Arab and Jew in Palestine

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 288, 31 August 1929, Page 19

Arab and Jew in Palestine

Light on a Difficult Crisis

Although the Jewish population in Palestin e is growing by leaps and bounds, the Arab’ population is increasing even more. Will the Zionist hopes for Jewish predominance be realised? asks “Public Opinion,*’ which reprints Mr. Jacob de Haas, in the “Menorah Journal,” the Jewish magazine, on the facts as follows:—

_ to »■ —. HATEVER else a Zionist may be, he is one who subscribes A 7 T to the him of creating in Palestine a Jewish National % / Homeland. The creation of such U Homeland is the chief y y aim of the Zionist movement. Though lately the point has been obscured, this achievement depends, in the last analysis, on establishing in Palestine a body of Jews Who shall within a short time constitute a majority of the country’s population. This fact has been recognised at various times by Zionist leaders. In his Zeeland Memorandum of October, 1920, Justice Louis D. Brandels, defined the movement’s objective as follows: —

“‘To populate Palestine Within a comparatively short time with a, prepondering body of manly, self-supporting Jews who will develop into a homogeneous people With high Jewish ideals, will develop and apply there the Jewish spiritual and intellectual ideals, and’will ultimately become a self-governing commonwealth?

“Justice Brandeis has been sustained in this view by those whfl. how administer the World Zionist Organisation. Now, what has the Zionist Organisation done toward securing such immigration? Of course, there has been some absolute progress in Palestine since the War: immigration has been going on. But in relation to the problem of bringing about a preponderance of Jews in the country, there has been retrogression rather than progress.

“The Report of the Joint Palestine Survey Commission (the Blue Book) gives the following population statistics for Palestine: 1919, 57,909 Jews and 643,100 noh-Jews; 1923, 91,200 JeWs and 689,100 non-JewS; 1927, 148,100 Jews and 752,400 non-Jews. The total increase for about nine years, including immigration, was 90,200 Jews and 109,300 non-Jews. The natural rate of increase is about 24 per 1000 for the Jews and 30 per 1000 for the Arabs ahd other non-Jews. That IS to say, the Arabs, by their natural increase, have swallowed up , the whole Jewish advance by both immigration

and natural increase, with a fair margin of gain for the whole period. These, surely, are vital statistics for Zionism; they indicate that the objective of the Mandate for Palestine is-actually further away than it was a decade ago. . “Af the present moment it would require 600,000 Jewish immigrants to balance the Arab population. Under prevailing conditions the immigration of that number of Jews into Palestine in one year is unthinkable. An attempt to achieve such an immigration over five years would mean that the total would have to be raised to 700,000 in order to cover the . natural increase of the Arabs in a five-year period. Spread the Immigration Over a decade and the figures leap upward again. “The creation of the Homeland is, then, a mathematical chase in the rear of the natural Arab increase. Obviously, if the Jews do not seriously overtake the Arabs within the coming decade, all hope of achieving the aim of Zionism ahd of the Mandate under normal conditions will have disappeared. “This failure to meet the population problem, as Dr. Welzmann recognises, is responsible for the attitude of the Palestine Government toward the Walling Wall incident, Jewish tariff and school demands, and the like. The Administration cannot conceal from itself the fact that, though Palestine is more Jewish than it has been for centuries, it is to-day even more Arab than it was under the Turkish regime And no Jewish minority, however strong, can equal the Arab majority in Palestine.

“Nor will the rights of a majority be checked by ‘grandfather’ or ‘minority rights’ clauses. The mandated condition of Palestine must continue Until there is a. Jewish majority in the country so that the terms of the Mandate may be fulfilled. The failure to establish such a majority ‘within a comparatively short time’ may result in changing the terms of the Mandate or in its abandonment’’

Mr. Jacob de Haas concludes with an appeal to the Zionists to face the situation and to set about the task of bringing their ideals to practical fruitioh.