“The beneficial effect of Jewish immigration is reflected not only in modernized Arab agriculture, but also in a remarkable expansion of Arab urban settlements. The 1931 government census shows a great increase in Arab population in the cities, with a resulting rise in building, commericial and industrial activities. On the other hand, in Arab centers removed from Jewish influence real estate and improvements have shrunk in value.
ARABS SWARM HOLY LAND
“The most convincing proof of the economic improvement experienced by the Arabs is the fact that formenly thousands of Arabs emigrated annually. Today Arab immigrants are drawn to Palestine from other countries. Between the censuses of 1922 and 1931 the Arab population grew by 225,000, or forty percent. A further illustration is the sharp reduction in the number of nomadic Arabs. These inveterate wanderers of the desert cannot resist the powerful attraction of the thriving urban and rural settlements where the opportunities for labor are, due to Jewish enterprise, plentiful.
“Moreover, the benefits from Jewish immigration are not exclusively of an economic nature. Practically the entire government appropriation for education goes toward the maintenance of Arab schools. The Jews support their educational system from private funds. As a result illiteracy is disappearing among the Arabs. Of even greater benefit to the Arabs have been the Jewish medical services. The prevalence of trachoma, malaria, enteric diseases and typhoid has shown a steady decline in the last decade.
A LABOR SHORTAGE
“Not only is Jewish immigration being speedily absorbed, but there is a shortage of labor, both Arab and Jewish necessitating the importation{SPAN}{/SPAN}Jewish immigration has resulted in an increase of the number of Arab industrial workers. From 1924 to 1928 their numbers rose by about 6,000, of whom 2,000 were employed in Jewish enterprises, representing twenty percent of the employees of Jewish capital, while the Arabs employ practically no Jews.”
The survey concludes with the following quotation from Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald:
“The land of Palestine is held by large owners, and the same class has concentrated in its hands the ownership of towns, the employment of labor, and trade. More than that; it has ruled, collected taxes, led an obedient people. All this is threatened…
“The winds of Europe are blowing in upon them and they cannot stand the cutting blast. They see the coming shadow of a cultivator protected in his labor and property, they see the end of unjust exactions, they see their power vanishing and they are fighting for their lives…. We must not hesitate to speak over their heads to the Arab population and bind it to us by the justice of our administration….”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
