It is almost impossible for the outsider to put himself completely into the position of either Jew or Arab in the sanguinary quarrel that began a week ago and is still simmering. But something at least must be comprehensible to all. For centuries the Jews were slaughtered and persecuted. Again and again hatred and rancour against the Jew culminated in violence that will go down through history under the name of “pogroms” as something particularly fiendish and nightmarish. When, in Galicia, the Ukraine, or Bessarabia, Cossacks surrounded ghetto or Jewish settlement, and by blowing their whistles gave the signal for the massacre to begin, the Jews had no defence and no redress, for the civilised world looked on and did nothing, while the Jews in London, Paris, or New York, however wealthy or influential, could only weep or send money for the relief of the survivors. All this was to come to an end. There was to be a home, and a refuge for the Jew, a homeland from which Judaism all the world over could be enriched and defended. Within the home there would at least be absolute safety—the protection of the British Government made this certain. But now the incredible has happened: even in Palestine there are pogroms. Indeed, while in Russia, the classical land of anti-Semitism, a great revolution has made the Jew the equal of the Christian, and while even in Rumania the Jew, although still hated and menaced, need no longer fear massacre, in Palestine, of all places, there is a pogrom such as there has been nowhere else for many years. Not safe even in Palestine! The tragic force of such an utterance—and it must have been made by many and many a Jew these last few days—will be understood by all, including those who are indifferent to Zionism and its aspirations.

But there is one other thing that is also easy to understand. Palestine has for generations been the home of Arabs. They cannot be expected to be moved, impressed by the fact that now it was the home of Jews. The Arabs in the right sense own the home and the Jews are intruders, coming to right except the home of Arabs, on their behalf by a Great Power through the League of Nations. The wider setting in which the quarrel has developed is described by Mr. Nevinson in another column. But what of the immediate responsibilities? We know that many Jews have met a horrible death at the hands of Arab murderers. But of the Arab case, if there be one, we have heard almost nothing. As presented by the Mufti of Jerusalem it is highly unconvincing. More Jews have been killed than Arabs. Nevertheless the Arab losses are heavy. How did they come about? Were they inflicted by troops acting in self-defence? Or by the English-led police? Or by the troops rushed in from Egypt? We do not know as yet, though perhaps we shall know soon. But even if we make allowance for the absence of a detailed statement of the Arab case, the news that accumulates day by day seems to fasten the responsibility for this terrible violence upon the Arabs. Besides the killing done in the course of these disorders, there were atrocities perpetrated in cold blood. And, as far as it is possible to judge at the moment, these atrocities were committed by Arabs alone.

Jewish opinion all the world over has been deeply moved and horrified. In Poland there have been some illegal anti-British disorders, in Canada a number of Jews have rather foolishly offered to volunteer for “active service” in Palestine, but with such trivial exceptions the Jewish protest has been restrained and dignified. That it has to some extent an anti-British character is perfectly natural. Moslem opinion has also been deeply affected, but it has been roused rather than moved. Mr. Nevinson points out how dangerous the repercussion of the events in Palestine may be amongst the Moslems of the neighbouring countries. But while order is being restored, and while the frontiers of Palestine are being secured against inroads, a close enquiry will have to be made and responsibilities, both immediate and remote, established. The extremely difficult problem of provocation, with all its intangible and—its to—outsiders almost incomprehensible religious, racial, and nationalist components, cannot be left unprobed. And—most important of all—the inquiry will have to establish the extent to which the British administration was negligent.

Original Source

August 31, 1929 | © The Guardian

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