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“This is not an incident, this is not a Wailing Wall affair, but a serious national revolution, the reverberation of which may soon be heard in every corner of Moslem Arabia.”
“This was the statement made to me today by Emir El Hussein, Grand Mufti and President of the Supreme Council, the man who holds the reins of power over the Arabs in Palestine,” writes Carl J. Ketchum, according to a Universal Service despatch from London.
“For two hours today this handsome young man with red beard and high forehead, who is the idol of the Arab people, explained to me in the presence of four members of his Supreme Council, the whole history of recent events in Jerusalem from the Arab viewpoint. He spoke with gravity and conviction and Britain cannot afford to ignore his warnings, as he said:
“There will be peace in the immediate future as far as we can preserve it. We will not oppose British bayonets, but what Britain must understand is that the grave events which you have witnessed here have little really to do with the Wailing Wall.
“They go farther back. They go back of the Balfour Declaration in 1917. We are faced at this moment with a great national rebellion in which we have the sympathy and, if need be, should have the support not only of the Moslem Arabs of Syrai, Egypt and Northern Africa, but the whole of Arabia with their 60,000,000 people.
“The direct cause of the recent outbreak was the Zurich Zionist Congress which gave the Arabs of this continent, not for the first time, a clear picture of the intentions of the Jews in Palestine.
“For the whole of Arabia I assure you that by the force and presence of British troops you may suppress the present disorders and restore tranquility for the moment, but ultimate peace in Palestine and Arabia will never be made while Britain attempts to pursue the autocratic, unjust and illigal policy adopted under the terms of the Balfour declaration.'”
A reply to this statement was made by the Administrative Committee of the Zionist Organization of America in a statement issued yesterday. The statement which was signed by Dr. J. Kaliski. Acting Chairman of the Organization, Emanuel Neumann, Chairman of the Committee on Information, and Herman Bernstein, member of the Administrative Committee, declared:
“In this statement the Grand Mufti has unveiled the hidden motives which have been behind the Arab uprising. He has indicated, without the shadow of a doubt, that he and his associates are directly responsible for instigating the outrages that have occurred in Palestine during the past week. He has assumed responsibility for one of the greatest crimes against civilization that history has ever witnessed.
“The Grand Mufti, in effect, has stated that what he fears is not oppression by Jews but the ultimate success of the rebuilding of Palestine, which has been made more possible by the formation of the Jewish Agency, which has united Zionists and non-Zionists for the reconstruction work. The entrance of such leading Jews as Louis Marshall, Felix Warburg, Lord Melchett, Dr. Lee K. Frankel, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Sir Herbert Samuel, and other into the task of rebuilding Palestine has aroused the frenzied animosity of misguided Arab leaders who, by such counsel as they are now giving their people, have caused the backwardness of Palestine for so many centuries.
“The civilized world must see from the Grand Mufti’s public declaration that premeditation and a studied policy are behind the Arab outrages. How unjust his position is must be admitted by all those who know of the many benefits Jewish reconstruction work in Palestine has brought to the Arabs. That the responsible Arab leaders are cognizant of the benefits of Jewish work has been made evident on many occasions. It may be well to recall at this time when some Arab leaders are protesting against the workings of the Balfour Declaration the statement that was made in March. 1919, by King Feisal, who was at that time Emir of Palestine, and a member of the Arab delegation to the Peace Conference. At that time King Feisal said:
“We Arabs look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our deputation in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted by the Zionists to the Peace Conference and regards them as moderate and proper. We will do our best to help them through and wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home.
“‘We are working together for a reformed and revived Near East, and our two movements complete each other. The Jewish movement is national, and not imperialist; so is out movement national, and not imperialist, and there is room in Syria for both of us. Indeed, I think neither can be a real success without the other.’
“Arabs who have devoted their lives to the problems of their people and who are deeply concerned about the future of their people know what folly it is to have initiated the outrages that have taken place, and which can have only one effect: the condemnation of the Arab population by the civilized world.”
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