SITUATION IN PALESTINE.

By Albert M. Hyamson.

Recent events at Damascus and elsewhere have attracted attention to a matter which had otherwise almost escaped the public eye. The declaration of the British government, made before the conclusion of hostilities, to use its best endeavours to facilitate “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” was read by most people to mean that as a consequence of the war, such a national home would be established; and if any still doubted, their doubts should have been dissipated by the endorsements n by the principal Allied Powers that soon followed. Everybody, of course, knew at the time that the majority of the population of Palestine was Arab; they also knew, presumably, that there was room in Palestine for hundreds of thousands of new settlers without dispossessing or unduly encroaching upon those who were already there. It was for this reason that the qualification included in the declarations of Great Britain and her Allies – “it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religions rights of existing non-jewish communities in Palestine” – was accepted as quite practicable. There was no reason why a national home for the Jewish people should not be established in Palestine without prejudicing the civil and religious rights of the Arabs, Muslim as well as Christian. The Emir Feisul himself recognised this, for long after the date of the declaration, and when he was already acquainted with the spirit, if not the letter, of the proposals for the future of Palestine which the Zionist delegation had submitted to the Peace Conference, he gave repeated assurances to Dr Weizmann and other Zionist leaders that the proposals were not incompatible with legitimate Arab aims, and even since his coronation he has again stated that he is ready to carry out the mutually satisfactory agreement which he had made with Dr Weizmann.

What, then, is the reason for the trouble with the Arabs that has recently arisen in Palestine? To a very large extent, it is due to misapprehension that seems to have become exceedingly widespread, to the belief that the Zionists, or the British on their behalf, propose to set up a Jewish state in Palestine. Although no responsible Zionist has suggested any such course, the rumour has got round that this is the intention; and not unnaturally an unrest has developed throughout the length and breadth of Palestine and even beyond its borders. Interested parties, and unfortunately there are many, have assiduously circulated the statement that the Jews propose to take over the government of the country forthwith. The numerous class of Syrian officials who prospered so happily under the Turkish regime, the absentee landlords whom Turkish conditions enabled to make fortunes out of the fellaheen, all naturally desire to retain as much as they can of the old conditions, and they recognise full well that a Jewish development, with or without a British administration, would mean bankruptcy to their hopes. In a Palestine as a part of a Great Arabia, however, there should be few, if any, difficulties in their way. These men are, therefore, practically without exception, supporters of the Damascus Congress and its programme of a great Arab kingdom, including Palestine. On the same side are to be found those Palestinian Arabs who on genuine nationalist grounds desire to be citizens of a Great Arabia. But this class also is small in number. Together, these classes are making a noise far out of proportion to their size, helped in this, unquestionably, by unseen influences which in one form or another are almost always present when opportunity offers for harming British interests. The opportunity of doing so on this occasion by raising difficulties in the way of the fulfilment of the British government’s pledge to the Zionists is obvious.

CHIMERA OF A JEWISH STATE.

The Emir Feisul, urged by such forces behind which he is clearly unable to control, has accepted the crown of a united Syria, including Palestine. In claiming the maximum, he is only following more than one precedent that was set at Paris during the past year, and, as in the case of his fellowclaimants, he probably expects as little as they to have all of his demands granted. Not Jerusalem but another city is the centre of attraction for him, and if only his wishes are met farther north his acquiescence in the abandonment of Palestine should not be very difficult of attainment. He must be once again assured, if necessary, that the civil and religions rights of the Arabs of Palestine will be safe under the regime that he set up; he, or rather his followers, must be made to understand that a Jewish state or a Jewish administration in Palestine a product of the imagination which cannot be translated into reality, at any rate during the lifetime of the present generation.