When Israel Comes Home

“Mademoiselle, I would like a little information.”

“About what?”

“About the Zionist work.”

“You are a delegate from…?”

“Nowhere.”

“A journalist?”

“Not even that.”

“A. simple tourist?”

The fair-haired girl rose from the keyboard of her typewriter.

“Would you mind waiting a moment?”

She disappeared into the hallways of the Zionist information bureau of Tel Aviv.

I had been told: Go there without any recommendation or title. They will answer all your questions. They will show you the books, the statistics, everything you want to see. They are so proud, you see, to give proof of their progress.

The fair-haired Jewess returned.

“Will you come with me?”

In a big room, where the large fascinating portrait of Theodore Herzl was hung in the center of a panel, I sat down in front of a desk. On the other side a small, dark man, with horn-rimmed glasses awaited my questions.

“The English, I believe, limit Jewish immigration into Palestine,” I said. “Would you mind telling me upon what basis this limitation is established; that is, what are the conditions required of the Jews before they are permitted to establish themselves here?”

“Just one condition: a bank deposit of pound 1,000. The mandatory government demands that the newcomers have sufficient funds so that the country should not be invaded by a wave of paupers.”

IMMIGRATION

“But most of those who seek refuge here are people who have been persecuted, people who certainly are not bringing a fortune from the countries they leave. Have they, then, all got the thousand pounds that are so necessary for their situation? What if they have not?”

“If they have not got it, they can still come in, but only in limited number. The government permits us 2,000 certificates of entry a semester, to be distributed among the candidates of this class.” “But in times of persecution and pogrom, you must have a far greater number of demands than you can fill?”

“Of course. In such cases, we attempt to obtain certificates of exception for the refugees from such and such a country.”

“The Hitlerist persecution must have greatly increased the number of refugees from Germany, I take it?”

“There were 3,000 certificates of exception.”

“I have been told that at this moment more than 6,000 German Jews took refugee here. Is that true?”

“Yes. In the month of September, we registered 4,000 entries. It is this immigration, you know, that is provoking discontent among the Arabs.”

“Of the 6,000 Jews who have entered, you asy 3,000 obtained certificates of exception. But how were the other 3,000 able to leap the obstacle of the bank deposit of pound 1,000 if, as has been reported, they are prohibited from taking more than 200 marks out of Germany? Is that report about the 200 marks true?”

RELATIVES, SOCIETIES AID

“Quite true. But do not forget that they have relatives, and that there are societies to aid them. Many German emigrants had a fair-sized fortune there; therefore, they were able to get loans.”

“But doesn’t their fortune remain behind them? Isn’t taking out Jewish capital forbidden?”

“The Jewish Agency is taking up this question with Germany. An understanding is being reached. The retirement of Jewish capital is forbidden, but a certain restitution is permitted in the form of merchandise. That is why at the present time Germany furnishes us with agricultural machinery to the extent of pound 3,000,000.

The words “agricultural machinery” reminded me of another aspect of the Palestinian question–the delicate problem of the division of the immigrants. As everyone knows, agricultural colonization is the first point of the Zionist program. But these refugees, coming from all classes, most of whom have never held a rake, could not possibly be led out into the fields…

“No doubt,” my interlocutor told me, “most of these refugees never held a rake in their lives, but don’t forget that this return to the soil is much easier, much healthier, much more agreeable than is commonly believed. I could give you many examples of intellectuals who would not consent for anything in the world to drop the rake, once they have learned its use. Besides, do not lose sight of the fact that driving a tractor, or a mowing machine, requires no muscular effort. Do you know of the marvellous machine called the harvester, which, on the field, reaps, threshes and binds the wheat?

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

“But I could give you another answer. For the non-farmers, for those who feel that they have really no taste, no inclination for the soil (and there is still the great farm that needs headworkers to direct it) we have our Immigrants’ House in the cities, where they are greeted and where an attempt ismade to find work for them. The manufacturers and engineers have to direct our textile and chemical industries. You no doubt know of the development that has occurred in our chemical industries because of Palestine’s extraordinary abundance of phosphate, potassium, bromine, magnesium. People often speak of the prosperity of our agricultural colonies, but one must not forget the progress of our industry. Do you know that ten years ago, we had only 270 factories, with a capital of pound 1,000,000, and that today we have 750 factories with a capital of pound 4,500,000?”

“For the doctors, we have our clinics, our sanitoria, our hospitals. For the teachers, there are the schools, the 250 Jewish schools in which the number of children is constantly increasing. For the women, for the girls, we offer our “feminine farms” (operated only by women), the agricultural schools, the domestic art schools, the courses in alimentation and restaurant keeping. And besides, the hospitals need nurses, and the kindergartens, and the nurseries…

“You see, we have something for all tastes. We can give work to everyone. And everyone works here. No idleness, no unemployment. The word itself sounds funny to us. Do you know that Palestine is the only country in the world where nobody speaks of unemployment or of depression?”

“Look, I’ll tell you how ‘unemployed’ we are. Let us leave agriculture alone, for you already know how we need more workers there, and let us take our example in the class so hard hit in all the cities of the world, the workers at urban construction. Do you know that here in Tel Aviv, where more than 100 houses are built each month, every brick is put in place in some building one hour after it is manufactured? It is impossible to fill the demand, so great is the lack of workers. And there is not one building under construction that has not been paid for in advance, in which the last apartment has not been rented before the first brick is put into place.”

My interlocutor seized a large book from his desk and began turning the pages. I scented statistics, long tables of statistics, I have an instinctive fear of that sort of thing, just as, in college, I was afraid of my logarithm tables. Without waiting, I snatched upon a way out:

ABSORPTION CAPACITY

“There is a preliminary question,” I said. “This Palestine, hardly larger than a French department, does not have the capacity of unlimited absorption. I don’t think that the Zionists dream of grouping the 15,000,000 Jews into this, our country, but I am curious to know what is, according to your plan, the saturation point for Palestine.” “I will answer you with a historical fact,” she answered. “Joseph, the famous historian who was more or less a contemporary of Christ, established the fact that Galilee alone, in the time of her fertility, nourished 3,000,000 people.”

“Shall I conclude, then, that in your estimation 3,000,000 people could live here again?”

“I only cited this number as an example, to show you that Palestine is far from containing the population she once knew. What the Jewish population here will be twenty, fifty or a hundred years from now we cannot tell. What we do know is that, among the 15,000,000 Jews scattered throughout the world, there is great misery, a misery–I give the word all its anguishing meaning–that is found throughout our race. Leaving aside those who come here of their own accord, without any definite necessity for coming, but simply out of a spirit of nationalism, the question of how many others there are who would like to seek asylum here we cannot answer exactly.”

“Another thing. What organization here controls this immigration, separates it and subsidizes it?”

“That is the role of the Jewish Agency, or Zionist Organization, which has two great main-springs, what you might call two ‘ministries.’ The first of these institutions is the Keren Kayemeth–Jewish National Fund–which buys land and improves it. The second is the Keren Hayesod–construction fund–which interests itself more particularly in the colonists, and separates them, loaning them money for building homes or farms, or for buying agricultural material.”

“One last question. That is, if you don’t think it indiscreet…” “For us, no question is indiscreet.”

“Then I would like to know the source of these funds which you speak about. How and from where is the money collected?”

“The Zionist funds are collected throughout the world, from all the Jewish communities, by campaigns, by subscriptions, gifts, and bequests. Representatives of the Keren Kayemeth are collecting money in sixty countries.”

“Are these gifts large? Do they constitute an important part of the fund?”

“I must tell you frankly that the famous ‘Jewish solidarity’ of which the whole Occident so often speaks does not correspond very fully to the idea that you people have. We are far from being understood and upheld by all the Jews, among whom Zionism has almost as many opponents as it has among the non-Jews. The truth is disheartening, but we do not attempt to hide it. Many Jews, an enormous number, do not wish to coperate with us, either because of greed, or because of skepticism (they call this Palestinian adventure a utopian dream!) or because, ‘assimilated’ in their own adopted countries, they fear that the awakening of the Jewish nationality will have an injurious effect on their interests. But luckily, I hasten to add, side by side with these there are others who uphold us with great generosity. No doubt the funds that we collected, amounting to a total sum of pound 8,000,000, could have been greater, but they are already sufficient to assure the progress of a movement that nothing in the world can stop now.”