LXXXVI.
Lord Gwydyr on Zionism and the Arabs
One of the most important factors the Zionists will have to reckon with in their further activity in Palestine is that of the Arabian population of the country. This population might consider the development of the Zionist movement undesirable: if the immigration of Jews into Palestine were to bring additional poverty into the land—if the Jewish element were restless, adventurous and inclined to disorder—if the country had or might have a homogeneous Arabic culture, and this new element were to disturb its uniformity through the introduction of its own cultural aspirations—or if that same element were threatening to oust the Arabs from their own position. But these and similar suppositions which might have led to the adoption of strong measures, or at least to a sentimental antipathy against immigration, are non-existent. The Jews bring no poverty into the land; nor is the immigrating population adventurous; Arabic culture does not already prevail in the country; and the Jews will not drive the Arab population from an established position.
The Jews who have been or are coming to Palestine have created considerable new economic values which are not only sufficient for their own maintenance but also contribute essentially towards the economic strengthening of the Arab element. Not only has the Government derived profit from the greater taxation returns of the Jewish colonies, but also from the enhanced taxability of the country, in consequence of the better methods of cultivation introduced by the Jews. The Arab population has also been considerably enriched, partly because the same masses which were formerly unemployed in large numbers found occupations and earnings with the Jews; partly through favourable sales of land, and also because they have learnt from the Jews how to obtain a greater yield from the soil.
Of course there can be no lack of competition in isolated cases, especially between Arab and Jewish traders, or Arab and Jewish artisans. But on the whole this competition can only bear upon individual cases. In general the new immigration can only maintain and support itself in the country if it creates new values, for the very simple reason that industrial conditions in Palestine are in a very low state of development, and that consequently the supplanting of those who hold established positions is practically impossible.
Therefore, from a comprehensive economic point of view, it is not only unnecessary to protect the native population against the immigration, but the latter should be encouraged in the interest of the country and its present inhabitants. The immigration brings about an increase of production as well as of consumption, and the greater part of the native population is thereby relieved from economic distress.
It is also possible that the native population, on having risen from its present state of depression to a higher level, may endeavour, in a measure, to better its economic position by settling down in neighbouring provinces. Colonization of the lands to the east of Palestine by Arabs would considerably reduce the Arab population of Palestine. Already, since the centre of gravity of the Arab race is not situated in Palestine, the area of friction arising from national-political motives is considerably reduced. The national-political relations of the Jews and their Arab fellow-citizens must be directed into the right channel from the very beginning. In this respect the Zionist programme is quite clear, simple and natural. The Jews wish to collaborate with the Arabs towards the elevation and strengthening of the country; but, in all they do, they want to appear as the Jewish nation, and always to show openly and freely their Jewish nationality. If it be a question of assimilation, Palestine is the only country in the world where the Jews, instead of being assimilated, are themselves the assimilating factor. It has, however, to be added that there can be no question of compulsory assimilation enforced by the Jews; they themselves have suffered too much from assimilation to wish to enforce it in any direction. But the Jewish culture will have an instructive and ennobling influence over others, through the force of example.
Lord Gwydyr wrote as follows on the question of the Turks and the Arabs in connection with the Jews:—
“The difference between the Turkish and Arabic race is a curious subject of study and reflection. The Arabs, taken individually, are superior to the Turks. But in the struggle between nations the superiority of individuals is nothing: what gives ascendancy is the quality not of the individual but of the man: it is the spirit of ensemble, the aptitude to command or obey, which, after all, is the same thing. In this point of view the Arab is inferior to the Turk. Enthusiastic, witty, delicate, made for poesy and adventure, sober, inured to fatigue, as gay and as variable as the Turk is serious and grave, the Arabic race is still what we see it in history. But when, forgetting for a moment the brightness of their conquest, we closely examine, even in history, the character of the Arab race, what do we see? A race whose religious enthusiasm created an army rather than a nation, and incapable of founding an empire, as the Romans had done, it gave rise to I do not know how many empires and how short lived. What a chaos, and in this chaos what a rapid and tumultuous nation! Unity and duration were ever wanting in the governments created by the Arab race. These governments enjoyed the life of tropical plants, brilliant and brief, whilst the Turkish race has founded an empire, now expiring indeed, but which has lasted five hundred years or more. For an empire like the Turkish one, and in those countries, five hundred years’ duration is eternity. What is Palestine worth to the Arabs? Nothing. They did not appreciate its value, until the Jewish enterprise that forms a striking contrast with the dulness of the natives began to utilize this old garden of the human race, left desert and barren by the misfortunes of time. The Arabs will be useful when guided by an active and intelligent Jewish settlement.