What the Arab Executive Told the Mandates Commission

The Arab Executive has just published its “Report on the State of Palestine during Four Years of Civil Administration”, submitted to the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations. The Report states:

“The Palestine Arabs met this oppressive policy with patience. Their opposition has been conducted on constitutional methods. But this attitude of theirs has been both misrepresented by the Government and misunderstood by the Mandatory. The daily slight frictions between Arab and Jew, whose ideas, principles, customs and modes of life take diametrically divergent lines cultivate and solidify hatred between both communities, and there most come a time when it will accumulate to such a degree as to defy all moral or political restraints. It is a gross error to believe that Arab and Jew may come to an understanding if only each of them exchanges his coat of extremism for another of moderation. When the principles underlying two movements do clash, it is futile to expect their meeting halfway.

“The Zionist policy is best described by Dr. Eder, ex-chairman of the Zionist Executive in Palestine when he was asked to do so by the Court of Inquiry for the Juffa disturbances of May 1921: “There can only be one National Home in Palestine, and that a Jewish one, and no equality in the partnership between Jews and Arabs, but a Jewish predominance as soon as the number of that race are sufficiently increased’.

“The Arab demand may be summed up in the following words. The establishment in Palestine of a National Constitutional Government in which the two communities, Arab and Jewish, will be represented in proportion to their numbers as they existed before the application of the Zionist Policy.”