The Executive of the Jewish Agency today submitted a protest to the Palestine government, emphasizing that the 9,700 immigration certificates granted this week by the government for the next six months under the labor schedule is not sufficient. The protest points out that by cutting the requests of the Jewish Agency for 18,600 immigration certificates to 9,700, the government disregarded the actual situation in the Palestine labor market.
The protest of the Jewish Agency also points out that the demand for 18,600 immigration certificates was submitted after a careful survey of the actual requirements of Jewish labor in Palestine in the field of agriculture, industry, building, and transport.
The shortage of Jewish labor has been steadily increasing for two or three years. With each schedule granted, the shortage has increased, until the accumulated deficiency is such that the figures submitted by the Executive of the Jewish Agency give an impression of being inflated. But the Executive is adhering strictly to the principle of absorptive capacity laid down by the government. If the government would once grant a sufficiently large schedule in order to make good the accumulated labor shortage, and establish equilibrium in the Palestine labor market, this abnormal situation would be removed, and the Jewish Agency’s requests would not appear inflated in the future.
The position is particularly acute in the Sharon (Maritime Plain between Tel Aviv and Haifa), where the orange-groves cry out for Jewish labor which they cannot get. Every possible device is being used in order to supply the deficiency. School-boys are “mobilized” for work in the fields and groves, new immigrants are put under an obligation to go into the agricultural settlements, and special attention is paid to the securing of suitable labor in the countries where the immigrants come from. But the shortage remains as great as ever.
RESTRICT FEMALE INFLUX
One of the problems of Jewish immigration into Palestine is that of women and girls. The labor schedule is divided into two parts, one for men and one for women, and for some time the policy of the government seems to have been directed against any considerable development of the immigration of women into Palestine. From all countries, whence Jewish immigration goes to Palestine, the same complaint is continually heard, namely, that they have not enough certificates for women and girls. Indeed, the restrictive policy is much more marked in the case of women than in the case of men.
This is not contrary to the general modern spirit of equality for women, but it must also be remembered that the share of the Jewish woman in the upbuilding of Palestine has been very important, and indeed fundamental. The agricultural settler in Palestine, as elsewhere, cannot exist without the work of his wife in the kitchen garden and in bee-keeping.
The success of the chalutzim in the colonies depends greatly upon the work of their girl colleagues in the kitchen and in the laundry. Further, there is no reason why a woman who has made good in Palestine in business or in a profession should not be able to bring into the country dependents in the same way as a man can.
The problem of women and girls is thus one which needs special consideration, with a view to giving to women a place in the Jewish immigration into Palestine similar to that enjoyed by men.
THE PLANTATIONS
A recent investigation carried out by the Executive of the Jewish Agency has shown that in regard to Jewish orange plantations, about half are worked exclusively with Arab labor, and that, in the other half, a considerable amount of Arab labor is also employed. A recent authoritative statement made by an outstanding Jewish farmer shows that in 1932 there were employed in the Jewish agricultural settlements between 14,000 and 15,000 Jews and between 5,000 and 6,000 Arabs. Since 1932, about 6,000 Jews have left agricultural work and gone to the towns, and their places have been taken by Arabs, many of whom come from Transjordan, and even from Egypt and from the Hauran in Syria, since there is a shortage of labor in Palestine, not only among the Jews, but also among the Arabs.
Apart from the question of Jewish and Arab labor in Palestine itself, it hardly needs argumentation to show that a state of affairs in which thousands of Arabs come in from outside Palestine to take up employment in Jewish groves represents a serious problem with regard to the Jewish National Home. It is clear that the Jewish National Home is not possible if Jews are to be settled only in the towns, or if on the land Jews constitute largely the employing class, and are not rooted in the soil as agricultural laborers.
While it may be argued that this phenomenon is to a great extent due to the fact that many employers naturally tend to use cheaper labor if it is available; at the same time, this phenomenon is also largely regulated by the actual shortage of Jewish labor. An adequate supply of Jewish labor, in the form of Jewish immigration, would to a considerable extent remedy the situation.
ARAB INCREASE
The argument most frequently used against Jewish immigration is that it tends to create a situation detrimental to the present population of Palestine. It is therefore of importance to examine the changes that have been produced in Palestine and the corresponding changes in the surrounding Arab countries, where the Jewish National Home is not being established, and where there is no considerable Jewish immigration. Official figures indicate that, whereas between the years 1922 and 1931 the Moslems of Palestine increased by 28.6 per cent and the Christians by 24.1 per cent, in Egypt, between the years 1917 and 1927 (the latest for which figures are available) the increase of the Moslem population was only 11.1 per cent.
In Transjordan, the population (wholly Moslem) has remained stationary. Arab emigration from Palestine between the years 1920 and 1931, was about 600 per annum on an average. Before the war, Arab emigration was three or four times as great, and Arab emigration from Syria is now twice as great in proportion to the population as it is from Palestine.
The Moslem birth-rate in Palestine is 60.3 per thousand, whereas in Egypt it is about 44 per thousand, and in Transjordan 35 per thousand. It is also interesting to note that among Palestine Moslems 23.4 per cent of the men can read, and 3.2 per cent of the women can read; in Egypt 20.3 per cent of the men and 2.5 per cent of the women can read; while in Indian Moslem territories, the percentage of men who can read varies between 18.1 and 7.4, and of women between 2.1 and 0.8.
ARAB PLANTATIONS
It is also interesting to note that in the last ten years the Arab orange plantations have increased by about 100,000 dunams, employing about 10,000 Arabs—Jews are practically never employed by Arabs. Arabs have also increased their vegetable plantations by 20,000 dunams, and similar increases have taken place in Arab milk, poultry and fruit production, due to Jewish immigration. At the end of 1932 there were 2,800 Arab motor-cars in Palestine; now there are about 7,500.
In the last twelve years the average wage of the Arab worker has increased by two-thirds.
These facts, and others that could be quoted, indicate that the general conditions of the Arabs of Palestine has considerably improved, and that this improvement has been an outstanding phenomenon compared with the situation in neighboring countries. A large proportion of this improvement is due to the work of the British Administration, but there can be no doubt that the vast development following on Jewish immigration has made possible much of the expenditure which has enabled the government to carry out these improvements. For example, the annual budget of the Government of Palestine devotes 25 per cent to security, defense and police; in Transjordan 50 per cent of the budget goes for this purpose, and in Syria 33 per cent.
EDUCATION
On the other hand, the Palestine Government spends 7 per cent of its total budget on education, the Transjordan Government 4.7 per cent, and the Syrian Government 5.8 per cent. Similar figures could be quoted with regard to health. It should also be noted that, although Jews in Palestine provide at least 50 per cent of the government’s total income, nevertheless the share of the Jews in the Education and Health Budgets of the government is small, even when compared with their percentage of the total population.
It is worthy of note that the largest increases in the Arab population in Palestine have taken place in just those Arab towns and districts which are nearest, to or in the very heart of, Jewish development zones. Thus, between 1922 and 1931, the increase of Arab population in Hafia was eighty-seven per cent, in Jaffa, sixty-one per cent, in Jerusalem thirty-seven per cent, in Tiberias thirty-four per cent, in Tulkarem forty-four per cent, in Ludd thirty-nine per cent, in Ramleh thirty-two per cent—all these beings towns very close to areas of Jewish settlement and enterprise. On the other hand, in Nablus, near
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.
