which there is no Jewish settlement or development, the increase of the Arab population was only eight per cent. The same applies to Jericho. In Gaba, and generally in the South, the Arab population actually decreased. In view of the statement often made that Jewish development is pushing the Arabs off the soil of Palestine, it is interesting to note that, if we take those Arab villages whose populations show the greatest increases, we find that the overwhelming majority of these villages are near, and some in the very midst of, Jewish settlement areas.
The view that Arabs themselves hold on the question is best indicated by the insistent demands from many quarters in Trans-Jordan that Jews should be allowed to settle here, and help to develop the country for the benefit of the Arabs. An interesting comment on the situation is also afforded by the Arag workers of the Jaffa harbor, who, while ready to join in political demonstrations against Jewish immigration, threatened to come out on strike when it was suggested that the debarkation of Jewish immigrants should be diverted from Jaffa to Haifa.
It is clear that the organized anti-immigration campaigns among Arabs are not rooted in the facts of the economic life of Palestine or in the actual needs of its inhabitants. Thanks to Jewish immigration, the conditions of the population of this country has improved beyond comparison with the lot of the inhabitants of the neighboring countries. Jewish immigration has been instrumental in placing at the disposal of the Palestine government large financial resources with which the government has been providing improved public services for the good of the entire population. By relentless efforts in the face of serious obstacles, the Jewish people has opened up, in the course of fifty years’ work, vast possibilities of work and settlements for itself while benefiting the country as a whole. It is primarily due to Jewish immigration that this country has been brought, amidst conditions of a world-wide economic depression, to a state of prosperity hardly paralleled elsewhere.
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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.
