THE PALESTINE SITUATION
[To the Editor of TILE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. William Blumberg, in the article in your issue of the 17th inst., seems to expect that the Zionists should assume the major share of the responsibility for improving the welfare of the Arabs in Palestine, which, one would naturally assume, lies within the province of the Government, and ignores the valuable contribution which the Jewish resettlement has made towards that object. He criticises Zionist policy as one " which excludes Arabs from employ- ment in the land of their birth," although the facts clearly demonstrate that the Arabs, as a result of Jewish activity, have far more and better-paid employment Low than they had ten or fifteen years ago.
The Jews possess only 300,000 acres in Palestine, about 5 per cent. of the total area, and it is only in one-fourth of the Jewish land, that belonging to the Jewish National Fund, that no Arab labour is hired, as no hired labour, even of Jews, is employed there. The land of the Jewish National Fund, which is bought with the voluntary contributions of Jews throughout the world given for the purpose of en- suring that Jews in their National Home shall till the soil themselves, is leased only in such plots as a settler can cultivate himself with the aid solely of his own family. There are, nevertheless, some 8,000 Arabs employed in twelve Jewish agricultural settlements, in some of which they are even the majority, and the wage that they receive is twice as much as that given by Arab employers.
There are also about 1,500 Arabs employed in Jewish industry (potash, cement, &c.), in which they receive a much higher wage than in agriculture. Moreover, Zionist policy is entitled to take credit for the creation of opportunities of employment at the ports of Jaffa and Haifa and, indeed, for the construction of the Haifa Harbour, and likewise for the fact that during the last few years about 24,000 Arabs have been attracted from Syria and Transjordan to the labour market of Palestine.
The legend about the displacement of Arab cultivators has long been exploded. The Government's investigations revealed that over a period of twelve years not more than 656 Arab heads of families had been displaced from the land, and when the Government, with a fund of £250,000 at their disposal, invited them to take up fresh holdings, only 43 availed themselves of the offer, the rest having already become reabsorbed in agriculture or found other employment.
Mr. Blumberg pleads : The Arabs must have proper education, including vocational training for the young. A sufficient share of the Government's revenue must be allotted for these purposes." The fact is that the Government spends over £168,000 on Arab education, but less than £34,000 on Jewish education, although the Jews, despite their being only 30 per cent. of the population, contribute over 50 per cent. of the public revenue.
Your contributor also says that " another duty of the Jews is to foster a system of Arab co-operatives." The Jews have already done so : there are over 70 Arab co- operative societies. Equally superfluous is his plea for the formation of Arab-Jewish trade unions, for such unions have already been formed.
The reiterated complaint that the recommendations of all previous Commissions of Inquiry have been ignored is quite unfounded. The Commission that investigated the riots of 1921 recommended the creation of a Legislative Council, but the proposal to this effect, made in 1922, was rejected by the Arabs. The practical outcome of all the various Commissions that followed after the riots of 1929 consisted of two main recommendations—one relating to the displaced Arabs, which was completely disposed of before the end of 1934, and the other relating to the Legislative Council. Owing to the division of opinion among the Arab parties on the latter question, they were invited to send a deputation to London to discuss it with the Colonial Secretary, but instead of coming to an agreement on the composition of the deputation, they proclaimed a general strike. The responsibility for the postponement of the creation of a Legislative Council must therefore be sought in the quarters responsible for the present disnrders.—Yours faithfully,
ISRAEL COHEN.
The Zionis: Organisation, 77 Great Russell Street, W.C.1.
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