“Now that it is too late, I have no doubt that England will act promptly and effectively in the interests of peace and order in Palestine,” declared Dr. Stephen S. Wise in an interview with the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency here, commenting on the events in Palestine.
“This outbreak could have been averted if the Colonial Palestine administration were mindful of the gravity of permitting the Arabs to pursue a seditious and incendiary propaganda.
“In October 1928 was the time to put a limit to the outbreaks, when the Palestine officials, under orders, attacked the Jewish worshippers at the Wailing Wall and violated the service of the holiest day of the Jewish year. Those responsible for that misconduct should have been severely punished, not only the policeman, but his superior. The Zionist leadership naturally discouraged the solemn warnings of those who foresaw the consequences of the incident. Despite the warnings of the Jewish population and the polite remonstrances of the Zionist Executive, the Arabs were permitted to build a superconstructure upon the so-called Arab part of the Wailing Wall and also to effect a direct passage from the Haram to the Wailing Wall enclosure. By this means thousands of Arabs can directly penetrate from the Grand Mosque to the Wailing Wall passage crowded with Jewish worshippers.
“It was a shortsighted and unstatesmanlike policy which the Zionist Executive ought to have made clear to the Colonial Office. The Jewish people in Palestine are reverential of the Moslem and Christian sanctities and claim only one Holy Place. The Wailing Wall was the holiest of holy shrines of worship for the nineteen centuries of Jewish dispersion. The Jewish people is entitled under the British mandate to that security for exercising their religion as are all other forms of religious worship.
“We rest not our case on law alone. The Jewish people made with the British a solemn pact by the Balfour Declaration and are not to be sacrificed at the altar of the seeming necessity of appeasing the Indo-Moslems and the Arabs. We are entitled to expect the British government to do with (Continued on Page 12)
vigor and despatch before the events what it does after the events.
“The events and horror of the last days will recur again unless Great Britain serves notice to the Arab leaders that the Mandatory Power under the League of Nations will not tolerate a contravention of its purpose to facilitate in the establishment of the Jewish National Home. That made clear and the Palestine officers loyal, there will be little likelihood for the renewal of outbreaks.
“This policy is more just to the Arabs than the confounded overpatience, infirmity and timidity of the Palestine administration. The wounds can be healed. British honor can be redeemed if the British government will at last fully execute the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate in accordance with their spirit and letter,” Dr. Wise concluded.
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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.
