Commenting on the recent clashes between Jews and Arabs in Palestine over illegal immigration, The Near East and India, published here, warns that serious trouble may again occur “unless more definite action is taken in the matter by the government.”
The magazine says the situation is complicated by Jewish allegations of a considerable immigration of Arabs from the Hauran, Syria, and elsewhere, but points out that the government’s report for 1933 stated there was little basis for the suggestion of an excessive migration of Arabs from Transjordania to Palestine.
“Probably the increasing prosperity of Palestine has been responsible during the current year,” the article continues, “for a larger Arab immigration, and it would seem as if a part of the government’s large reserve fund would now have to be devoted to the unproductive expenditure of a more effective policing of the coast line and land frontiers.
“If it be the case that groups of as many as forty persons have been found to have landed on the coast, it must be inferred that there is a fairly extensive organization behind some of the illicit immigration.”
In another place The Near East and India declares “the report that the illicit entry of Jews still amounts to a thousand a month suggests that other measures than the expulsion of offenders will be necessary before the evil is coped with successfully.”
“Clandestine landings” were of daily occurrence, the article asserts.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.