RACIAL REVIVALS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 15 June 1936, Page 10

RACIAL REVIVALS

JEWS AND ARABS STIR IN PALESTINE The recurrent disorders in Palestine are being caused by a very serious and deep-seated conflict between two nationalisms. Until 16 years ago, Arabs constituted almost all of the inhabitants of the country. It was their land. Since then some 300,000 Jews have come here, and they aspire to make Palestine their land. Naturally, the 900,000 Arabian inhabitants are opposed to this. They are determined to resist “the Jewish invasion with all the might at their disposal, states the “Christian Science Monitor” in a despatch from Jerusalem, dated 15th May. And this is not merely a local conflict. Behind the Jews are 15,000,000 co-nationals possessing much influence in a score of lands. Behind the Arabs is the whole Arab world, steadily rising on an ever-growing tide of nationalism. The vanguards of two great forces are meeting here. Both sides make very appealing claim 1. The Jews inhabited and dominated parts of Palestine for more than a millennium; the Arabs have occupied it still longer. On the Arab side is the right of possession; on the Jewish side, the right of progress, development, and able exploitation. The Jewish settlers are transforming the country. They are turning it into a promised land. They ate restoring a prosperity which Palestine has not enjoyed for 2000 yeara. They have brought water, light, and abundant harvests. The have brought health, enthusiasm, song and hope. LIKE CALIFORNIA The Jews have made parts of the country resemble California with hundreds of glowing orange groves. They have transformed many - wildernesses into gardens, brought streams of living water from rocks, made flourishing cities spring fiom bleak sand, dried swamps, helped cover the country with a network of almost perfect roads, enormously increased the value of land, and opened scores of factories. This is being accomplished by some of the most ardent, heroic, hardworking pioneers to be found anywhere in the world. This old, old country has become a young people’s land. There is a New Jerusalem”—outside the old walls. And there is a new Palestine. Brave people have arrived here from the ends of the earth and made their dreams come true. They have dreamed of equality, justice and plenty, and here many little communities have . made that a reality They have dreamed of freedom and homes, of owning property, and working in gardens, and here they have found it all. They have dreamed of brotherhood, comradeship, co-operation and heie they have created it. Palestine has made more progress in the last decade than in the past 20 centuries. LOTS OF ENTHUSIASM The land throbs with a spirit of enthusiasm. Everything seems possible. Men and woman daily see the fruit of their toil. They dam the Jordan River, and not only light the land with the current they create, but water miles of gardens. They dig a myriad of wells, emptying into lofty tanks, and you hear engines pumping water along every road at all hours of day and night. In one valley alone 25 new villages have appeared. There are 30,000 men and women working in factories in an area that 20 years ago was a sandy waste. Two excellent new harbours have been created. The roads are filled with traffic. In every new center life is inexpensive, pleasant, hopeful. The glow of social progress and of achievement is on the face of every pioneer. It is a land for common folk, for young people seeking a future. A spirit of equality, freedom, human worth prevails. It is the kind of society Walt Whitman might sing about. Humanity has m/.de a new start. Children are well kept and well dressed, with facilities for work and play and study. PALESTINE BECOMES JEWISH And most important of all, the Jews are converting Palestine into a Jewish land. They have their own university here and hundreds of primary schools. They speak the Jewish language, celebrate Jewish holidays, give Jewish plays, issue Jewish papers, and publish Jewish books. It is one of history’s most remarkable renaissances. Men come here from Baghdad, Moscow, Warsaw, Saloniki, Berlin, New York and Bucharest with no common language, and with most conflicting views. There are orthodox Jews, waiting for a Messiah; Socialists and Liberals; there are pert flappers and stern grandpas with long locks and solemn faces. But in Palestine a nation is being reborn, and within a few months they all come to feel as one and begin to talk a language 3000 years old. ANOTHER REVIVAL That is one side of the story. But there is another one, too. The Arabs are also undergoing a revival. There is a new Arabian spirit. You find it in Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Iraq. Young Arabs from Palestine study in Europe and come back home to demand reforms. They cry for democracy, the right of self-government, control of their own affairs and the exclusion of the Jews. Arabian women gather and protest against the Jews, Arabian youth form rabid societies and consecrate themselves to the task of driving out the Jews. On this question both Christian and! Moslem Arabs are one. They complain that a foreign power, Great Britain, has taken their land, and is giving it to Jews. No issue could be plainer. The young Jewish colonists in Palestine want power, political authority, and security. The pioneers in Australia, Kansas, South Africa, and Kenya, all sought and won political authority. They considered that a basis of success. The white settlers in America were not content to leave government in the hands of the Indians. And most young enthusiastic Jews here have exactly the same .attitude. WANT NEW JEWISH STATE The Jews want to see 1,000,000 Jews here within 10 years. They hope to create a Jewish state. They feel superior to the Arabs and ex-

pect to force them into order and submission. This is not the official aim of Zionism, but it is the dream of every young colonist here. He didn’t come to be at the mercy of Arabs. But the Arabs, of course, will not permit such a development without fighting. They are fighting now. They killed 100 Jews in 1929 and are committing acts of violence against the Jews now, almost every day. They demand that Jewish immigration cease and that the Arabs be given control of their own land. I And as the Arab youth come more and more to the fore, this crusade gains in strength. The Arabs in Syria will secure some rights fi'om France. The Arabs in Egypt will secure rnpre rights from Great Britain. The Arabs in Iraq have already won freedom. All this is likely to fire the Palestine Arabs to greater efforts.