Many Arabs Feel Delegation to London Will Do No Good, Even if It Does No Harm

Many Arabs are of the opinion that the appointment of a special Arab delegation, composed of four Moslems and one Christian, to go to London to defend the Arab cause against Zionism will do no good, even if it does no harm, writes Dr. Alexander Mombelli from Jerusalem to the “National Catholic Welfare Council News Sheet” of March 10. Some Arabs still believe that the delegation would be doing more profitable work if it went to Mecca at the time of the Moslem pilgrimage and collected funds with which to start, in Arab countries, companies which would purchase the lands of Palestine, and to establish religious funds for the benefit of schools and holy places.

There are still other Arabs who, according to Dr. Mombelli, believe that the delegation would do more good if it went to Iraq and Nejd and explained to Ibn Saud and to the Bagdad government the importance in keeping Palestine Arabic. The words which these two kings would address to the British representatives at the coming Arab-British meeting would have more influence than twenty delegations sent by a small Arab community to England, it is argued.

This Arab delegation is opposed by the Jews on the ground that two of its members are Government officials; reports Dr. Mombelli, and they demand that they resign immediately their official places, if they intend to go to London to oppose the interests of the Jewish community recognized by the Mandate. The two members referred to are the Grand Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini, who is not only a leader of the Arab movement but also one of the senior officials of the Government of Palestine, and Ragheb Bey Nashashibi, Mayor of Jerusalem. The Jews have supported the election of Nashashibi for three years and now they threaten to withdraw their Councillors from the Municipality if he does not withdraw either from the delegation or the office as Mayor. However, the Government, in its recent publication of an ordinance postponing for three years the election of the Palestine Municipal Council, seems to have taken an action supporting the Mayor’s decision to go to London. Because of this postponement, says Dr. Mombelli, the Mayor need not fear the threatened opposition of the Jews, which, for him, would be serious if he had to be reconfirmed in office at this time.

In discussing the Palestine problems as a whole, the Arab press declares openly that the natives are not fighting the Balfour Declaration alone, but the Mandate as well. Dr. Mombelli quotes the following from “Jamia Al Arabia,” a leading Arab newspaper:

“Those who spend their energies and their efforts in fighting the Balfour Declaration, without realizing the greatest danger of the Mandate, are not serving their nation in the truest way The hate which the Arabs feel for the Mandate proves that they are seekers after full independence. We don’t want the rule of a foreign government, no matter what that government’s colors may be. But, by asking for independence, we do not mean that we cherish in our breasts hate for that government from which this grant of independence is to come. The scrapping of the Mandate would create strong ties of friendship between the Arab nation and the British nation. The Arab nation, as a living nation, has natural and political rights to complete independence. The Arab nation cannot be satisfied with the abolition of the Balfour Declaration alone. The Mandate, too, must go. The Arab nation asks to be free to live free in her own country.”