CAUSE OF UNREST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26065, 31 January 1946, Page 5

CAUSE OF UNREST

ZIONIST POLICY DANGEROUS NATIONALISM CURRENT SITUATION REVIEWED LONDON, Jan. 29. With many of the undesirable features which characterised the Nazi movement in Germany, the Zionist policy as to-day manifested in Palestine was not a religious movement, but a national one, declared Majorgeneral Sir Edward Spears. He was giving evidence before the BritishAmerican Committee on Palestine. “ I believe that if the Zionist policy were to succeed in its objective of a Jewish State in Palestine, it would be a source not of peace, but of insecurity in the Middle East, and its fanatical elements would continue to be as they are to-day—violently antiBritish. It would be a permanent cause of unrest, the major obstacle to the development of the Arab unity which I believe essential to the progress and stability of this area.” Major-general Spears added that the solution of the Palestine problem was essential, not only to the interest of the British Commonwealth, but to fundamental world peace. The Arabs were terrified that if large-scale immigration to Palestine continued they would become a minority, subject to alien Jewish rule. They were desperate and ready to use force rather than suffer what they felt was a bitter injustice. There was no essential incompatibility between promises to Jews under the Balfour Declaration with promises to the Arabs. No responsible authority or British Government ever promised that Palestine would become a Jewish State or that unrestricted Jewish immigration would be permitted. The promises to the Jews of a national home in Palestine had been fulfilled. One of the greatest causes of Arab hostility, added Major-general Spears, was the fact that the great majority of Jewish immigrants were completely alien to the Arab way of life. Most Jews had no racial connection with Palestine. They were not descendants of the Israelites who went to Palestine from Egypt, but were descended from the Ascenasi Jews, who were converted to Judaism in the eighth and ninth centuries. There was such a dangerous antiJewish feeling in the Middle East that “ there is no doubt if large-scale immigration to Palestine continued the Jews will live under the same conditions of insecurity which drove such of them as could to escape from Europe after the rise of the Nazis in Germany.” Urging that the Arabs should not be asked to bear the whole burden, Major-general Spears suggested that the United Nations should shoulder the responsibility with large’ contributions fi'om Britain and America with a view to their resources both of living space and wealth. Major-general Spears affirmed confidence that the Arabs would accept continuance of the Jewish national home .provided the Zionists abandoned their politcal aims and endeavours by violence, illegal immigration, and pressure to achieve the objective of a Jewish majority in Palestine.