The Egyptian ex-Khedive Abbas Hilmi, whose name has been prominently mentioned in connection with the pan-Arabic movement and certain proposals with regard to the situation in Palestine, which he visited recently, seeing there the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the members of the Zionist Executive and the British authorities, made several references to the Palestine question in the course of a conversation with a representative of the J.T.A. during his recent stay in London.
He vehemently denied any connection with the proposals for the establishment of Jewish cantons in Palestine attributed to him, insisting that he knows nothing of such plans, and has no intention to interfere in Palestine affairs. As an Arab politician, he is interested, he said, in all things that concern Arabs, but his age and position make it the wisest course to watch events without participating actively in politics.
He had lived in Switzerland long enough, he added, to know the drawbacks of the Canton system. The Catholics in Switzerland hate the Protestants, and the French-speaking people hate the German-speaking. The bi-lingual system, he asserted, has failed. In the circumstances, he considered further experiments on such lines useless.
The solution of the Jewish problem in Palestine, the ex-Khedive regarded as simple—let all Jews become Arabs. Jews are an Oriental people, he said, and are even believed scientifically to derive from an Arab stock. Let them return to the fold, go to Palestine, and become Arab like the rest of the population. The Arab regards the Jew from Arabia or Egypt as a brother, but the Jew from Europe comes as a colonizer among natives, and antagonizes the Arab unnecessarily.
For the Jews to become Arabs, he said, it is not necessary for them to abandon their religion or to change their language, although the latter would be desirable. Their European culture would be of definite advantage to the country if it could be blended with the culture of the Orient.
The great thing is that the Jews should not convey the impression that they are going to Palestine as invaders. They should make it clear that they are only returning to a country from which they were expelled many centuries ago, and that they are not newcomers. And when they go back they must go back as Arabs.
An Arab who emigrates to America returns, after many years, he said, not as an American, but as an Arab. That is the great point. When Jews go to Palestine they should be there by right, as Arab brethren, and not impose themselves on the country by force of the British Mandate or the Balfour Declaration.
The Jews claim, it is true, he said, that all they are doing is returning to their home-land, but it is a question of method, and it will take many years before the Arabs will be convinced that this is really so. Much water, he said, will have to be added to both the Jewish and Arab wine before they can mix.
With the stipulation that Jews should become Arabs, the ex-Khedive said that he approves entirely of Jewish migration to Palestine, within the economic possibilities of the country. He saw no objection to Jews becoming in time the majority of the Palestine population. Let as many Jews go to Palesaine and the Near East as the land will hold, he said. The Jews, with their intellect and wealth, can be only of benefit to the East. The Arab fear that a Jewish majority will drive them out of Palestine does not, or should not, exist. Palestine is surrounded by Arab countries, and in Arabia the Jew can never hope to constitute anything more than a fraction of the population. Even if Jews become the majority in Palestine they will still remain the brethren of the Arabs, as the Catholic Arab of Lebanon is the brother of the Mohammedan Arab. As in Yemen, he said,
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.
