A Just Request

The request which the Vaad Leumi, the Jewish National Council of Palestine, has submitted to the Palestine government, demanding a larger subsidy for the Jewish school system and Jewish health institutions, should have been made long ago.

There is no reason whatsoever why the government should not fully maintain the Jewish school system in Palestine at a time when it maintains fully the Arab school system. This unequal treatment is especially unjustified considering the fact that the government gets its income chiefly from the Jews and not Arabs.

By maintaining the Arab school system on government funds and by refusing the same treatment to the Jewish schools, a situation is created whereby discrimination against Jews is practiced on Jewish money. Furthermore, by not granting to the Jewish schools the same proportion of subsidy which the Arab schools enjoy, the Palestine government is practically creating the possibility whereby the number of Arab school children will eventually exceed that of Jewish school children.

There are in Palestine today about fifty thousand Arab children attending schools. This number is exactly fifty per cent of all the school children in the country. What will happen to Jewish education if the government continues its present policy? Why should the Jews have to find their own means for educating their children? Why should not the fifty thousand Jewish children receive the same privileges as the Arab children?

Similar is the question with regard to the existing Jewish health institutions in Palestine. The Jewish hospitals are open to Arabs as well as Jews. Why should the government discriminate against them? Why not give them the proper subsidy, to which they are entitled?

With millions of dollars of Jewish money flowing into the government treasury, it is high time that the discriminatory attitude towards Jewish public institutions should be abolished. The request of the Vaad Leumi to the Palestine government is nothing but a just demand.