I do not think there is anything extraordinary in the Zionist movement, George Bernard Shaw said in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency representative here during a visit in the course of his world tour.
I am certainly not an anti-Zionist, he went on. The Jews must hold their own in Palestine. Not even Great Britain, or any other nation will help them in the realization of the Balfour Declaration. They must show strategy if they want to advance.
During my recent visit to Palestine, he proceeded, I did not go around very much. What I saw was houses being erected. I was not inspired by what I saw. Jerusalem is not a spiritual place, and the Jews must not think that God is confined to Jerusalem alone. The Jewish God is old-fashioned. There is no God who is not equally in any other country. Jerusalem should be like Sheffield or Leeds. The Jews should cease styling themselves the chosen people of God. They should not despise the Gentiles, nor the Gentiles the Jews. They should not have the same superiority complex as my own people, the Irish.
I am in favor of the Jews being a separate entity, Mr. Shaw continued. They should assimilate with the rest of the people among whom they dwell.
The Balfour Declaration is all right for the Jews, he said, but not for the Arabs. An eminent Jew rendered invaluable war service, and surprisingly refused any monetary reward, asking instead that Palestine should be established as the National Home of the Jews. Balfour made a war-time promise, and at the time of the war Balfour would have made any declaration to the Jews. But what right had he to do this at the expense of the Arabs?
I do not think that the Jews have any historic right to Palestine, Mr. Shaw said. The Jews seized Palestine as the English seized India, and what they did there was just to fight among themselves. The Jews have always been ungovernable, and are revolutionists, he said. Read Josephus’ “History of the Jews.” The Jew is a most ferocious type and not at all peace-loving. The Jews would hew their enemies to pieces.
When the J.T.A. representative drew Mr. Shaw’s attention to the idealization of peace in the Bible and the Talmud, Mr. Shaw said: “Yes, Gandhi and Jesus, the latter also a Jew, teach that, too, but how many follow their teachings?”
However, he went on, the Jews will
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.
