had not been stopped, but had grown larger since September. Nevertheless, he believed that the whole scheme of immigration regulation in Palestine has not been satisfactory or in any sense welcome to the Zionist Executive. The problem of immigration must be settled not by the government or by the Palestine administration, said Professor Brodetsky, but depends on the Jews themselves. “They can open the gates to Palestine or close them.”
Discussing the status of the Jewish Agency as laid down in the Mandate, he declared it was an extraordinarily difficult thing to define because it was vague and open to many interpretations. “After eight or nine years of experience in interpreting the functions of the Agency by ourselves and political authorities, the time has come to get a clear notion of what the Agency should be and what advising and cooperating should mean in practice.” Referring to reports of difficulties between Zioinsts and non-Zionists, Professor Brodetsky declared them to be unfounded but he admitted that “there are differences of opinion affecting organization. These things must be settled at the March meeting of the Administrative Committee.”
Speaking of the Arab-Jewish problem, Professor Brodetsky said: “It may be true that the Zionist Executive did not pay sufficient attention to the problem of Jewish-Arab relations, but it would be equally a mistake if we allowed ourselves to be completely obsessed by the Jewish-Arab question in the future. It is an important and fundamental problem that has to be faced and solved quickly. It is a problem of the relations of two peoples, one living in Palestine for centuries that has a claim to the country as all people living in a country for many generations, and the Jewish people who have been associated with Palestine for over 3,000 years, and in all parts of the world consider themselves not immigrants but homecomers and future citizens.
JEWISH IMMIGRATION IMPORTANT
“This problem cannot be solved by the Zionist Executive by a single formula or in a short time. Therefore if we devote all our energies to the Jewish-Arab problem exclusively, we shall make a serious mistake. Our intensive immigration to Palestine is an important contribution to solving the problem. The Arabs should know that the Jews are determined to rebuild the National Home. To ignore the Arab problem would be a first class political mistake. That is the answer to that section of the Zionist Organization which bases its program upon ignoring the Arab population.
“The Arabs are there. We shall have to live with them in the country. That section which says no sacrifice is too great to pacify the Arabs is a very serious source of danger to our whole work. It would be a fundamental political mistake to show the Arabs that if they want political gain they must make further attacks on the Jews. It is essential that the Arabs recognize that the policy of the National Home has come to stay and is not subject to discussion.”
Also laying stress on the Arab-Jewish relations problem, Harry Sacher, chairman of the Palestine Zionist Executive, told the 300 guests at the English Zionist Conference, that the “Palestine Arabs understand only firmly established facts and if there is brought home to them clearly and unmistakably that any question of a change in policy of the Mandate and the Jewish National Home does not exist, then we have the beginning of a foundation for Jewish-Arab relations.”
LAND QUESTION NOT CAUSE OF TROUBLE
Declaring that he did not want to foretell the findings of the Inquiry Commission, Sacher said that the Commission “manifestly extended its activities into fields unembraced in the terms of reference. You may hear in the coming months something regarding the land question in Palestine. It is my conviction that the land question had nothing whatsoever to do with the troubles. It was perfectly natural and inevitable that given the opportunity, the Arabs should try to suggest that the land question was directly or indirectly the cause of the troubles, but I am quite convinced that this is entirely remote from the truth.
“Search the records of settlement of any country on the globe and you will find that no settlement upon the land by a people from outside has been carried out with the same regard for the interests of the native population, with the same effort for justice and generosity and general benefit to the native population as in Palestine.”
Sacher had high praise for the courage of the Jewish community. He said that he arrived in Palestine in September, after the outbreaks, and he “found the population in a state of serious anxiety, not anxiety for the future or for political consequences, but anxiety regarding public order and security for life and property, an anxiety which in an ordinary civilized community does not exist. Not only the Jews, but also the Arabs, felt that the government had ceased to govern, had failed to maintain control of the administrative machine to impress the population with the conviction that it had the will and resolution to exercise power.”
ACTS OF VIOLENCE CEASING
A noticeable change for the better was evident, he said, when he left Palestine a fortnight ago. “Incidents of violence had practically ceased, and the conviction was beginning to revive that the government meant to rule and had the power to rule, which has re-
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
