Leonard Stein

“ The express assurances which the Balfour Declaration contains with regard to the non-Jewish population are no more than a formal acknowledgment of claims which are by common consent inherently valid, and which there is in no quarter the smallest disposition to question. ”

“ It is, again, no accident that foremost among the small body of its British patrons and advisers are gentlemen whose writings on subjects unconnected with Palestine breathe an anti-Semitism redolent of the best German tradition, and whose pronounced views on the Government of Egyptians, Indians, and other Eastern races suggest that in making a somewhat conspicuous exception in favour of Palestine, they are actuated by quite other motives than enthusiasm for the Arab cause. ”

“ He has been a great helper of our cause, and I hope the Arabs may soon be in a position to make the Jews some return for their kindness. We are working together for a reformed and revived Near East, and our two movements complete one another. The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist. Our movement is national and not imperialist. ”

“ On the faith of the pledges which Great Britain is so lightly being asked to dishonour, Jews throughout the world are already consecrating themselves to Palestine with an ardour and devotion which sufficiently bespeak the firmness of their resolve. Since the British Occupation, upwards of two million pounds have been poured into Palestine by Jewish public bodies, to say nothing of the large sums made available for Jewish colonisation by the munificence of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, and the still larger amounts of capital brought into the country by Jewish private enterprise. ”

“ The statement that they are a "burden on the community" is wholly fictitious. The immigrants, if temporarily unemployed, are provided for exclusively from Jewish funds, and have not cost the country a piastre. It is equally untrue that they "deprive the Arab of his daily bread," that the "contracts for public works are in the majority of cases given to Jews, whose quotations are usually higher than those of Arabs," and that the "Jewish labourer is paid at a higher rate for half the amount of work which the Arab can accomplish." ”

“ Of some 20,000 Jewish immigrants, only about 3,000 have been employed on public works at all, and the only labour they have displaced is that of the imported Egyptian gangs which formerly served the Army, and whose gradual replacement by Jews and others settled in the country is, by common consent, to the advantage of all parties concerned. The remainder—the vast majority—of the Jewish immigrants have found employment in a variety of Jewish enterprises, brought into existence by Jewish capital, and contributing substantially to the quickening of economic life in the country as a whole. ”

“ People less informed and less responsible than our leaders and yours, ignoring the need for co-operation of the Arabs and the Zionists, have been trying to exploit the local differences that must necessarily arise in Palestine during the early stages of our movement. Some of them have, I am afraid, misrepresented your aims to the Arab peasantry and our aims to the Jewish peasantry, with the result that interested parties have been able to make capital out of what they call our differences. ”

“ Assailed by malice and calumny, obstructed by ignorance and misunderstanding, buffeted by the cross-currents of an unstable political situation, cut off, for the time being, from those great communities which would, in normal circumstances, have been in the forefront of the Zionist movement, they have already shown that, mindful of the sacred associations which have never ceased to bind them to the soil of Palestine, they are firmly resolved to proceed on their appointed path. ”

“ As was only to be expected in such circumstances, Arab Palestine remained perfectly passive throughout the German-Turkish operations, while, on the other hand, Jewish colonists, whose services were afterwards publicly recognised by the military authorities, actively co-operated with the British forces at the risk of their lives, and three Jewish battalions served under Lord Allenby as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. The statement that "the Arabs of Palestine were not only friendly to the British Army, but actually helped it in its arduous task" has no foundation in fact. ”

“ The revival of the building trade—the first sign of renewed economic vitality—is almost exclusively attributable to Jewish capital, which was invested in this industry last year to an estimated total of £E.140,000 in Jaffa alone. The only mortgage bank in the country—an institution which has long been in urgent demand—is that which has just been established under Zionist auspices. ”

“ It will be sufficient to remark that the British pledges in favour of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine were given publicly in the face of the world, that they are wholly unambiguous, and that they have been repeatedly, authoritatively, and unequivocally re-affirmed. ”

“ The specific charges of aggression brought against the Jews by the Delegation are as disingenuous as its protestations of tolerance are, on its own showing, insincere. During the Jaffa riots in May, 1921, "it was stated by a British officer," the Delegation declares under the sensational heading "Explosives found with Jews during Jaffa Riots," "that a large quantity of explosives was discovered by him in a Jewish house." ”

“ The establishment of model farms and agricultural experiment stations, the introduction of improved breeds of cattle, experiments in poultry-farming, tobacco-planting and the culture of the silk-worm—these are some of the forms assumed by "Zionist aggression." The Jews lead the way in education and alone possess a complete educational system from the kindergarten to the technical high-school—a system soon to be crowned by a University, of which the foundation-stone has already been laid. ”

“ It is alleged, for example, that the Administration is in Zionist hands, and that the "High Commissioner, the Legal Secretary, the Controller of Stores, the Director of Commerce and Industries, and the Chief of Immigration, are all Jews." The Controller of Stores and the Director of Commerce and Industries are one and the same person. The "Chief of Immigration" is not a Jew at all. ”

“ There is, on the other hand, no ground for suggesting that the civil or religious rights of the non-Jewish population have been in the slightest degree infringed. In order to make out anything approaching a plausible case, the Delegation has been obliged to resort to misrepresentations amounting in several instances to pure inventions. ”

“ The primary object of the foregoing statement is to expose the disingenuousness and the frivolity of the grave accusations to which currency is being given by the Palestine Arab Delegation. The British Cabinet is accused of bad faith, the British Administration in Palestine of gross misgovernment, and the Zionist Organisation of wanton aggression. Every specific complaint on which the Delegation has ventured collapses, as has been shown, immediately it is examined. ”

“ In other words, far from threatening the security of "farmers who have for generations owned lands and lived on them," the Government has, on the contrary, given a freehold in exchange for a tenancy-at-will to every such farmer without exception, and has gone so far as to grant a minimum holding of nearly forty acres, even where the area actually cultivated is less. ”

“ The proposals which King Feisul and his colleagues regarded as "moderate and proper"—proposals in strict conformity with the Balfour Declaration—are in no respect exceeded by the Zionist provisions of the Palestine Mandate. If they commended themselves to King Feisul it may safely be assumed that they do no violence either to Arab rights or to British pledges. ”

“ The imaginary character of this proclamation is apparent on the face of it. "America" was not a party to the war with Turkey and Lord Allenby was not in a position to speak in its name. The alleged proclamation of October 14th, 1918, is, in fact, fictitious. The only "proclamation" that can conceivably be referred to is the Anglo-French Declaration of November 7th, 1918, which was issued by Lord Allenby in the Occupied Enemy Territories on November 14th. ”

“ Not only so, but a family which has cultivated less than 150 dunams is, nevertheless, to have its holding brought up to that minimum, with an additional thirty dunams for every member of the family in excess of five. ”