Guest Editorial

President, American Economic Committee for Palestine

A few days ago a significant decision was taken by a group of Palestine organizations. The General Federation of Jewish Labor of Palestine (Histadruth), Manufacturers’ Association, the Municipality of Tel Aviv, the General Zionists of Palestine, the Joint Committee for Settlement of German Jews, the German Immigrants Association and the Tel Aviv Chamber of Commerce designated the Palestine Bureau of the American Economic Committee for Palestine as the official body for the dissemination of industrial and commercial information to Jews in Palestine and throughout the Diaspora. About six months ago the same Bureau was designated by the Farmers Federation, the General Federation of Jewish Labor (Histadruth), the General Zionists of Palestine, the Hitachduth Olei Germania, the Hitachduth Olei Polania, and the Kibutz Gluyoth (Russian group) to serve as the centralized information service for agriculture, horticulture and land purchase. These bodies represent every type of Jewish economic effort—labor, industry, commerce, agriculture and horticulture. What has brought about such unity of action among organizations which heretofore could find no common basis for joint action? For answer we must return to the Passfield White Paper, the Hope-Simpson Report and the decisions taken at the 17th World Zionist Congress, Basle.

Passfield declared that the economic capacity of Palestine to absorb new immigrants must be judged entirely by “the position of Palestine as a whole in regard to unemployment”; that in the light of this principle the action of the British Government in suspending the Jewish labor schedule in May 1930 was fully justified; that in the circumstances a decision in regard to more unrestricted Jewish immigration was to be strongly deprecated; and that so long as there was a widespread suspcion among the Arabs that the then existing economic depression was largely due to excessive Jewish immigration the relations of the two races could not be hoped to improve.

Hope-Simpson, in his Report (August, 1930), concluded—

1. That there was no margin of land available for agricultural settlement by new immigrants, except such lands as were held in reserve by various Jewish agencies. From this conclusion it followed that agriculture offered no field for the economic absorption of new Jewish immigrants into Palestine.

2. That since any attempt to establish sizeable or large industries must fail and since the country was suitable only for the smaller types of industry, it was useless to look to industry as a means of absorbing any appreciable number of Jewish immigrants into the economic structure of Palestine.

3. That the citrus area was increasing too rapidly and that there was danger of a serious setback in this field. Therefore, the horticultural field could not be relied on as an absorptive factor.

4. That as his, Hope-Simpson’s investigation disclosed serious Arab and Jewish unemployment it was clearly the duty of the Government to prevent further Jewish immigration into Palestine.

To Passfield’s declaration of policy and Hope-Simpson’s conclusions, the Jewish Agency countered with a declaration which, in the light of subsequent events, is remarkable for its insight and clarity. The Jewish Agency said:

“What really defines the possibilities of future Jewish industry in Palestine is a factor which has not yet received sufficient attention and which indeed is not yet, to its full extent, known even to the Jews themselves: It is the human factor. The fundamental question is not: Where are we going to take the power? Nor: What raw materials are available? Not even, although it is an important question: What are the best markets? The fundamental question is: Are there Jews, and how many of them are there, who are prepared to immigrate to Palestine if sufficiently encouraged, or at least not discouraged, and who will bring with them sufficient capital and adequate business experience, but preferably a sufficient knowledge of a particular industry in order to set up industries which may, each in its own line, compete with similar industries; and are there other Jews who are prepared to immigrate into Palestine to supply the skilled and unskilled labor required? … It is the contention of the Zionists that such Jews do exist and that they are available in large numbers, that they clamor for admittance and that in settling in Palestine they will not drive out the Arab population that it holds at present.”

And to this declaration the late Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff added his voice—

“Jewish enterprise in Palestine is the result of a conscious effort of various groups and individuals to cooperate for the purpose of the National Home; it is based on the influx of Jewish capital—public and private—and should therefore provide the natural center of absorption for Jewish labor.”

The issue was therefore clear. In the view of Passfield and Hope-Simpson it was futile to look to agriculture, horticulture or industry as fields for increasing the economic absorptive capacity of the country. To this view the Seventeenth Zionist World Congress gave an emphatic NO. It adopted what is now known as the “Economic Program”, so clearly foreshadowed and defined by Justice Brandeis in 1920. In effect it said to Passfield and Hope-Simpson and to the British Government —”In each of the Palestine economic fields—agriculture, horticulture, industry and commerce— the economic absorptive power can be accelerated and, what is more, we mean to do it.”

And what happened? The net average annual Jewish immigration into Palestine from 1926 to 1931 inclusive was 2,167. The net average immigration for 1932 and 1933 (seven months of 1933 estimated) will, according to present indications, amount to 15,000-17,000 persons. The private capital brought to and invested in Palestine during 1932 in industrial, commercial and citricultural industries, exclusive of new bank deposits, amounted to at least £3,250,000. The industrial and horticultural inquiries handled by the Tel Aviv Bureau of the American Economic Committee for Palestine for the period of March 15 to June 20, 1933, alone amounted to £625,000.

Not only is there no Jewish unemployment but there is no Arab unemployment. Indeed, there is a shortage of both classes of labor. Well may the Near East and India, semi-official publication of the British Colonial Office, assert “the fact remains that the Arabs are becoming increasingly conscious of the economic benefits that Jewish immigration has brought them and are fitting themselves to make more use of their opportunities, to the general advantage of the country.”

It was for the implementation of the idea underlying this statesman-like decision that the activities of the American Economic Committee for Palestine were initiated. With its economic staff in New York and in Tel Aviv, it has set out to find, and did find, those Jews with the capital and industrial and business experience the Jewish Agency was so sure about, to the end that the doors of Palestine might be opened to those other Jews “who are prepared to immigrate into Palestine to supply the skilled and unskilled labor required.” It has served industry, serving Jews in Palestine and throughout the world with reliable information and adequate economic data in every field of Palestine economy and is making an important contribution to the coordination and regulation of economic effort. Now comes the heartening and significant news that by designating the American Economic Committee as the official economic instrumentality such diverse bodies as I have named, which represent perhaps the most important cross-section of the Yishub, have for the first time in the history of Jewish Palestine joined hands in a common effort to create a Jewish Department of commerce for Palestine.