Our Palestine Problems

This is the concluding section of Professor Brodetsky’s analysis of problems of Palestine problems today. The first section appeared on this page yesterday.

There is so much lack of understanding of the fundamentals associated with Palestine, that a question like the following has been asked in quarters, and by individuals, that should be better informed:

If the Jewish population of Palestine may be increased by immigration, why should not the Arab population be increased by immigration?”

This shows a complete misunderstanding of the essence of the Mandate. The Mandate is based upon the historic connection of the Jewish people with Palestine, and upon the policy announced in the Balfour Declaration of building up the Jewish National Home. The Mandate lays it down that Jewish immigration shall be encouraged by the Mandatory Power and, even if the Mandate had not contained this provision, it would have been a natural and logical consequence of the very conception of building up a Jewish National Home, for, obviously, Jews can build up a National Home in Palestine only by going there Not to ensure an adequate Jewish immigration would be making a Jewish National Home impossible.

NO ARAB PROBLEM

The Mandate does not provide for an Arab National Home in Palestine. There is no need for an Arab National Home there. There is no Arab problem comparable to the Jewish dispersion; there is no persecution of Arabs comparable to the persecution of Jews. In the large areas where the Arabs live they are at home as individuals and as nations.

In most countries we are not at home as individuals and in all countries we are not at home as a nation. Palestine is to be the personal home of as many Jews as can settle there, the National Home of the Jewish Nation: and so Jewish immigration must be encouraged, and every possibility of Jewish immigration must be made use of.

Moreover, Jewish immigration into Palestine is not the result of any benevolent act on the part of a government, or of an act of hospitality on the part of our neighbors in Palestine. Jewish immigration into Palestine is the consequence of our efforts for over half a century, doubled in the post war period, and trebled and quadrupled in the last two years. Immigration has been in consequence of Jewish enterprise, capital, and energy. It has been the motive for Jewish enterprise, capital, and energy. It has been the accompaniment of an unprecedented and voluntary effort made by a dispersed and deeply stricken people, under voluntary conditions. It has been this immigration, with its concomitant development of Palestine that has raised Palestine to its present status; prepared Palestine for fresh immigration; given it a specially favored position among all the countries of the Middle East.

Jewish immigration has been the main and decisive element in the rapid development of Palestine; in the phenomenal increase of its Arab population; in the unfolding of the possibilities of wealth latent in its soil and in its springs. This immigration has made deserts fruitful, drained marshes, wiped out diseases, increased the output of agriculture, created industry, expanded commerce, raised the standard of living in Palestine, given it a new lease of life, enriched the treasury of the government, and so released the Arab fellaheen from most of their taxes.

A GUARD AGAINST DESERT

It is this immigration that is guarding Palestine from the devastation of the desert, and standing up as a bulwark of civilization, at the same time serving as a channel between the civilization of Europe, and that fifty per cent. of humanity that lives in the East and South of Asia. It is this immigration that has made the Arabs of Palestine enjoy life as they have never enjoyed it before, and it is this immigration which we ask shall be maintained at the highest possible level consistent with the good of Palestine itself.

There is surely no rhyme or

This is the concluding section of Professor Brodetsky’s analysis of problems of Palestine problems today. The first section appeared on this page yesterday.