The rejection by the Arab leaders of Palestine of the offer made them by Sir Herbert Samuel, Britain’s High Commissioner, for the establishment of an Arab Agency on the same footing as the Jewish body, called for by the Palestine Mandate, has at last been explained in a statement issued by the officers of the Moslem Christian Union.
Declaring that Palestine must belong to the Palestinians, the Arabs assert the Agency they were offered would not place them on a basis of equality with the Jews since the Zionists have been granted more than they deserve and the Arabs are offered considerably less.
Attention is also drawn in the reply to the fadt that the two parts of the Balfour Declaration contradict one another inasmuch as the first pledges a national home for the Jews, while in the second civil and religious rights of the other inhabitants are guaranteed.
Recalling war-time pledges made by Great Britain to the King of Hedjas in 1915 for the independence of the Arab States, the Palestine Arabs declare they will not be content with less than Arab national autonomy.
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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.
