MOSLEM ARABS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 242, 12 October 1929, Page 11 (Supplement)

MOSLEM ARABS.

COPY RANCH PLAN OF ZIONISTS. REPAIRS TO MOSQUE OF OMAR. With the funds received from King Fuad for the repair of the Mosquo of Omar and handed over to the general secretary of the Supreme Moslem Council in Jerusalem, the latter acquired 2000 acres of coastal plantations, on which orange plantations bearing King Fuad's name, are to be established. Proceeds of the plantations are to cover the cost of the repairs, states ■ the Jerusalem correspondent of a New York daily? •' This imitation of the method followed by the Keren Kayemeth, the Zionist land purchase fund, in raising funds for reforestation purposes, is a departure on the part of the Moslems. The Zionist fund, too, plants groves in the name of individual donors.

Incidentally, this move is symptomatic of attempts to bring about the revival of the Arab nationalist movement, which has been dormant for some time. In the main, these attempts consist in a violent press campaign directed against the sale of lands to Jews, coupled with the demand that the Moslem Supreme Council, the administrator of the vast religious trust funds of the Moslems, should apply the income from these funds to keep the land from falling into Jewish hands. The recent purchase was the first move in this direc : tion.-

Since the Arab executive has nothing else to show for a year in office than two delegations sent to the High Commissioner requesting the setting up of a parliament, efforts are being made to create h new organisation. A group of notables who contributed to the preliminary expense funds lately has been negotiating with the general secretary of the Supreme Moslem Council, who was secretary and actual leader of the first Arab executive appointed shortly after the war, and who was responsible for the. Jerusalem and Jaffa pogroms of 1921 and 1922. The same point appeared on the agenda of the recently held Arab Youth Congress.