Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Already Then Complaints About Leaks to the Media

In early 1931, the British Mandate authorities attempted to create a negotiations framework to enable the Jewish community and the Arab community in Mandate Palestine to achieve coexistence and peace following the muderous riots of 1929 and the subsequent Passfield White Paper of October 1930 (text).  See this book

They made several offers.*

In April 1931, the offer was refused by the Arab representatives, as the following clipping shows.

But what caught my eye was the query (marked in orange) of Issa El-Issa, owner of the "Falastin" Arab-language newspaper, who complained how come their negative reply was printed in the Jewish media even before the Arab media:



Davar, April 16, 1931.

From an article on al-'Issa:-



Jabotinsky, who had been barred from Jerusalem, went on to form the Revisionist Zionist Party that would continue to grow and openly declared its animosity toward Dr. Weizmann. Falastin reproduced the speech delivered by Jabotinsky to an audience of 6,000 people in Jerusalem:
There are rumors I know will reach government headquarters on the Mount of Olives as well as at Whitehall in London that within the Zionist movement there is an extremist faction preaching hate of ourArab neighbors and a lack of confidence in the Mandatory government. I don’t want today either to defend this party or to deny the rumors about it. On the contrary, my words are more a critique than a defense. It would be good for us and for the government to know exactly what the real Zionist tendencies are… And to understand revisionist Zionism properly, it is necessary to clarify one single point: the Jews did not come to develop Palestine to have it become a country no different from any which they knew in the diaspora, where they were only a small minority. And, if they are compelled to be a minority in Palestine also, then it would be no different than all the other countries where they were dispersed, and would not be worth all this trouble. The Mandatory government would not have needed to anger our Semitic neighbors if it were merely to establish one more paradise in addition to the more than 77 that Jews have across the world. The aim of Jews …is clearly to establish a strong national home in Palestine, where they will constitute the majority, not the minority. And this is not only the opinion of extremists but also of each and every Zionist, including those who pretend to deny it.
Five years later, on 3 January 1931, the editorial “The Trial of Great Britain” stated that:
The Jews know, as we all know perfectly well, that political Zionism is dead. Weizmann himself had to admit it, because when he declared that Zionism had for its aim the establishment of a bi-national state in Palestine, most of the Jews were in disagreement, and they will not support him if he nominates himself for another term as chairman of the next Zionist Congress. That is patently clear already.


___________

*

...Sir John Chancellor considered the question of constitutional development on his assumption of the office of High Commissioner in December 1928. He consulted representatives of various local interests and, after a careful examination of the position, put forward certain proposals in June 1929. Discussion of the question was, however, suspended in consequence of the disturbances in August 1929.
12. His Majesty's Government have now carefully considered of this question in the light of the present stage of progress and development and with special regard to their obligation to place the country under such political, administrative and economic / conditions as will secure the development of self-governing institutions. They have decided that the time has arrived for a further step in the direction of the grant to the people of Palestine, of a measure of self-government compatible with the terms of the Mandate.
His Majesty's Government accordingly intend to set up a Legislative Council generally on the lines indicated in the statement of British policy in Palestine issued by Mr. Churchill in June 1922, which is reproduced as Appendix 5 to the Report of the Commission on the Palestine disturbances of August 1929.
His Majesty's Government trust that on this occasion they will secure the co-operation of all sections of the population of Palestine. His Majesty's Government desire to make it quite clear that while they would deeply regret an attempt on the part of any section of the population to prevent them from giving effect to their decision, all possible steps will be taken to circumvent such an attempt, if made, since they consider it in the interests of the population of the country as a whole that the further step now proposed should no longer be deferred.
His Majesty's Government would point out that had this Legislature been set up at the time when it was first contemplated the people of Palestine would by now have gained more experience of the working of constitutional machinery. Such experience is indispensable for any progress in constitutional development. The sooner all sections of the population show a desire to co-operate with His Majesty's Government in this respect, the sooner will it be possible for such constitutional development to take place as His Majesty's Government hope to see in Palestine...


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