THE ARAB AND ZIONIST POLICY
Commonwealth and Foreign
By WILLIAM BLUMBERG PROFESSOR BRODETSKY said at the last Zionist Congress :
" Our Arab policy remains what it has been—namely, to develop Palestine to the advantage of both Jews and Arabs, to do all we can in order to create in it conditions happier and easier for everybody, to make the development of Pales- tine a common venture in which all who are interested shall join." On the same day an Arab was killed and two Jews were arrested after a labour squabble at Kfar Tabun, the Arabs having stoned Jewish labourers. This is a typical sidelight on the " common venture," which excludes Arabs from em- ployment in the land of their birth. The Zionists intend to pursue their one-sided expansion without paying attention to the worries of the Arabs, who must be content with inci- dental advantages accruing to them as a by-product of that expansion. This, in plain language, is the meaning of .Dr. Brodetsky's statement. Such an " Arab policy " offers slender chance of promoting peace.
It is time to abandon the policy of pursuing the Jewish interest by impolitic statements to which nobody can give credence. What is needed is a constructive proposal. The Mandatory Power cannot concede demands raised at the point of the revolver, and the Arabs, embarked on a national revolution, are resolved to fight to the bitter end unless given a visible proof of good will. They demand a temporary stoppage of Jewish immigration while the matter is sub judice, and all the bloodshed and destruction revolve at the moment round this one issue.
It is no use trying to make capital out of Arab lawlessness as the Zionists do. Revolutions have their own logic. They can be crushed, but they offer no opportunity for the moralist. That the Arabs should be crushed into unconditional sub- mission is hardly in the Jewish interest. It would nierely perpetuate the conflict and widen the gulf. The Jewish Agency must give a palpable contribution to peace by declaring its willingness to suspend the distribution of immigration certificates for the duration of the round-table conference. A. voluntary concession of this kind may seem unpalatable,- but it will facilitate the prospects of a " peace with honour." The conflict is much too muddled and burdened with too many political and psychological blunders to admit of an easy solution. But it can be solved if past grievances are objectively discussed and the future is tackled in a courageous and conciliatory mood. In the first place, the Jews must change their approach to the Arabs.
In the past the Arabs have been regarded as natives " —in the African meaning of the term—who need not be consulted. No less pernicious was the " class approach " of the Zionist Socialists who cared only to win the, sympathy of the fellaheen, contemptuously ignoring the intelligentsia, which was mostly of the effendi class. Relations between peoples are not a matter to be settled between class and class. The Soviets negotiated with Mussolini and Roosevelt, not with the " proletariat': It is not helpful to try to win the Arab " bottom dog " by educating him to organise -himself, while keeping him at a distance from the Jewish labour market. The spectre of unemployment is more eloquent than any class doctrine. The import of Jewish labour runs parallel to the import of Jewish capital, and Arab labour is relegated to a sort of native preserve, dooming it to a permanently inferior standard of life. This is the corner-stone of the trouble, though there are many other aspects. A country can be bi-national, but it cannot have two separate economic compartments.
Only rational planning. could solve the problem. If the Zionists had planned the economic future of the country they hoped to -rule, there would have been no need to oust Arab labour, or displace Arab cultiVators; They 'should have been made a comfortable part of the economy of the National Home. But there was no plan whatever, neither for Palestine as a whole, nor even for the Jewish sector. Instead of a planned new community, we see an eastern Klondyke, built up by gold-diggers, and an orgy of specula- tion which has set the whole land ablaze. In a world suffering
from an excess of productive capacity and a scramble for restricted markets, it is absurd to pour hundreds of thousands of new population into an undeveloped country without strict and rational planning. This is conspicuously true of Palestine, a country devoid of basic raw materials and marked out by a dearth of arable land and insufficient food pro- duction. Because of Zionist laissez-faire the National Home is manifestly unprepared to absorb serious immigration. This was shown by the crisis of 1926, and the very meagre net Jewish immigration total (after deducting re-emigrants) of 92,858 persons for the thirteen years between 1920 and 1932.
At present there is a superficial prosperity and mass inuni- gration, caused by the panicky inrush of capital after the Hitler Revolution. It is not a stable development resting on planned effort. Elsewhere the writer has already expressed' his view that only madmen can believe that prosperity, once in motion, can be kept going by a continuous influx of new capital which is not, or is very scantily, reproduced. ' In a planned economy in Palestine provision must -be made for the Arabs, so that they may take part in a general economic development. The Arabs cannot be left out of the picture, nor can they be relegated to the position of helots. If Zionism proceeds to map out the future of the country in the perspective of a ruling Jewish majority, it must at once show what provision it can make for the country as a whole, and not only for the Jewish Yishuv.
Arab agriculture must be improved and modernised. The Arabs must have proper education, including vocational training for the young. A sufficient share of the Govern- ment's revenue must be allotted for these purposes. Another duty of the Jews is to foster a system of Arab co-operatives interlinked with their own economic plan, and, above all, to provide employment for resident Arabs who are in need Of work. Finally there must be evolved a far-sighted plan of reconciliation and understanding, not only with the Arabs of Palestine, but with the pan-Arab forces of the adjacent States. They are the real problem, and they must be offered a fair quid pro quo in Jewish assistance for the development and modernisation of their countries.
These suggestions, published by me in -1935, conform with the undertakings of economic assistance and advice contained in Articles IV and VII of the treaty with the late Emir Feisal which Dr. Weizmann made public recently (The Times, June 10th, 1936). There can be no basis of under- standing in which' those undertakings do not form a part. With the rest of the treaty they have remained a dead letter. A fruitful discussion of the subject would probably- lead to the formation of joint Arab-Jewish trade unions and joint planning, development, and trading orgsmisations.
It is harder to find common ground in the political side of the conflict, but not impossible. The analysis of contra-. dictory promises and respective services to Great Britain in the War is of no relevance to the issue. Peoples are not an object of barter and territories are not a prize to be awarded at anyone's discretion. -The Mandate • contains no reference to a political bargain, but to an historical connexion of the Jews with Holy Land, infinitely more conspicuous. than that of the Arabs. It cannot be overlooked thst the Jews created in Palestine a culture which revolutionised the history of the world, and the Arabs merely converted a flourishing country into a desert. This is the basis cf the Balfour Declaration, which otherwise would have been immoral and have no validity. Even bilateral undertakings are subject to revision when they conflict with justice or common sense.
- Nevertheless, had Palestine been effectively occupied,- nobody would dream of pushing the Arabs out to make place for the Jews. Peoples cannot be shifted, like Poor Law bene- ficiaries, from one place to another. But Palestine is manifestly under-populated, considering its area, climate, and geographical position. On the other hand; while all Arab countries are under-populated, Palestine is the only land whose former possessors are still alive. That is the crux of the matter.
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