Arab distrust and despair rekindled by the recent parliamentary debates on the Legislative Council is the basic fact of the present Arab disorders in Palestine, Great Britain and the East, semi-official organ of the Colonial Office, declares in its current issue.
“None can have been surprised by the disorders in Palestine, brutal though some of them have been, except these who believed the story that superficial prosperity meant popular content,” the journal declares.
“Two things in particular have been affected by the outbreaks of violence: the plan for an Arab delegation to come to London to discuss with the Colonial Secretary the projected Legislative Council, and the Levant Fair. Yet no special cause need be sought for all these strikes and demonstrations and clashes with the police.
“If a Commission were appointed to investigate this most recent manifestation of Arab discontent with the position in Palestine,” the periodical continues, “it could not probe deeper, nor find other causes, than did the Shaw Commission of Inquiry after the riots in 1929. That Commission, together with the examinations of Sir John Hope Simpson, went down to realities and those realities, remain.
“Sympathize how you will — and most people will deeply sympathize — with the defenseless Jew when he is attacked by a primitive Arab,” the magazine writes, “you cannot get away from the over-riding fact that not all the efforts of the Palestine Government, nor all the wealth of the Zionists, have even begun to procure the reconciliation of the Arabs to their present lot that alone would banish the possibility of recurrent trouble.
“If the present disorders have been comparatively restricted, it is due to the unceasing vigilance of the Palestine Administration. Quite certainly these outbreaks did not catch the Government unawares. There has been much criticism, in certain Jewish quarters, of the supineness of the Mandatory Power in face of brutal onslaught, but, happily, better informed Zionist officials have acknowledged the speed and efficiency of official efforts to circumscribe the troubles. The Jenin disorders last year were the symptom of an ugly spirit abroad, and only the sincere endeavours of the High Commissioner to find a political via media temporarily allayed the situation. Unfortunately, the parliamentary debates on the Legislative Council swung back the pendulum to the former attitude of distrust and despair.
“Fail to recognize this basic fact,” the journal concludes, “and you fail to understand the hodiernal position of Palestine.”
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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.
