only to be told that the only person who can attend to your matter, is 'out.'
To get anything done at all, it is the common practice to hand one of the
native politicos an inducing sum on the side, which invariably helps. Duff's
admirable book Galilee Galloper, barred in Palestine
Despite its hostility
to Marxism, the Government of Palestine has put into effect
316 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
a practical socialism
of its own. It owns railroads, telephones and other public utilities, and keeps
a close control over every kind of major enterprise. The attitude was explained
in a sentence by Mr. Johnson, the Palestine Treasurer, when he was asked
directly why it was so difficult for Jews to obtain any concessions. Johnson
replied tersely: "What do you s'pose uoe're 'ere for ! " Meaning that
if any of the pro-
posed concessions
were any good, 'they' would operate them for themselves with the public moneys,
creating more jobs for worthy Englishmen out of work. This procedure is,
however, held in check by lack of experience and the enervating climate. Ordinarily
things touched by officialdom wither — or proceed at a snail's pace.
Very little that
is lucrative escapes their attention. Jewish firms rendering a public service
sooner or later find Englishmen in control of their businesses; or their
charters are canceled outright. The Jewish Hasolel Company, first to generate
electricity in Jerusalem the Hague
All public
utilities seem to operate on the theory that in one way or another life must be
made miserable for the Jews. The phone service is a case in point. Jews are the
great majority of all subscribers. According to Hoofien's estimate, they are
more than seventy percent of the subscribers even in Arab Jaffa. In a rapidly
industrializing country, telephone communications are an urgent necessity.
Nevertheless, applicants for new phones were informed that these could not be
installed under three years’
317 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES 317
notice. The
expressed reason for this delay was that the Government did not like the
existing telephone building and, apparently, had been spending all these years
trying to decide on an acceptable location for a new one. The ownership of a
phone in Palestine
Though Tel Aviv is
the commercial center of the country, trunk calls to and from that city have to
pass through the Jaffa Exchange. If a subscriber wants to put in a call during
business hours from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Haifa Jerusalem Haifa Jerusalem
All communications
of any kind are in the hands of the Government. Wires must be brought to the
Central Post Office in person and must be called for in the same way. The Government
fixes the charge, no matter which cable or wireless company is to handle the
message. The press rate for sending a cable from Jerusalem London Cairo , Egypt London
All but a negligible
proportion of telegrams are forwarded by Jews. The revenue of this Department
in an ordinary year amounts to around £300,000, against an average expenditure
of £198,000.
Until very
recently, messages were accepted only in English and Arabic. A stream of
violent protests from Jewish telegraph users bombarded Geneva
318 Pics
319 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
search of the
Mandate and were unable to find any specific provision for the sending of
telegraphic messages in Hebrew. 2 * After a protracted struggle, this farce was
ended when the Permanent Mandates Commission ordered that the discrimination
cease. The Government then installed Hebrew telegraphy in only a few cities, so
that its use became, in effect, impossible.
The Mandate for Palestine December 3, 1937 that only two percent of the Senior
Officers in Palestine Jerusalem
Identical
strictures operate against the showing of the Jewish flag. Its public use is
treated as a virtual encroachment on public morals. This was demonstrated
convincingly during the celebration of the Maimonides Octo-centenary in April
1935. 25 Spain Vatican Palestine
The present flag
of the National Home is the Union Jack with the word 'Palestine
320 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES
(which with
customary ineptness they ignored) by refusing to fly British colors when in Palestine
Quite in keeping
is the Government Broadcasting Service, launched with much fanfare at the
beginning of 1936. After operating but a few days, officials forced the Hebrew
speakers to eliminate the name Palestine
to Palestine
Several typical
incidents will show the uses this public service is being put to. During the
last week of September 1936, a famous Arabic legend was being retold. The story
revolves around the classic loyalty of the Jewish poet-hero, Ishmuel (Samuel)
Adaya HaCohen, who had protected a valuable shield entrusted to him by the Arab
hero Alkis, even when his little son was being tortured to death to force him
to yield. To this day HaCohen remains so traditional a symbol of absolute
honesty that an Arab when speaking of outstanding loyalty and trust will say,
"faithful as Ishmuel." As told over the Government broadcasting
station by the announcer, a public official, the explanation was added that
"Samuel behaved as he did from love of wealth, as the shield that Alkis
had left was a pledge for money Samuel had loaned him." Thus the speaker
demonstrated that so great is the avarice of the crafty Jew that he would even
sacrifice his own child to it. On another occasion, in February 1937, a
visiting English M.P. named McGovern had his scheduled talk over the Palestine
Broadcasting Service cavalierly canceled at the last moment. The acknowledged
reason was that McGovern had made the mistake of lauding Jewish accomplishments
in a newspaper interview the day before.
Radios practically
come within the contraband class. The tourist is astounded to discover that he
must make a special journey to Jerusalem
320 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
might listen to
the propaganda sent out from London Jerusalem Bari
Even the priceless
antiquities of the Holy
Land are not
sacred to the ruling caste and may be exported unhindered; though such
'backward' nations as Honduras Chicago
In other respects
the regulation of life is minute and drastic. The most revolutionary enactments
decorate the statute books, often promulgated without notice or publicity. One
of these empowers a police officer to stop a touring car and order the driver
to do such a thing as transport a live cow to the municipal slaughter house. 27
Another entitles the Authorities to shut off the water supply at any Jerusalem America
*NO JEWS NEED
APPLY'
Had the Government
seriously wished to pursue the policy of the Mandate, it would have engaged itself
in training Jews for its administrative and executive departments
321 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES
against the day
when the manifest purposes of that document had been fulfilled.
Simple logic would
have recommended the appointment to high position of only those Arabs who could
be relied on to carry out the policy to which the Mandatory was pledged. But
the official cabal had quite other ideas. Hence we discover, among
the other
'benefits' conferred on Jews in Palestine
As in Nazi
Germany, virtually the only Jews who can get Government positions are the old
soldiers — and their lives are made so miserable that they prefer anything else
if they can get it. Though European Zionists proclaimed their happy relationship
with Britain June
15, 1931 ,
referring to the exclusion of Jewish workers on all governmental projects,
declared pointblank that "this exclusion, which is in effect a boycott,
provides additional evidence of a Government policy calculated to ignore the
interests of the Jewish community in all its needs. . ."
When Samuel came
after the 1920 pogrom which almost lost the Mandate for England London
The resignation in
1932 of A. M. Hyamson, Director of the Department of immigration, eliminated
the last Jew who served as a department head in Palestine
322 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
politely at the
time : "Mr. Hyamson's departure from Palestine
British policy has
turned Palestine
training of the
average Arab must be borne in mind. Like the Garrote of Luzon, he is still in
the tribal stage of development.
He still lives in
the atmosphere of the Ghazzu, the night raid. Lawrence, and everyone else who
has had any experience with him, was quick to grasp his hopeless inadequacy for
any kind of modern organization. In all of Palestine
Against this
miserable showing, almost one hundred percent of the Jews in Palestine
in existence. Here
was apparently the perfect source to draw on, in this land inexperienced in
self-rule, for the purposes of efficient government.
Actually, we find
bias against these people so great that they are allowed to serve only where
their appointment could hardly be prevented — as in the case of translators, or
in the municipal Jewish institutions. The Government's Works and Plans Department
provides an excellent illustration. Some of the ablest engineers in the world
now live permanently in Palestine London
In the whole
Government service, Jews, who constitute one third of the population
323 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES 323
and contribute the
bulk of the State's revenues, hold less than 5% of the public jobs. Even this
fraction is in the nature of a sop, thrown irritably to keep them quiet as one
does a bone to a yelping dog. A bird's-eye view of these complaints tells a
vivid story. A wild cry from the Jewish Agency reveals that the percentage of
Jewish labor employed on public enterprises was 1%% in 1925, as compared with
6% in 1922. 30 In the five-year period ending March 31, 1927 , the average was less than 3%. The Agency
avers that in Haifa Jaffa Jerusalem
As early as 1926,
various departments of the Government had already been made Judenrein (free of
Jews) . A list of official appointments published October 11 of that year,
shows the railroads, post office and police departments to be practically without
Jews, though a few were appointed in ensuing years to keep a decent face. No
Jews at all were named to the strategic Land Courts or to the Frontier Force.
In 1930 a Customs Department investigation disclosed that in the head
Government office,
of thirty-five
officials, one was Jewish. In the Haifa
By 1935 the
condition was hardly improved. In April of that year the Hebrew press was
complaining that Jewish officials in Government offices averaged less than
one-half of one percent. Not a single Jew was employed in the vast Haifa Harbor Jerusalem Police School Jerusalem
Evidence presented
to the Peel Commission in 1937, proved that though they contribute directly
sixty-five percent of the railway revenue, out of the 4300
324 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
employees in the
Government railway system only 365 were Jews. The annual budget of £130,000 for
road maintenance and public works was spent almost in its entirety with Arabs.
Though Jews are
responsible for seventy percent of customs receipts, they are virtually
excluded from labor in the ports. At Jaffa Haifa
Where a proportion
of Jews is used the difference in treatment is impressive. Even the Peel
Commission was compelled to remark that Jewish scavengers in Jerusalem
Partisanship of
the most indefensible kind is always in evidence. Tel Aviv, with one hundred
and fifty thousand people, is allowed only twenty-six postmen, who work twelve
hours a day for a month. Side by side with these Jewish mail-carriers are
imported Englishmen who are paid four or five times this amount. The Executive
Committee of the Palestine Arab Congress comments that "salaries of
Government servants are a matter of wonder and ridicule. . . A customs cashier
in Jerusalem
sometimes than his
chief who is even responsible for his own work; as for example is the case in
the Werko Department of Jerusalem where the director of that section gets £16
and one of his clerks gets £22, though the former is his senior in age and
service, and though other clerks who carry on the same work get between £10 and
£15." 34
Sometimes official
bias goes to such lengths that it backs up against itself. An amusing instance
concerned a contract for a £60,000 British military camp near the Jewish
settlement of
325 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES
Netania, assigned
to a firm in Egypt Palestine
Still others took
their cue from the Government and refused to employ Jews. One of them was the
already mentioned Jerusalem Electric Company. Another was the important Shell
Oil group, beneficiary of the tax-free Iraq Oil Company agreement.
A particularly
flagrant case concerned the famous King David Hotel September
23, 1934 it became
entirely Judenrein, the last remnant of a once-large Jewish staff having been dismissed
to be replaced by imported foreign labor. Bellowed the manager: "We want
no Jews in this hotel. We shall keep it clean." 35
AN ANGLO-SAXON
SYSTEM OF JURISPRUDENCE
The average
Englishman believes religiously in the incorruptible quality of "British
justice." He will tell you that the Englishman takes his whole system of
equity with him wherever he goes, and that it is a great, moral, cleansing
influence in the lives of the backward peoples who inhabit the far reaches of
the Empire. But whatever it may be elsewhere, the British system of
jurisprudence in the Holy Land has little to recommend it.
The men sent down
from London to rule this martyred country proceeded at once to put into effect
a number of kinds of justice for a number of kinds of people. Lowest in the
categories of caste by which equity was meted out were the Jews.
The Arabs followed
a few notches ahead in favoritism. Perched on top of the heap were the English,
who were practically a law unto themselves.
Widespread
corruption degrades every department of the Judiciary. Graft, baksheesh and
rake-off are constantly in the background as in the worst days of the Roman
yoke. Every-thing connected with either the police or the courts is for sale.
Even the
black-list of persons to be kept under particular police surveillance at the
time of the 1929 outbreak (a document so
326 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
confidential that
it was even kept secret from the Parliamentary Commissions sent down later to investigate),
appeared in Photostat, with admitted accuracy, in the columns of the New York Palestine
The great bulk of
appointments to the Magistracy have been drawn from clerks and interpreters,
some of them semi-literates. The Government benevolently allows these
incompetents ten years to pass an examination, meanwhile authorizing them to
serve in a judicial capacity. "There was only one man on the High Court
Bench who had any real conception of criminal law," states Broadhurst
laconically, "and he was in a district where his knowledge was only of use
locally." 38
To the outsider it
is incredible that Tel Aviv has no Court. All matters involving more than £150
have to be heard in Jaffa Acre , but the largest city in the country has
no court. And if you speak anything but Arabic to the notary of clerks in the
Jaffa District Court, you will be stared at as if you were some strange animal.
The record of proceedings in almost all courts is kept in Arabic. Basic law is
still the old reactionary Ottoman code, long ago discarded as obsolete in Turkey
The prosecution of
crime is almost wholly in Arab hands. The Government Advocate is an Arab. His
assistant at head- quarters is an Arab. With the exception of one Jew, who does
only office work, all the Junior Government Advocates are Arabs. 39
The Criminal
Investigation Department is so desultory in its service that it can hardly be
said to exist in practice. Here, too, official perjury is an expected
occurrence and influence and baksheesh are part of the formula of justice. It
is notorious that the
327 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES
police
'investigators' who compose the original 'report' before cases come to the examining
magistrate, will prepare these documents in any way that is wanted if a proper
payment is made. As for the courts, "it was possible," says
Broadhurst, "to obtain a habeas corpus for a few piastres in order to
short-circuit proceedings." 40 The style of British officialdom itself can
be convincingly grasped in the trial of a Georgian Jew named Turshoili, for
arson, in November 1932. Declared States Attorney; Elliot for the Government,
before the highest tribunal in Palestine
The police are
merciless to prisoners who meet their displeasure. Their tone may be judged
from the reappointment to high position in the Police Force of Kheir El Din Effendi
Besesso after he had been found guilty by the High Court, on August
9, 1928 ,
of kidnapping a
witness for the defense on the eve of a criminal trial. Says Duff who should
know: "Torquemada, or the Court of Star Chamber can have had little fresh
to impart to your Palestine March
7, 1931 , provides
a ghastly example. Without their parents having been informed of the offense,
the 'criminals,' charged with throwing stones at an Arab's house, were flogged
so unmercifully that one was reported near death. 41 The brutal medieval custom
of whipping is actively followed in the jails, a matter which received some
airing in Commons
in June 1928, where the Colonial Secretary learnedly backed this cruel usage
with the opinion that "flogging was a proper punishment."
Not even the
concentration camps of Germany Palestine Acre
is a good example. It is the principal prison of Palestine
The prison food is
supplied by a concessionaire, the lowest bidder receiving the concession. It is
of the poorest kind and consists of a small amount of rice, rough bread and a
handful of green olives. A great many of the prisoners are growing boys
328 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
in their teens
(especially those held as illegal immigrants), and very often remain crippled
for life after a year or two of this diet. "General weakness, stoppage of
growth, ulcerated stomach, anemia and chronic dysentery are prevalent among the
younger Acre prisoners," writes Malkah Ray mist.
42 There is no distinction made between petty offenders, illegal immigrants,
tourists who overstay their leave, murderers, prostitutes or the insane; all of
whom are crowded into the same filthy cells, where at times it is almost
impossible to breathe. The prisoners have no beds and must sleep directly on
the earth floor. Until early in 1938 they were not even entitled to blankets.
There is no
adequate medical service and no dental service at all. All of the prisoners
(including those awaiting trial) are put on hard labor and regularly kicked and
beaten if they are unable to do the heavy work demanded of them. At the
slightest sign of disobedience they are severely thrashed or thrown into a tiny
windowless cell called the 'sensane,' a foul cubicle where a man can neither
lie nor stand, but only crouch. Sanitary conditions are nil and the stench is
described as unimaginable. Clothes are seldom issued and often prisoners have
to go about in rags. Cigarettes are not allowed. Inmates may write or receive
letters only once a month, so that they are virtually cut off from the world.
Under these
terrible conditions unfortunates of all kinds may be kept for years awaiting
trial, and must then serve their sentences in addition.
Suicide and
attempted suicide are a common occurrence, particularly among the illegal
immigrants held here. Often the prisoners collapse in fainting spells or
develop fits of wild hysteria, screaming, tearing their hair and knocking their
heads against the stone walls. Those who have been kept here for any
considerable period invariably emerge physical wrecks.
introduction is
contained in the Laws of Evidence (Amendments) Ordinance,
329 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES
introduced in
1936, which "abolishes the necessity for corroboration in criminal cases
generally." 44
Fully as abhorrent
to any civilized mind is the practice of levying collective fines on whole
villages for the misdeeds of a single culprit; or still more horrible, of
blowing up entire blocks of houses with dynamite on suspicion that a
yet-untried law-breaker made his home in one of them.
What was taking
place under good British Government may be aptly judged from the fact that in
an ordinary year there were three hundred and sixty reported murders in Palestine
Duff gives a
graphic account of the officially condoned reign of terror against the Jews in
the sector where he was ruling police officer. "It was a most trying
situation for me," he writes. "I dare not do much against the Arabs,
even though I knew they
were guilty, as Jerusalem England
It appears to be a
principle of common equity here that thieves and vandals may not be injured
when they are caught red-handed at their work. Hundreds of Jewish watchmen have
been imprisoned for doing bodily harm to Arabs who came to steal or commit
other depredations. A simple example is the case of an 18-year-old watchman
named Solomon Jacobson who was badly injured during a raid by a gang of Arab
thugs organized for purposes of theft. In an effort to discharge his duty and defend
330 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
his life he
mortally wounded one of the invaders. For this 'crime' he was sentenced on May 2,
1935 to seven and
one half years at hard labor. Another typical case occurred February
24, 1933 , when a
group of thirty Bedouins attacked a small Jewish colony, killing an
ex-Legionnaire and wounding several others. Police who stood watching a short
distance away did not attempt to interfere; but four of the raiders were
captured by members of the colony. At the Nablus Court Palestine
The amazing legal
principle making these decisions possible is indicated in the case of Naftali
Rubenstein, a watchman of the Bath Galim settlement, who was sentenced to
prison at Haifa
An even more
revolutionary precedent is written in the case of Achmed Said, an Arab burglar
who had killed a watchman of the Jewish colony at Petach Tikvah. The Jerusalem Court Hebron
Offenses against
womanhood are regarded almost casually. "Young girls no longer may venture
forth safely alone on the streets," writes the correspondent for the
331 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES
National Catholic
Welfare Council. 60 The Government's attitude speaks for itself in
the dismissal of a
Jewish sub-inspector of police named Ben-Yehuda for communicating to the press
and some friends" the fact that an American girl had been violated on the
streets of Jerusalem
such proportions
that the American Consul General in Jerusalem
In addition to the
deluge of rape cases against women were many degenerate attacks on boys and
men. The Palestine
The official
attitude is brought home in revolting detail in the case of a Jewish boy and
girl named Stahl and Zohar who disappeared in the Winter of 1931 while out for
a stroll. A series of earlier outrages had excited the Jewish community to a
fever pitch of feeling; and since the Authorities would do nothing, private
investigators were hired and a big reward posted. This initiative brought
accusing witnesses from Bedouin villages near Herzelia, who led investigators
to a shallow grave where the
bodies of the
unlucky youngsters were found. The boy had been stabbed to death defending his
companion. The girl, according to witnesses, had been violated by five
Bedouins.
Though the
culprits were thus openly named, the police made no effort to arrest them. Here
a new factor entered. The murdered pair were nationals of Germany Poland
332 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
“false information"
against the Arabs who had been released, though they had been identified by a
score of people of their own tribe.
Now followed
galling, interminable delay. Finally, after angry representations from the
Polish and German Consuls, the Bedouins were committed to trial. Though the
case against each of them was identical, only one was found guilty and he was
sentenced to
fifteen years. The same Court which made this decision sentenced an Arab named
Mustafa Jeebawi to death for the murder of Mrs. Thomas Miller, wife of an
English engineer, while bent on rape. 53 Apparently 'un-premeditation' did not
apply when it came down to typical Arab crimes against the families of British
officials.
It has been shown
time and again that culprits arrested for physical attacks on Jews were rescued
by the public prosecutors themselves. Apparently this corrosion reaches into
the highest places, as was clearly demonstrated in the case of an Arab (a suspected
murderer) caught in flagrant delicto with four rifles and some bombs, early in
1937. The prosecuting attorney immediately asked that the case be thrown out of
court. Guilelessly, the presiding magistrate asked why it should not at least
be pressed according to normal regulations on illegal possession of arms.
"I am acting on instructions," snapped back the Government attorney.
54
In addition to the
civil and criminal courts are an unending multiplicity of ecclesiastical
tribunals whose jurisdiction is legally recognized. These perform civil
functions ordinarily considered to be the prerogative of the State alone. The
judges who sit in the Muslim Sharia Courts are considered servants of the
Administration, which pays their salaries — yet the courts themselves are
completely removed from any supervision by the Government's Legal Department.
In the usual contrast, Jewish
courts must pay
all their own expenses by a voluntary tax on the Jewish community. The
privileges of the various non-British Christian communities are intermediate
between those of Jews and Muslims. However, Christians are allowed certain
unique,
333 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES
overall privileges
in compensation. One is the right of monks, European or native, to serve
sentences of imprisonment in the spiritual seclusion of their own monasteries
instead of in the squalid promiscuity of a Palestine
THE WOLF NAMED
SHERIFF TO THE LAMBS
One may well pity
a people who are placed at the mercy of an alien police. The Irish, with
centuries of wretchedness behind them, could tell you something about that.
Jews who remember the Kishineff massacres in Russia Palestine
Shocked by the
course events have taken in the National Home, Colonel Patterson grimly
referred to it as a "National Death Trap." Echoing the same disgust
and revulsion, former Colonial Secretary Amery sarcastically informed his
Government that the Home could not be regarded as a Home "unless those
living there were allowed to play a part in its defense." 56
Since the
disbanding of the Jewish Legion it has been known that Jews were not wanted in
the Palestine
then, by
encouraging attacks upon them, pose as the faithful, disquieted custodian who
was being badgered from all corners for his good offices. Thus the Jew is
placed in the traditional role of a craven interloper foisted on an innocent
people, who too cowardly to defend himself, calls on the harassed Briton to do
this for him while he slinks out of harm's way. It is this interpretation that London
The modern Jew has
proven himself to be a good soldier. In the World War he won his full share of
citations in all countries. The present French Foreign Legion, so famous for
its exploits in North
Africa , has so
many Jews in its ranks that whole
334 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
sections of it can
almost be designated as a Hebrew force. The same is true of the plucky
International Brigade of Spain which held up Franco's advance for so long.
In Palestine Palestine Near East . Their gendarmerie, a force of hard-riding, reckless horsemen
known as the
Shomrim, had long
since won a reputation for everything that was fearless and gallant. The Turks
freely acknowledged it to be the most skilled police force in the Near East . In those days Arabs did not attack Jewish
colonies, preferring to pay their night-riding respects to other Arab tribes
and villages where they would get off with a whole skin.
One of the first
British acts was to quietly disband this efficient constabulary, and to
organize one of their own from which Jews were excluded. They were disarmed as
if they had been a conquered enemy, and were not even allowed to possess the
small arms and dirks habitually carried by all Bedouins. A lurid light is
thrown on this circumstance in an anecdote concerning an irreproachable
physician who had been attacked by an Arab assassin. When the police called to
inquire, the doctor informed them in a sad voice: "I was afraid you had
come to arrest me."
"Arrest
you?" said the officer. "Why?"
"Well,
because it is known that I carry a weapon."
"A weapon?
Where do you have it?"
"Here,"
answered the doctor, turning around, "it is a knife, stuck in my
back." 57
The expenditure
for military and police in the Holy Land amounts to more than a third of the total revenues. The immense
constabulary this infers is hardly required for the policing of Jews, who foot
its bills. The trial of Jews for crimes of violence is practically unknown.
Even on such minor charges as drunkenness, only 52 Jews were among the 724
convicted
335 DUAL
OBLIGATION TO TWO PEOPLES
during 1935; and
out of 415 sentenced in 1936 for the same offense, 27 were Jews. Commenting in
Commons, Wedgwood cried: "You say that the money spent on the police force
is spent to protect the Jews. . . If you go to any police station, you will
find that the crimes of violence and the crimes against which the police are
provided ... are committed by Arabs and not by Jews. . . So far as the police
and the defense of Palestine
The present
percentage of Jews on the police force is just large enough to be reasonably circumspect.
One is surprised to discover that Tel Aviv itself has few Jewish policemen. The
surface excuse is that Jews do not care for this type of work.
The hidden
stratagem, which makes this condition possible; lies in the amazing scale of
salaries. There are few Jewish men who are able to live on the £15 a month the
Administration is willing to pay a Jewish policeman. At the same time, imported
Englishmen are given £35 a month for precisely the same police work. Even
common labor averages £24 a month.
The Frontier Force
is no better. When it was formed in 1926 the Authorities decided to exclude
Jews from it on principle, as well as from the Border Patrol Force. All
sections of Palestine Jewry rose in furious protest. The Zionist Executive
itself was passive, Weizmann going so far as to declare that "from the
political standpoint it is unimportant whether in Palestine
While Jews were
thus practically forbidden to join this national legion which their tax money
keeps, Arabs, who are both poor and unwilling soldiers, have not responded in
336 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
sufficient numbers.
The Arab likes fighting but he detests drilling and routine. So it became
necessary to draw on outlanders from everywhere. The London Daily Telegraph
describes the result, calling the Force "a veritable Foreign Legion of the
Near East," containing among others, Britons, Austrians, Germans,
Armenians, Circassians, Chechans, Druses, Hejazis, Kurds, Russians, Serbians,
Sudanese and Syrians. 61 According to the Peel Commission's Report in 1937, the
Force contained more Sudanese than Jews and almost six times as many
Circassians alone. It is thus apparent that almost anyone is welcome in this
defense force except the Jews whose National Home it ostensibly exists to
protect.
It must be
perfectly plain that this hot-blooded gendarmerie is a poor guarantee of
security. The police themselves are described by Broadhurst as a queer, unruly
lot. "Annual meetings of officers," he writes, "generally
resolved themselves into
discussions on the
best methods of entering police horses for the local races. . " 62
In each of the
previous pogroms it was the police themselves who were found to be the leaders
of the mob. What may be expected of them in the future can easily be guessed
from a few passing incidents. One was the storm raised in Parliament in
June 1934 over the
report that police detailed to cover the Levant Fair in Tel Aviv wore swastikas
on their arms. It is no secret that the recent rebellion itself was started
with arms and ammunition stolen by the Palestine Jerusalem
NUMEROUS CLAUSUES
AND CENSORSHIP
In Jerusalem
337 DUAL OBLIGATION
TO TWO PEOPLES
in a country ruled
by an all-powerful autocrat with complete powers of censorship which he does
not hesitate to use whenever it pleases him?
In Jerusalem also,
Nazi handbills of the most scurrilous type are openly distributed without
interference by the police. 64 How can this be done in the capital city of the
Jewish National Home ? At a moment when England itself is expressing violent
indignation over
Nazi excesses, a Jewish youth is arrested and sentenced to the degradation of a
public whipping for picketing a Jewish shop which was selling German goods. Why
should this be a commendable expression of spirit in England,
but a crime in the
National Home?
The Jerusalem
Y.M.C.A. is a favorite retreat of the High Commissioner himself and its Board
is certainly dominated by Government officials. Yet its General Secretary, an
American named Waldo Heinrichs, was summarily discharged when he attempted to
exclude Hitler's Jew-baiting Voelkischer Beobachter from the general reading
room. Why is this so?
There is a book
published in England called The Brown Book of the Hitler Terror. It is a
factual history of the first months of the Nazi inquisition in Germany. No one
has ever challenged its accuracy. Yet when it comes to Palestine it is banned,
together with other anti-Hitler literature. But Hitler's Mein Kampf, a venomous
collection of canards against the Jew, is not banned. 65
Everyone who has
ever been in the Near East knows what British censorship in Palestine is
Newspapers may be forbidden to mention the very name of a notorious murderer on
trial for his life. The control is so strict that a story which doesn't sit
well
with the
Administration, just isn't cabled. Nor is the reporter informed about it. His
first hint that anything is wrong is generally in the form of a communication
from his home office, inquiring into his silence. When the Government wants to
clamp down, relates a foreign correspondent, "it just shuts off telephone,
telegraph and cable service completely." 66
Sometimes foreign
Jewish newspapers are proscribed, as they are in Germany and Iraq. In 1934, for
example, the Moment of Kaunas, Lithuania, was barred for a year
338 THE RAPE OF
PALESTINE
and Unzerzeit of
Kishineff (now part of Rumania) was outlawed permanently. Even such
publications as the New York Times are occasionally confiscated when they
contain articles favorable to the Jews.
Local Hebrew
papers are consistently harassed and closed, though they exercise admirable
restraint, foment no civil war and circulate no inflammatory manifestoes urging
civil disobedience. Where they are not ordered stopped entirely, they often
go to press with
huge white spaces in their columns, representing material ordered deleted by
the Government censor. Perfectly representative of the Government's style is
the suspension of the Hebrew papers Door Hayom and Haboker in July 1936 for the
remarkable reason that they urged the Authorities to put a halt to the rioting
and murder. Yet at the same time the censors permitted the radical Arab Journal
A-Diffa to publish a poem by Ali Mansour which read: "We Arabs are all Abu
Jildas [a notorious cutthroat and terrorist]; we shall drive Cohen [a name for
the Jew, Mansour acquired from the Nazis] out of the country." Confident
of its immunity, the Arab Press kept the sledges of hate pounding in a clamor
of extravagant invective only limited by the imaginations of its authors. In
few other countries, concedes the Peel Report, would such a campaign of
vilification and incitement have been tolerated for a moment.
It is no
exaggeration to state that everything pro-Jewish is either directly forbidden
or discreetly frowned upon. Duff's books debunking the Arab terrorists are
permanently banned in the Palestine he loved and served so long. Even Colonel
Patterson, commander of the very legions which conquered this area, is made to
suffer for his pro-Zionist views. During a visit in 1937 he was filmed in Tel Aviv
inspecting some Jewish institutions. This bit of news-film, titled Colonel
Patterson in Palestine, was banned by the Film Censorship Board on the single
score that the film could not be shown with that title!
This singular
custodian of Jewish aspirations, the Palestine Government, has introduced still
other innovations, modeled after the notorious European numerous clauses.
Feeling his way in December 1933, Government Officer Harkness
DUAL OBLIGATION TO
TWO PEOPLES 339
announced that the
Administration was viewing with concern the preponderance of Jews, especially
in the medical and dental callings; and that it was considering the
introduction of numerous clauses in the professions. This was followed by the
Medical Practitioners Ordinance. Thinly disguising its anti-Jewish bias, it
placed a severe limit on the number of physicians who could be licensed in
future. 67 Thus is laid the groundwork for a whole new plague of repressions
against the Jews returning to their Home.
CHAPTER VIII
TRANSJORDAN THE
JUDENREIN
LEGALITIES — 'MADE
IN ENGLAND'
We now return to
another of those strange enigmas of British administration — the territory of
the Jewish National Home east of Jordan. The shrewd manipulation by which it
was filched from the Zionist pocketbook has already been referred to. Just
what its status is
today (1938) remains a dark mystery. The territory is called an independent
Emirate, yet remains part and parcel of the Mandate for Palestine. The same
High Commissioner rules both. The Emir Abdullah, its nominal ruler, is granted
an ample personal subsidy straight out of the Palestine treasury. The deficits
of his stagnating State are taken care of from the same generous source.
When in 1922
London secured the League's consent to set up a separate Administration east of
Jordan, it was granted only with the stipulation that "the general regime
of the Mandate for Palestine" would be maintained there. To this London
agreed, assuring the League "that no measure inconsistent with the provisions
of the Mandate for Palestine would be passed in that territory." All of
this, in words, was carried out in the 'treaty' with the Emir, and incorporated
in the 'Constitution' of Trans-Jordan as well.
In 1924,
officialdom still acknowledged that Trans-Jordan was an integral part of the
Jewish National Home. On May
27 of that year, during a Palestine debate, Lord Arnold, then Under-Secretary
for the Colonies, declared: "During the war we recognized Arab
independence within certain border limits, and supported it. . . There were
discussions as to what territories these borders should take in. But there was
no dispute as to Trans-Jordan. There is no doubt about the fact that
Trans-Jordan is within the boundaries to which the Declaration [Balfour] during
the War refers. This is the Government's point of view relative to the
political status of Trans-Jordan and
340 TRANSJORDAN
THE JUDENREIN
the character of
our relations to the land"
Under the Turks
there were no restrictions against the settlement of Jews in Trans-Jordan. A
number of colonization schemes were attempted. The largest was undertaken by
Baron Edmund de Rothschild in 1894, who bought seventy thousand dunams in Golan
for a large-scale resettlement project. This, however, was sidetracked in favor
of the coastal development where Zionist effort was then concentrated.
Whitehall early
banned Jewish penetration into this territory. Its expressed reason was a deep
solicitation for the returning settlers, who allegedly would not be safe in
this lawless, turbulent sector. The migratory tribes of Trans-Jordan could enter
Western Palestine freely, however, since the question of their safety did not
arise.
Soon these
strictures became iron-clad. The eastern two-thirds of the National Home was
not only hermetically sealed to Jewish settlement but Jews could not possess
property there or practice a profession. Transjordan became the first and remains
the only completely Judenrein area on the earth's surface. Apparently they are
the only immigrants prohibited. Examination of the official British Report to
the League for 1936 shows a large group of foreigners ranging from Syrians and
Egyptians to Germans, Italians and Turks who have taken residence there. Says
the Report succinctly: "The classified and unclassified officials of the
Transjordan Government other than British, including the officers of the Arab
Legion but excluding other ranks, numbered 683" of whom only 422 are Arabs
born in Transjordan. 1
When the Mandates
Commission sharply commented on this condition, London assured it that
"there was no legal prohibition to prevent Jews from entering"
Transjordan. In other words, on paper everything was in order. When the Commission
bluntly demanded that these restrictions be abrogated, the British spokesman
Dr. Drummond Shiels replied with unctuous regret "that that was
impracticable because the existing Legislative Assembly in Trans-Jordan would
frustrate such intentions." 2 Scarcely more than six months later we find
the same
342 THE RAPE OF
PALESTINE
Drummond Shiels
declaring to an impatient Commons that "when Transjordan is freed from the
irritation of raids and counter-raids by warring tribesmen, an opportunity will
be given for its settlement and development." 3 Here we have two diametrically
opposite lines of reasoning. One, that the normal processes of orderly government
forbade an immigration disturbing to the country's economy. The other, that
since no orderly government existed, it was unthinkable to allow civilized
immigrants to
enter.
Faced with a fait
accompli, the League in some meretricious hair-splitting came to a curious decision:
Jews who were natives of Palestine and hence not nationals of a State member of
the League, could not claim the equality stipulated in Article XVIII
of the Mandate.
These could be excluded. However, any Jews in Palestine who were not
Palestinians, must, according to the terms of the Mandate, be allowed the right
of free access to Transjordan. 4
In actual practice
the British went whole hog down the line, barring English Jews as rigidly as
their brethren from Poland. Gentile Englishmen, however, retained indisputable
rights of settlement. Even if one chooses to ignore the maneuvers by
which this section
of the National Home was handed outright to some ambitious nomads from the
Hejaz, how may this circumstance be explained? It was not so long ago that the
world applauded when the United States broke off its commercial treaty
with Czarist
Russia because of a discrimination much the same as this and less inexcusable.
Recounting an identical incident when Turkey attempted the exclusion of Jews in
1888, official British Peace Handbook No. 6o thunders that "the Powers refused
to accept discriminatory legislation against their nationals, Hebrew or
others," and the Turks had to drop the offending statutes like a hot
potato.
Dexterous as their
performance was, the Bureaucrats ran up against the hard fact that legerdemain
has its absolute limits. They could swindle the eyes by appearing to separate
the body of the National Home into living fragments, but no amount of
343 TRANSJORDAN
THE JUDENREIN
black magic could
endow the operation with reality. Trans-Jordan was inalienably a part of
Palestine, and must immediately expire, if cut off from it in fact. M. Rappard
of the Permanent Mandates Commission contemptuously called it "a parasite
State" with a budget fed by grants from the Mandatory Government. Its
total income is forty-five percent less than that of Tel Aviv alone.
Transjordan has
practically no industries of any kind, and only a few of the most primitive
home-crafts. According to the British Report to the League for 1936, the total
assessment for land tax was only £88,000 of which £53,507 had to be subsequently
remitted because the bankrupt villagers could not pay it. 5 The Emir Abdullah's
attenuated income includes "Trans-Jordan's share in the imports duties of
Palestine." 6 Palestine is also Tran-Jordan’s principal market, selling
goods there valued at £208,993 as against £36,088 which she buys in return.
Examining the High
Commissioner's Report for 1935 we discover, weighted beneath a load of words,
that Trans-Jordan's income was £276,258, while its expenditure was £369,395.
Its budget for 1937-38, reduced to skin-and-bones, still showed a thirty
percent deficit. In other words, Transjordan has been perpetually bankrupt —
kept alive only by the munificence of its rich uncle Israel. If it were
divorced from Israel's household it would simply die of malnutrition. Out of
the lush Palestine treasury, the Emir has had an endless flow of 'loans,'
subsidies and outright grants. He has been provided with free Army and Air
Force assistance in quelling the recurrent rebellions of his own tribesmen and
in preserving his boundaries against Wahabis aggression. As early as 1927 it
was pointed out that the National Home would show a deficit of £90,000 for the
yearly period "due to the fact that the Palestine Government is covering
the deficits in Transjordan — otherwise the budget would show a surplus of
£80,000." 7
Transjordan
comprises an area of about 35,000 square miles — more than three times as large
as the country west of Jordan. It is an area of great resources but no effort
has been made to develop them. A census has never been taken, but the
population is
344 THE RAPE OF
PALESTINE
reliably estimated
to be around 275,000. The majority are nomad tribesmen to whom even boundaries
are incomprehensible. Some of these, like the Aneezeh and Sherarat, have their
main camping grounds in Arabia proper. The only towns of any consequence are
Amman, the capital, with 38,000 people, and Es Salt with 18,000.
The limitations of
this country lie in the nature of the human material composing its population.
Turbulent, destructive, inefficient, seemingly incapable of any but the most
elementary creative activities, their stamp is imprinted wherever one turns
in this favored
land. Bizarrely enough, one factor that has contributed to the permanent
poverty of the Bedu is the ruthless suppression of predatory excursions, drying
up their chief source of revenue.
There are only
fifteen doctors in all Trans-Jordan. The rate of infant mortality is the highest
on earth. Its poverty is terrible and crushing. The correspondent of Al Jamia
Al Islamia 8 describes hordes of people "who snatch hungrily at any refuse
which by a stretch of the imagination may be edible. . . At night these
creatures, men, women and children, with no roof to shelter them, huddle for
warmth and sleep in the streets." Reliable English sources describe the
country, after fifteen years of Arab rule, as infinitely worse off than it was
under the Turks. Says the Crown Colonist of June 1934: "The farmers are
plunged in the starkest conditions of poverty, and the nomads are frequently on
the verge of starvation." Cattle die off by thousands, and epidemics,
droughts, grasshopper and mice plagues, which the fellaheen are incapable of
coping with, reduce them to a state of abject deprivation. The result is seen
in the total lack of any natural increase in population since the British occupation;
while directly across the Jordan, their brother Arabs are showing the most
remarkable gain of births over deaths on medical records.
No part of this
discourages Whitehall from broadcasting the usual paean in 1936 to the beauties
of existence in this "peaceful and contented country, blessed with an Arab
Emir and Government, and being without a Jewish problem" 9 Calmly
345 TRANSJORDAN
THE JUDENREIN
shifting gears a
few short months later, it acknowledges that "the Emirate of Abdullah is
poor, miserably poor, but it does not want the wealth of the Zionists." 10
This in itself was flatly-contradicted by the British statesman, Herbert
Morrison, who on returning from a visit to Palestine and Trans-Jordan in 1936,
told the House that Jews were being kept out of Transjordan "by the wish
of the British Government. ,, 11
The fact is that
Trans-Jordan is a colony which Great Britain got on the excuse that it was to
be part of the Jewish Homeland. The Commander of the Arab Legion is a blue-eyed
Englishman named Peake Pasha. The most prominent agent of the
all-important British
Intelligence Service, Major J. B. Glubb, is stationed there permanently in
charge of the desert patrol which keeps the turbulent tribesmen under control.
Here in itself is proof of the importance London
area. British officials
rule as in any other colony, and the word of the British High Commissioner is
final. Says the Encyclopedia Britannica: "A considerable increase in the
number of British officials and the transfer of the Palestine
Trans-Jordan resulted
in fact in the carrying on of the Administration on Crown Colony lines; and the
local Government existing as a façade, exercised little or no independent
authority." 12
The 'treaty'
between Great Britain
the construction
and operation of railways, and the operation of loans." The Emir may not
"raise or maintain in Trans-Jordan or allow to be raised or maintained,
any military forces without the consent of His Britannic Majesty." The
'independent
Emirate' agrees
"to the employment of British officials." England
throne and changes
in the 'Constitution' are to be referred to the advice of Great Britain March 20, 1928 , this 'treaty* completed the Strategical
moves by which Transjordan was to be purloined from the Jewish
National Home and stuffed
346 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
Transjordan , but was overruled by the British.
Christian Arab papers in Palestine
347 TRANS-JORDAN THE JUDENREIN
TRANSJORDAN THE JUDENREIN 349
Whitehall
Iraq Iraq
in the pocket of Great Britain Downing Street which comes forth.
Calling a spade a
spade, the London Times, in its issue of March 29, 1928 , declares: "Transjordan therefore has the status equivalent to a
protectorate, the only difference being the status of Great Britain
present
relationship is permanent"
The latest plan is
to separate the Aqaba region from Trans-Jordan and declare it a separate
English colony. This move is forestalled only by the vigorous claim of Ibn Saud
to that port as part of the legitimate spoils grabbed from old King Hussein.
Saud now demands
it as the price of his consent to the Palestine
ABDULLAH PUTS HIS
HAND OUT
The Emir of
Transjordan owes his success entirely to English patronage. His one military
campaign was staged against Ibn Saud, when that gentleman with tacit British
approval chased Abdullah's father, Hussein, off the throne of Hejaz . Abdullah
himself was
disastrously routed and had to flee for his life into the desert.
The Emir is an
excellent chess player and indifferent poet. He has only one legal wife, but
enough concubines of every color and nationality to suit the most capricious
taste. In April of 1931 he attempted to make the use of automobiles illegal in
With the external
affairs of his country he has little to do, even nominally. Its internal
affairs are supervised with autocratic powers by the smart British Resident,
Colonel Cox.
His administration
proved so erratic and extravagant that the English finally deprived him of the
administration of even his own estates and put him on the civil list like a
pensioner. The balance is reserved for the payment of his debts. 13 He is known
to privately favor a great Semitic State
He is a realist of
the first water, who would not hesitate at any time to cut His Britannic Majesty's
throat if anything could be gained by it. Lord Raglan, former British political
officer in Transjordan , informed the Lords on February
21, 1922 that he
himself "had heard Abdullah with his £ 5000 in his pocket 14 hold up Sinn
Fein as an example to the Arabs of Palestine. The inhabitants are disgusted
with Abdullah and they are still more disgusted with the British Government
which has forced him
upon them."
During the Winter
of 1935-36 the Emir wrote the French Foreign Minister offering France Transjordan to Syria Britain
The Emir's country
is so pathetically undeveloped that "even a horse tied to a tree is a
wayside event." 16 Kenneth Williams, accompanying the Peel Commission
during their 1936 visit, describes the greater part as inhabited "only by
wandering tribes.
Only one-fifth of
the total area of the Emirate, in fact, is cultivated." 17
Impelled by their
extreme poverty, the Tribes have long gazed with envious eyes at their lucky
brethren across the river, now prosperous enough to own many wives and
348 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
all the good food
they could eat. Even Abdullah himself, usually so tractable, could not restrain
his cupidity. He began to regard himself in the light of a land-owner whose
vast stretches could be given a fabulous market value, though at the time they
were not worth the taxes paid on them. His cronies among the land-owning
effendis also began to grow restless despite hand-outs and patronage. They
smelled bigger game ; and, mouths watering at this tempting stream of yellow
metal pouring before their eyes across Jordan Whitehall
Back in 1924 Jacob
De Haas had already been offered 100,000 dunams at "about a dollar an
acre, on condition that the sale was not disclosed to the British officials in Jerusalem
But the Arabs were
not to be put off. On January 17, 1933 , Mithkal Pasha, most powerful Sheikh in
Trans-Jordan, offered to lease one hundred thousand dunams. Heads of other
tribes approached the Jewish Agency with similar propositions. On
January 20 a great
meeting of Sheikhs at Amman
Events tumbled
over themselves in swift succession. On February 6, a group of the most
influential tribal leaders drew up a petition demanding the right to lease or
sell
their land. Pointing
out the terrible poverty and under population of the country, they declared
that salvation could come only through the Jews. Under the direction of the British
Government propaganda officer, the Palestine Arab press accused Abdullah of
having engineered the petition himself. Undeterred, Abdullah banned offending
Arab papers from his territory. Trans-Jordanian leaders, determined to have
their way, staged impressive demonstrations demanding land sales. The opening
of the Legislative Assembly on February 9, was all set for fireworks. The group
in favor of legalizing land sales to Jews, having a clear majority, had taken
the bit in their teeth and meant to be stopped by no one. The Assembly had
already met when the Secretariat announced that it had been dissolved and that
future sessions were indefinitely postponed. According to the story carried
openly by all Arab papers, both the British High Commissioner and the British
Commander of the Transjordan Military had held a hurried conference with the
Emir, laying down the law to that refractory gentleman in no uncertain manner.
Meanwhile the British
Palestine Government was with meticulous correctness advising the Jewish press
that "this matter is not within our jurisdiction as Trans-Jordan is under
a different government." At almost the identical moment, it informed the
Emir that his subsidy would be reduced by twenty-five percent during the coming
year. But for once the rubber-stamp Legislature confounded its masters by
running completely amuck.
On April 1, at its
next session, the British High Commissioner's bill prohibiting sale or lease of
land to non-Trans-Jordanians (Jews) was unexpectedly beaten by thirteen votes
to three. The session closed in surly mood with no affirmative measure allowed
to come before it.
Still trying to
force the issue, on May 25, representatives delegated from twenty-three Trans-Jordanian
towns waited in a body on the Jewish Agency urging them not to give up the
fight. It was apparent that operating deviously with his left hand and hungrier
than ever, Abdullah was sitting tight. That forced the British to lay aside
their switch in favor of the cudgel. They reminded the Emir of what had
happened to
350 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
his illustrious father,
King Hussein, when he thought he was a bigger man than
the King of England March 27, 1935 the heads of the most important tribes convened
in an uproarious session, demanding the cancellation of anti-Jewish laws
"because Jewish money which is destined to develop Transjordan is being diverted. . " With unerring
awareness they ignored the fiction of a Trans-Jordanian Government and addressed
their resolution direct to the British, who disregarded it.
However, it should
not be believed that English solicitude for their tribal wards is limited to
some skittish desire to fence them off picturesquely on their reservations.
British officials themselves have been buying up large tracts of the most
fertile acreage and placing them under cultivation. 20 Palestine Arabs, too,
are taking over extensive tracts on speculation, considering an eventual Jewish
settlement inevitable. 21
There have been
other settlement schemes which had British approval. In the Spring of 1927 the
English Government put up a demand that land be made available for the
immediate settlement of Armenians. Sensing no monetary advantage, and disliking
Christians with a keener gusto than they did Jews, Arab Sheikhs submitted a
counter-memorandum angrily rejecting the proposition. It was consequently
dropped. Early in 1929 the English backed another plan to colonize refugees
from Tripoli Benghazi London Amman Morocco
351 TRANSJORDAN THE JUDENREIN
wall which holds
them west of Jordan Holy Land , and that the whole carefully raised scheme against them must then
ultimately fail.
In its issue of February
4, 1937 , Great Britain
Most Trans-Jordanians
seem to believe, however, that their country would be better 'pacified' by the
removal of the British.
CHAPTER IX
WHOOPING IT UP FOR
DEMOCRACY
THE LEGISLATIVE
COUNCIL
The final stroke,
which was to deal the death blow to Zionist hopes, was simply conceived. It
rested on the establishment of that great democratic institution, a parliament,
in Palestine Whitehall
without the risk
of losing world sympathy.
All of this was
urged in the name of the 'sacred promises' made to Hussein of the Hejaz,
despite the fact that in the Hejaz itself there is not and never has been any
parliamentary system whatsoever. Throughout the 'free' countries of Arabia democracy is noteworthy by its absence. Yemen territory of Saudi Aden
down with an iron
hand. 2 Even the barest pretext to constitutionalism vanished in
353 WHOOPING IT UP
FOR DEMOCRACY
1936 when the Army
bombed the capital and seized control.
Toward the great
illiterate bulk of the population the educated Arab classes are no more
democratic in the political sense than the Athenians were to their slaves.
"Even within their own circle," remarks Ernest Main, "they have
little sense of what real democracy means." 3 The orbit of politics in
'free Arabia ' revolves around the Sheikhs, Emirs, Imams
and their supporters. "The Arab masses," says Professor Scherger,
"do not fit into any other system of government except the foreordained
traditional rule
of sheikh and religious leaders. . . Conspiracies and assassinations are the
only popular procedure adopted and practiced by the Arabs when electing
representatives and rulers." 4 Throughout every portion of Arabia slavery flourishes with the full support
of public opinion. It is a vested interest of immemorial respectability, writes
Bertram Thomas, "and any extraneous authority interfering becomes odious
in the eyes of the people." 5 How can one talk of democracy in
the same breath
with this !
The readiness of
the Arab Palestinian for self-rule is not less unpromising. He is just as
backward, excitable and fanatic as his brother in the desert. The various
Commissions of Inquiry have themselves declaimed that he was incompetent and
must be protected against the superior capacities of European immigrants.
Eighty-five percent of his men and ninety-three percent of his women are
illiterate. 6
The setting up of
a parliamentary body, under the circumstances, would only serve to provide an
arena for general intrigue and agitation against the whole policy and purpose
of the Mandate. The Colonial Office itself informed an Arab Delegation in March
1922 : "The position is that His Majesty's Government is bound by a pledge
which is antecedent to the Covenant of the League of Nations, and they cannot
allow a constitutional position to develop in a country for which they have
accepted responsibility to the principal Allied Powers, which may make it
impracticable to carry into effect a solemn undertaking given by themselves and
their allies. . . It is quite clear that the creation at this stage of a
National Government would preclude
354 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
the fulfillment of
the pledge ?made by the British Government to the Jewish People"
The greatest
authority in the British
Commonwealth on
constitutional reform is the India Report of 1934. It lays down the following
principle : "Parliamentary government, as it is understood in the United
Kingdom, works by the interaction of four essential factors : the principle of
majority rule; the willingness of the minority for the time being to accept the
decisions of the majority; the existence of great political parties divided by
broad issues of policy rather than by sectional interests ; and finally, the
existence of a mobile body of public opinion, owing no permanent allegiance to
any party and therefore able, by its own instinctive reaction against
extravagant movements on one side or the other, to keep the vessel on an even
keel." In Palestine
presenting alternative
municipal programs to the electorate," says the Peel Commission,
"there is no trace."
Still another
British authority, the Hilton Young Commission, lays down the precedent that
where a fundamental division exists of race or religious hatreds, or a difference
in level of civilizations between the various elements of the population,
u the abstract
principle of 'majority rule 7 cannot be dogmatically applied" How does
this fit the Palestine
In July 1924,
Ormsby-Gore informed the Mandates Commission that "if in this
[legislative] council there should be brought forth an anti-Zionist majority,
the Government will come into an impasse, since it must execute certain
provisions of the Mandate, on the one hand, while, on the other hand, a hostile
majority would oppose such measures." Three months later Herbert Samuel is
droning to the same Commission "that the Arabs have declared they would,
if they had the majority [in the proposed Parliament], use it to prevent the
creation of the Jewish National Home."
355 WHOOPING IT UP
FOR DEMOCRACY
Zanzibar
Everyone,
including the British, agreed that the setting up of any such parliamentary
apparatus was a direct refutation of the manifest purposes of the Mandate, that
it would automatically crystallize the Jews as a helpless minority in their
National
Home, and that no
right thinking man could countenance such a procedure. Nevertheless, London
On several
occasions, when all else seemed propitious, the Mandates Commission rejected
the proposal as "premature and ill-advised." Notwithstanding, in 1923
London
election to the
new Parliament, and announced that they would sabotage all laws accepted by
that body. Left without a leg to stand on, the Government annulled the election
and reinstated the former Advisory Council, taking the occasion to reduce the
former Jewish proportion.
After the 1929
pogrom the Arabs again renewed their demands for the 'true processes of
democracy.' They could not have chosen a more awkward moment. A volcanic
eruption of horror still convulsed world opinion. The temper of Mr. Weizmann's
Zionists was yet an un-probed factor. Uncertainty made the Bureaucrats wary.
With scrupulous probity Whitehall Palestine
356 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
come" when
the question of constitutional changes must "be taken in hand without
further delay," and that "the time has arrived" for the setting
up of a Legislative Council for Palestine
For five more
years the matter seesawed back and forth. Finally, on December
22, 1935 High
Commissioner Wauchope sounded the tocsin for democracy by once more proclaiming
the establishment of a Legislative Council. The announcement carefully avoided
all reference to the Balfour Declaration and the Jewish National Home. It was
made on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, and was addressed to the Arabs, ignoring
the Jews as if they did not exist.
The 'Council' was
a precious piece of humbug. Out of twenty-eight members, four Jews and eleven
Arabs were to be elected. The balance were to be appointed by the High Com-
missioner, to include five Englishmen. The High Commissioner retained wide veto
powers. If a miracle happened and his handpicked legislative body' bucked the
traces, he merely had to deem its measures invalid to rule them out without
ceremony.
The Jews anxiously
asked themselves: What was back of the British mind ? What purpose could there
be to all this artful simulation ? Was it to provide a rostrum for anti-Zionist
agitators who could be represented as expressing the country's will ? Was it a
smokescreen behind which anti-Jewish officials could plot the death of Zionism
? With dogged resolution they notified the Government that they would neither
participate in the elections nor recognize the proposed assembly. The reply was
the icy ultimatum that "with them, without them or against them, a
Legislative Council would be established in Palestine
This was all very
well, but it did not take into account the British Parliament itself. The
Council scheme was debated in the Lords on February 26, 1936 , and on March 24 in Commons, where it was
disastrously routed. In the latter body, recites Lord Peel
dolefully,
"the Secretary of State, whose speech was constantly interrupted, had only
two supporters." 7
357 WHOOPING IT UP
FOR DEMOCRACY
"by their
acts you shall know them!"
After all the
moralizing which accompanied the Legislative Council plan, one is astonished to
discover that the British have neglected to put any of these fine precepts into
operation during the entire period of their administration in Palestine Timbuktu
The electoral
system the British introduced (no one else wanted it) is a grotesque travesty
on democratic processes. The country was divided into community rolls based on
religion. A Jew could nominate only a Jew, a Muslim a Muslim and a Christian a
Christian. Suffrage is based on property rights, and there is no educational
test. From here on, the proceedings become heavily involved. Despite the fact
of three community rolls for nomination purposes, there is only one common roll
for election purposes. Now a Christian, Jew or Mohammedan may vote for anyone
he pleases, but Government decree determines the number of each religion which
must be elected!
An analysis of the
polling lists in representative towns shows Nablus Gaza
The Capital City
358 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
benefits. Some of
the older Jewish quarters such as Nahlat Zion
An incident which
occurred in 1930 thrusts this whole strange situation close to the realm of
fantasy. We see the Mayor of Jerusalem, Ragheb Bey Nashishibi, at the head of
an anti-Jewish delegation, proceeding to London
a mortal struggle
with his ancient enemies the Husseinis! The Jews stormed like madmen. Stentoriously
they promised retaliation by throwing their support to Nashishibis opponents.
Immediately the Government rose to the occasion with a decree postponing the
elections for three years. In the Mayor's absence, it refused pointblank to
allow Chaim Solomon, Jewish Vice-Mayor, to sit as acting-executive, and
appointed an Arab instead. Completely disgusted, the Jewish members of the
Municipal Council
resigned in a body.
In 1933 the
Government introduced an election scheme which gerrymandered the election districts
with such strategic cunning that the Jewish majority was turned into a
minority. Part of the maneuver which arranged this result lay in the granting
of special rights to owners of property in the Old City of Jerusalem. These
regulations so curtailed the right of suffrage that out of its entire
population only 3900 individuals in Jerusalem
In January 1935
the Government appointed Hussein Fakri El Khaldi mayor for five years, to take Nashishibis
place. A Jew, Daniel Auster, was given the title of Vice-Mayor. Right after
being inducted into office, Mayor Khaldi refused to countenance the presence of
the Jewish Vice-Mayor and even denied him an office in the Municipal Building Municipal Building
The farcical drama
continued to unfold. In 1937, Arab Khaldi himself was picked
359 WHOOPING IT UP FOR
DEMOCRACY
up by a squad of
soldiers for alleged complicity in the murder of a British official, and exiled
to a small island without benefit of trial. Thus unexpectedly Vice-Mayor Auster
found himself acting-Mayor. Officialdom was nonplussed. At that very moment London Seychelles Islands
In Haifa
Tel Aviv's
self-rule is not worth too much. A Council is elected, which selects a Mayor
and Vice-Mayor from among its own members, subject to the approval of the High
Commissioner. How much 'democracy' this entails is demonstrated in the
elections of November 1936, when General Wauchope calmly invalidated the
election of Moshe Chelouche as Mayor without offering any reason for his
action, and appointed Dr. Israel Rokeach, Mayor in his stead.
Tel Aviv is the
only city in Palestine Israel
360 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
was contrary to public
policy, the Administration suddenly placed this right,
which Jewish women
have had for a decade, into question. By regulation issued February
9, 1933 the High
Commissioner was granted the power to decide whether or not a woman has the
right to active or passive participation in municipal elections, entitling him
at will to throw out of office such women as might have been duly elected, as
well as to deny them suffrage.
Though they are
taxed to the hilt, Jewish colonies fail to receive the grants-in-aid allowed to
Arab towns for public services; and the Government at the same time
consistently refuses them permission to make use of outside credit facilities,
even for
self-paying projects. Thus the Council of Rehovoth tried vainly for three years
to get permission to raise a loan for building a market. In the end Rehovoth
built its market without the loan by straining its resources to the bursting
point. When
in 1933 the Tel Aviv Municipality
This despotic,
minute control extends to trivia undreamed of in any other State but Soviet Russia Jaffa
not only ignored
the petition but would not even allow the city to "meet the requirements
by supplies of meat from elsewhere." It was either Jaffa Palestine
361 WHOOPING IT UP
FOR DEMOCRACY
times higher in
Tel Aviv than in Egypt Tel Aviv Harbor
Calling things by
their right names, the Jerusalem Palestine Review states the fact that the real
ruler of the city is the District Commissioner, not the "fictitious
Council and bogus Mayor” Fully as courageous, the Jewish Vice-Mayor (now Mayor
?) writes that "although a cursory reading of the Palestine Corporation
Ordinance may give the impression that the Corporations established under that
law have wide powers of civic administration, such an impression is erroneous.
. . Municipalities have practically no authority in connection with the welfare
of their citizens. . . Authority of the Municipal Councils is so limited that
even if it is decided to appoint a minor clerk at a salary of £36 per annum . .
. the approval of the District Commissioner or the High Commissioner is necessary.
A Council of twelve or fifteen elected representatives may spend hours and days
arriving at a decision which, when
submitted to the
Commissioner, is responded to by a curt note canceling it. Against that
rejection no action can be taken. . . . The Palestine Government has, in effect,
turned our Municipal Councils into debating clubs." 11 These Councils are
not even empowered to regulate building and layout or direct roads in traffic.
Their budgets must receive official ratification from the District
Commissioner, which may not be forthcoming for a year or more. "For example,"
writes Lord Peel, "the budget of Jerusalem
1937." 12
It is interesting
to discover that the Muslim Wakf Administration, though largely supported from
taxes and not subject to the democratic control of the Arab community, has been
al most completely free of Government supervision, presenting
362 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
its budget only
for 'information'; while the Jewish National Council, democratically elected
and supported entirely by internal contributions, must submit its budget for
Government approval.
It is shocking to
learn that Palestine Abyssinia ," states a sickened English writer,
"but how many people know, for example, that [in Palestine
you can buy the
most beautiful girl . . . for a couple of hundred pounds. You can buy her when
she is twelve years old, and you can take her home, there and then, to live
with your other . . . wives . . . and all of this in 1936, in a land administered
by Great Britain League of Nations ! " 13 He gives the current price of
women as £5 for an 'old' woman of twenty or a girl of fifteen who is
non-virgin.
£l° to £5° gets you
a first class concubine, while £200 will buy you the modern equivalent to the
Queen of Sheba.
According to the
recent Annual Report of the American Colony Aid Association, among three
hundred mothers treated at the Infant Welfare Center
years, nine at ten,
22 at eleven, 41 at twelve, 51 at thirteen, and 54 at fourteen. Of the mothers
treated, 62.5% were defenseless children who had been sold into slavery. How
casually this brutal trade in human flesh is regarded can be understood from
the following item
which appeared in the Palestine December 27, 1930 : "Three fellaheen of a Gaza Nablus Haifa
One of the most
persistent complaints of this people whom British propaganda regards as
long-suffering patriots, is that the Zionists have inadvertently chased the
price of women out of sight. Arabs who sold land to Jews had enough money to
buy
six, seven —
sometimes a dozen or more women. The price of female slaves rose dramatically
in accordance with the law of supply and demand so that exorbitant
363 WHOOPING IT UP
FOR DEMOCRACY
prices must now be
paid for women, who are dragooned from even far-away Ethiopia
add to the general
hatred of Jews, and one must not judge the Arabs too harshly if they take to
arms in desperation."
It is a striking
commentary on the Mandatory's conception of government that Jews lucky enough
to be nationals of States tolerably free of Jew-baiting will not risk
Palestinian citizenship, even though they have come to the National Home to
stay.
As in the worst
days of the old barbaric Turks, they take special trips back to the old
countries, registering their children there so that they might enjoy protection
against a Government they have learned to distrust thoroughly. It is estimated
that fully one hundred and sixty thousand Jews permanently domiciled in the Holy Land thus keep their old nationality. 14
SOME ODIOUS
COMPARISONS
You may search the
map through and you will not find a single area administered by the English
Colonial Office 'where a constitutional position in favor of the native
population has been allowed to develop. Is it not astonishing, then, that they
should
exhibit such a
compelling sentiment for the 'rights' of natives in precisely the area they are
under pledge to relinquish ultimately to the Jews?
British Central
and East Africa may be taken for convenient comparison.
The native races here are certainly as intelligent as those of Palestine
Still more
significant, there are large colonies of East Indians and Arabs settled in these
places. They came long before the British immigrants and they play a vital part
364 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
in the economic
life of these communities. Notwithstanding, the constitutional power is
invariably placed in the hands of British settlers.
It is worth
tearing off the cover of this thing to get a look at some of its detail. We
find Tanganyika
East Indians. Yet
under the Constitution of 1926 a Legislative Council is constituted consisting
of twenty British Europeans and three British Indians. Neither the native
populations nor the 1,000 Arabs, who alone outnumber the British two to one,
are represented at all. In Kenya
Arabs apparently
do not count here either.
In South Africa
A comparison from
another angle is offered by British experience in the Island of Cyprus Greece Palestine
Turkish minority
of twenty percent plus Government officials formed an actual
365 WHOOPING IT UP
FOR DEMOCRACY
voting majority.
The result was economic stagnation and political chaos. Greek members refused
to cooperate with the Government or the Turk minority. Bills in
the Legislature
were jettisoned. National hatreds reached an explosive climax. The gulf of culture,
hopes and physical differences between the two races was so fundamental as to
contravene ordinary differences of opinion. As a result of this self-
generated
combustion, the Island almost blew itself off the map
— and the British
were glad enough finally to haul out from under. In November 1931 they withdrew
the Constitution as "premature, excessive and unsuitable." From that
time forward, Cypriots were not so much as allowed to discuss or hear a
political speech. 16 The game had been played out in favor of the baldly stated
conviction that if Britain
The British, with
this experience immediately behind them, do not need to be told that the
differences between Arab and Jew — in ideals, dreams, mentality, culture, and
objectives — are far more exaggerated than anything they ever witnessed between
Turk and Greek in Cyprus Whitehall Palestine
BOOK THREE
CHAPTER I
"A PEOPLE IN
DESPAIR 77
DOES AN ARAB RACE
EXIST?
The British, who
were later to talk imposingly of 'Arab nationalism in Palestine Jordan Gaza
'Arab' as applied
to Palestinians was a misnomer. 1
Actually there are
no 'Arabs' anywhere. There is not even a fairly homogeneous mixed race.
Throughout the Peninsula the Arab has ceased to exist. Those who
have taken his place are a motley assortment of peoples, low in the scale of human
development, who
speak the Arabic tongue. Even the courtly Saladin was no Arab, but a Kurd.
Hussein of the Hejaz , himself, was mothered by a Circassian and
had his official heirs by a woman of Turkish blood. 2
The countless
cities, tribes and nations incorporated at sword's point into the swollen host
of Allah, soon drowned the Arab out by the very suffocation of their numbers.
An even more dreadful revenge was exacted by that cruel institution, the Harem.
How enormous this practice was can be seen in Sykes' description of the empire
of fabled Haroun-al-Raschid, with its tremendous seraglios stocked with women
from every conceivable corner of the globe. 3 He marvels at the unending supply
of female slaves, of every color and kind. Since purity of blood in the
community of Mohammed always gives way to purity of line, where are the
descendants of Qoraish 3a now ? Even in the very core of desert Arabia , the race has been steadily
adulterated by an
incoming flow of slave girls, most of them, in recent centuries,
366 Pics
367 ”A PEOPLE IN
DESPAIR"
from the Sudan Africa . The offspring of these stolen creatures
are not slaves but free Muslims, since the moment a woman conceives she attains
the
status of a legal
wife.
Pilgrims from such
faraway places as Java and Morocco Hejaz ,
contributed liberally to this mélange. The Muslim habit of giving a slave girl
to an overnight guest for his comfort, the frequent looting of visiting
caravans of the devout, all sweetened the mixture. "If we make exception
of the Sherifian families — the descendants of the Prophet — and some very few
other people of undoubted Arab origin," writes the
great Turkish
scholar, Dr. Riza-Tewfik, "all the population of Mecca
History gives it
as a fact that the Arabs never settled Palestine Latin Kingdom Jerusalem Africa and the East, with good-looking Nubian
girls most in demand. The Crusaders found a country peopled by a mixture of all
the races of the Orient, intermarried with Greeks.
On the founding of
the Kingdom they had to recognize the existence of five types of Muslims (each
of different racial antecedents), as well as Jews, Druses, Samaritans, and others.
6 By 1120, when the Council of Nablus was held, the Latins themselves were
already reported half absorbed in this churning stew of races.
Of even greater
significance than the loose social habits of the Muslims was the physical
position of this little land, which turned it into a bloody charnel house for
unending centuries. Spoliation, destruction, rapine, extermination, claimed the
land
368 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
like an
ever-recurring plague. The invasions which regularly smashed against its stricken
borders were countless. It had been devastated by the Scythians from north of
the Caucasus . The Romans populated it with vast
settlements of Greeks and other
races from
everywhere. It was scoured soon after by the wars of the Seleucids and Ptolemies.
In 634 A.D. occurred the Arab conquest. By 868 A.D. an Egyptian invader named
Mehmet Tulum had wrested the country from them in the usual blood
bath. Now for a
period of centuries Turks, Egyptians, Crusaders, alternated in control, periodically
baptizing the shuddering country in a bath of blood.
After the Twelfth
Century, Palestine Israel Asia who plundered, slew and violated without
halt. In 1256 the Mongol, Hulagu Khan, sacked the stricken area and put the
entire population to the sword. A
scarce hundred
years later, Timur the Lame, a sanguinary destroyer who called himself 'The
Wrath of God’ made this whole sector the scene of one of the crudest massacres
of his blood-drenched career. Now for generations Palestine Asia butchered its people indiscriminately.
Between 1260 and 1400 A.D. not a single city, town or village remained intact.
When the next conquerors, the Ottoman Turks, came in, raping and slaughter had
left an indelible mark in the character of the survivors. "In few parts of
the world," says Lieutenant- olonel Stafford , "were there more different
types." 7
It was always the
foreign soldier who was the police power in Palestine
Georgians and
Circassians. Each monarch for his personal safety relied on great levies of
slave warriors. Saladin, hard-pressed by the Crusaders, received one hundred
and fifty thousand Persians who were given lands in Galilee and the Sidon
district for their
services.
369 ”A PEOPLE IN
DESPAIR”
Out of this human
patch-work of Jews, Arabs, Armenians, Kalmucks, Persians, Crusaders, Tartars,
Indians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Sudanese, Turks, Mongols, Romans, Kharmazians,
Greeks, pilgrims, wanderers, ne'er-do-wells and adventurers, invaders, slaves
and backwash of all corners of creation, was formed that hodge-podge of blood
and mentality we call today 'Levantine’ As this wild medley of ungovernable,
lawless men were killed off from time to time by incessant wars, raids and
plagues, more from everywhere were constantly merged into the common melting
pot. In the Fourteenth Century, drought caused the immigration into Palestine Euphrates . Soon followed twenty- thousand Ashiri
under Gaza Jordan Valley Jerusalem Jaffa Nablus Jaffa
During the middle
of the Nineteenth Century the entire territory of the National Home, east and
west of the Jordan
persecution, were
still heavily in the majority. The huge population growth since that time has
been due to large contingents of new arrivals. The Turks introduced Circassians
around Amman North Africa passed under European authority,
the fanatic
Moghrabiyeh Muslims moved out and settled in the Holy Land . (It was they who were responsible for the
Safed butchery in 1929, and who supplied the continuous tension at the Wailing
Wall.) So too, were introduced into the permanent
population of this
little land, Bosnians, Turkoman nomads, and a stream of Levantines, mixed
desert wanderers and Africans which continues to the present day.
370 THE RAPE OF PALESTINE
As for the
Christian population, we are told by the learned Dr. Christie that it is made
up of fragments of all the Levant
races. The native Christians of Nazareth come from the Hauran and from
Merj-Ayun ; while the Christians of Safed are the children of immigrants from
Hasbeiya who came in the second half of the last century.
In the Arabic
language only the Bedouin is designated by the word 'Arab.' But here, too,
unless the eyes cannot be trusted, there is little evidence of common descent.
The Ghawarineh tribe of the Jordan Valley Bethlehem Transjordan . 10
Until English
political maneuvering recast their viewpoint for them, the townspeople were
insulted if they were referred to as Arabs. They wanted to be known for what
they were, Syrian Levantines. Count Sforza designates the inhabitants of this
entire region as a medley of peoples "with not the slightest bond between
them." 11 Mrs. Andrews remarks dryly that "in Jerusalem
As long as these
masses have lived side by side, they have been at each other's throats. Tribe
hated tribe, city man hated fellah, the Bedouin despised both, sect cursed
sect, and even family disdained family as unworthy scions of an inferior race.
That all this ill-assorted, explosive mixture can be organized into one
autonomous nation may also be doubted for the future.
ARAB TYPES AND
TRAITS
From steppe,
mountain, jungle and desert, an agglomeration of primitive, savage man had
swarmed in successive waves over Palestine
371 "A PEOPLE
IN DESPAIR"
.
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