THE ARAB CASE

Evening Star, Issue 23189, 11 February 1939, Page 21

THE ARAB CASE

NOTHING IN COMMON WITH ANTISEMITISM FOUR DEMANDS PUT FORWARD (British Official Wireless.) Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright RUGBY, February 10. (Received February 11, at 11 a.m.) A statement on th© Arab case was made at the Palestine Conference by Prince Husseini. He emphasised that it had nothing - in common with antisemitism and was not inspired by any hostility to the British people or any other people, but the Arabs felt it was one of self-evident justice, resting on the natural right of a people to remain in undisturbed possession of their country and their natural desire to safeguard their national existence and ensure that it should be secured and developed in freedom and harmony with their traditions and ideals.

Prince Husseini also made a point that up to the time of the Balfour Declaration and the mandate the relations between the Arabs and Jews were peaceful and friendly. After arguing that the policy pursued by the mandatory in Palestine had proved the justice of the Arabs’ fears, and contending that the immigration of Jews and Jewish land purchases had been on a scale detrimental to the material interests of the Arab population, he declared that the Arabs had never, and never would, recognise the Balfour Declaration or the mandate, but in the eyes of the Arabs the question was not primarily one of material interests, but first and foremost one of moral and political values. The Arab case was based on the fact that the policy hitherto pursued in Palestine constituted a grave injustice to the Arab people of a kind for which there was no parallel, and that until that injustice was adequately redressed there would be no peace in the Holy Land. Prince Husseini concluded by summarising the demands of the Palestine Arabs under four heads: (1) Recognition of the right of Arabs to complete independence in their country. (2) Abandonment of the attempt to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine. (3) Abrogation of the mandate and illegalities resulting from it, and its replacement by a treaty similar to that between Britain and Iraq, creating a sovereign Arab state. (4) Immediate cessation of all Jewish immigration and sales or land to Jews. The Arabs, he said, were prepared to negotiate in a conciliatory spirit the conditions under which reasonable British interests should be safeguarded and approve the necessary guarantees for the preservation of and right of access to all holy places and for the protection of all legitimate lights of Jewish and other minoritiesc in Palestine.