Efforts to Reconcile Arab Parties in Palestine

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)

The efforts by the Egyptian scholar, Ahmed Zaki Pasha, to reconcile the Arab parties in Palestine have failed and any further efforts which may be made are bound to fail because the parties are quarrelling for position and influence and do not consider the public interest, the Arab paper, “Fata Ularab,” writes.

The present Arab parties, it says, are the cause of the political, moral and economic decline of Palestine and are responsible for the nation’s failure and division.

“There are as many parties in Palestine as there are ambitious leaders. None of them has a definite program. They have no principles in common, each party being a group of persons united by common interests. The principal parties are the following:

“The Arab Executive Party which in reality does not exist any longer and whose members continue to call themselves the Executive of the Palestine Arab Congress. The President, Musa Kazen Pasha, is upright, sincere, loyal to the national cause, but incompetent to hold the reins of affairs and to guide the nation. Those who have described him as a Derwish are right.

“The National Party, presided over by Tajeddin Alfaruky, also an incompetent man, who was the first to withdraw from the Arab Executive. This party has no definite aims, and its mouth piece is “Meratt Ul Sherk,” published in Jerusalem.

“The Agricultural Party founded by Abdul Lafit Abu Hantash, an illiterate, whose past is well known and whose reputation is not good in the country for the welfare of which he cares nothing. IN such conditions the Agricultural Party is not worthy of being called a party.

“The Village Mutual Association founded by Sheikh Alshukeiry and certain members of the Almadi family. Alshukeiry was one of the men of the tyrant Jamaal Pasha and is partly responsible for all the misfortunes suffered by the Arab youth during the war.

“The Democratic Party whose founder is Abdul Latif Salah, member of the Moslem Supreme Council. The reason for its foundation is Abdul Latif’s desire to consolidate his position in that Council. Being democratic, this party has no president.

“None of these parties has a man fit to assume the nation’s leadership, nor an enlightened person to guide the nation with wisdom and sagacity,” the paper writes. “It is regrettable that the nation should remain lost in the desert, not knowing what direction to take.

“Profiting by this confusion and this childish discord the Zionists are proceeding to establish their National Home on a sound basis. They have already acquired the most fertile lands where their settlementse are built. We may say that the sea coast from Ras-Nakura up to Beer-Sheba is almost in Jewish hands. The Zionists are also gaining control on Palestine’s trade and industry, so that nothing will remain to the Arab of the resources of their country,” the paper concludes.