Royal Commission of Inquiry in Palestine Demanded by Revisionists in Criticizing Inquiry Commission

A demand for a Royal Commission of Inquiry in Palestine is made by the executive of the World Union of Zionist Revisionists, opposition to the Weizmann regime, in a memorandum criticizing the Palestine Inquiry Commission’s report, and issued by the Revisionist headquarters here. The memorandum points out that pending the appointment of “a Commission of major policy directed to examine the Palestine problem from the larger British and international viewpoints as well as from the Jewish world position, the report of the Commission on the Palestine disturbances cannot be allowed to serve as guidance for any legislative or administrative measures affecting the development of the Jewish National Home.”

The Revisionists concur with the findings and conclusions of the Inquiry Commission only in its demand for clarity and definition. The statement declares that a “work such as the reconstituting of a National Home, in the words of the preamble to the Mandate cannot proceed haphazardly and without plan. It cannot proceed without the good-will and active cooperation of the Governmental authority. It is a work calling for a knowledge and an understanding of conditions—political, economic and psychological, and a determination to use such knowledge for the attainment of the agreed objective.

LACK OF AUTHORITY FORESEEN

“It was foreseen, even before the publication of the Report, that the inquiry of the Commissioners could not be authoritative, excepting in matters coming within their actual terms of reference. It is important to recall the carefully worded letter, published in the “Times” of December 20, over the signatures of the late Lord Balfour, Lloyd George and General Smuts, declaring that it seems clear that, whatever the finding of the commission may be on the responsibility for the August outbreaks, the work to which Britain set her hand at the close of the War is not proceeding satisfactorily, and that in these circumstances we would urge on the Government the appointment of an authoritative Commission to investigate the whole working of the Mandate.

COMMISSION WOULD BE AD

“Such a Commission would be an advertisement to the world that Britain has not weakened in a task to which her honor is pledged, and at the same an assurance to Jews and Arabs alike that any proven defects in the present system of Government will be made good.

“The tendencies, already manifest in the activities of the Palestine and British Government, to carry into effect some of the recommendations of the Palestine Inquiry Commission, as evidenced by the creation of an Agricultural Committee composed of Palestine Government officials, and the appointment of Sir John Hope Simpson to report on immigration and land settlement, must be regarded with apprehension.”

The memorandum on the immigration question says “the majority of the Commissioners appear to be anxious to cut fine, as much as possible, the meshes through which Jews should be able to find their way into Palestine. It is evident also in the section dealing with immigration that the Commissioners are not wholly satisfied to leave immigration to be measured by the ‘absorptive capacity’ of the country, but are anxious to introduce as many difficulties and complications as possible in regard to Jewish immigration. This is clear from the scarcely veiled suggestion that the Arabs should be allowed a decisive voice on the question of immigration.”

NO EVIDENCE OF DISPOSSESSED PEASANTRY

The Revisionists’ memorandum also has considerable to say on other points in the Commission’s report. On the land question the memorandum points out that “the report adduces no evidence whatever, apart from surmises to prove the growth of a dispossessed Arab peasantry. No evidence whatever was produced or quoted of a single case of eviction. The Commission accepted the Arab contention without evidence.

“The Commission omits to mention the very serious discrepancy between their own figures and those of the Jews in respect to the available cultivable land in Palestine. This omission is significant in view of the fact that the Jews most strenuously contest the reliability of the Commissioners’ figures and conclusions.

JEWISH COLONIZATION PRODUCES CHANGE

“The report says that Palestine cannot support a larger agricultural population than it at present carries, unless methods of farming undergo a radical change . . . but it does not attach sufficient importance to the evidence produced that it is precisely Jewish colonization that produces this radical change. The Commission ignores the fact that a large proportion of the land settled by the Jews was originally malarial swamp, or sund-rune, such as the Kishon district, Tel Aviv, etc., converted now into prosperous orange-groves or townships.

“The Commission has ignored, in their entirety, the international obligations involved in the Mandate. They have ignored the fact that without adequate immigration, there can be no Jewish National Home and no fulfillment of the terms of the Mandate. They seem to have lost sight of the fact that the international sanction for British Administration of Palestine is made possible only by British acceptance of the obligation to facilitate the creation of the Jewish National Home, and that the Mandate is the real justification of British authority over Palestine.

“The Report looks for a solution of the disturbing conditions only in the direction of concessions to the Arabs, without regard to their Jewish disadvantage. It fails altogether to envisage solutions that would make possible an increased absorptive capacity, thus allowing for that immigration to which the Jews are entitled according to the letter and implications of the Mandate.

REPORT CONDEMNATION OF JEWS’ WORK

“The Commissioners’ establishment of Arab culpability in the attack cannot be allowed to compensate for all the accusations and unfounded imputations against the Jewish work of national upbuilding in Palestine,” the statement continues. “Indeed, if one forgets for a moment the Commissioners’ admission of Arab blame for the outbreak, the Report will be found to be an unqualified and unreasoned condemnation of all that has been done by the Jews to reconstruct, make habitable and civilize a country on the fringe of the desert, and never very far removed from its barbarism. The Commissioners go still further; they indicate lines along which the work of Jewish upbuilding may be impeded, made difficult and eventually arrested.

“They threw themselves, without the necessary qualifications or experience, into a labyrinth of agricultural, economic and psychological problems. Without a land survey, they propose agricultural measures aimed admittedly against Jewish agricultural development; without a water survey they draw conclusions as to the possibilities of irrigation upon which so much depends; and without taking into account the Jewish genius for industry and commerce, they take up the prophetic mantle in order to predict a Palestine in which industry and markets are so limited and restricted as to make impossible that immigration upon which the evolution of the Jewish National Home and the implementation of the Mandate depend.”