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The Modern View · St. Louis, Missouri · 10 June 1927

CP-1927-016

The Modern View

The Modern View — The Modern View, 10 June 1927
The Modern View · St. Louis, Missouri · 10 June 1927

Transcribed from the clipping

“With a view of getting the opinion of a Palestinian (not a Jew) the editor of ‘The Modern View’ conversed with an active business man of Jerusalem and Cairo, where the gentleman has commercial establishments. His opinion is submitted in this article without comment, to our readers. ‘Will England continue permanently in control of Palestine? What condition would justify a recall of the Mandate?’ ‘England may officially withdraw but her influence and connections will never be released from Palestine even if the formal occupation is no more. Until the Jew and the Arab come to some agreement and until assurance of a permanent peace between them can be definitely depended on, which I think is very distant, England will remain in power in Palestine.’ ‘Are Zionist agricultural colonies thriving? Do Arabs buy products of Jewish agriculturalists?’ ‘I do not think the Zionist colonies are prospering. The trade-unions operate unfavorably and the workers are not experienced agriculturalists, but mostly men and women of the cities from the countries where they came. The Arabs do not buy the products of the Jewish colonists to any large extent and most of what the colonies produce is sold by export.’ ‘Is the cost of living high in Palestine? Are the housing conditions good and sanitary?’ ‘The cost of living is extremely high. The housing conditions, at least in the Jewish and the Arab quarters, are far worse than in London.’ ‘Would French rule in Palestine be preferable to that of England?’ (He laughed.) ‘You need only look at Algeria or Morocco to see the inefficiency of French control. They have not the faculty of colonial government.’… In a general way he added the following: ‘There has been violent political strife between the Arab and the Jew in Palestine because of Arab fear of Jewish dominance and from an opposition to the changing of old methods to the newer western practices in all fields of action. The fear of added Jewish immigration if new industries are opened and developed may be an irrational one but it is there. Over $5,000,000 is spent annually by Zionists and others in recent years. I am of the opinion that there is a gradual decrease in the frictional feeling and ultimately there may be some better understanding between my people and the Jewish folk in Palestine, who represent the Zionist propaganda. But as I before stated, it will take many years, if ever, before a complete understanding can be reached.’ ‘Zionist effort, endeavor and ambition in Palestine appear to be directed to developments in sanitation, education, irrigation, immigration, cultivation, socialization and electrification, rather than to religious application. They emphasize “a Jewish nation” instead of Jewish aspiration.’ (To be continued next week)”

Photograph caption

“LADY NICOTINE PROVIDES EMPLOYMENT FOR THOUSANDS IN HOLY LAND. Tobacco cultivation — first introduced into Palestine three years ago through the Agricultural Experimental Station established by Zionist funds, is now one of the chief crops of the Holy Land. The tobacco plantations on the Jewish colonies have absorbed thousands of workers, men and women… Through the United Palestine Appeal for $5,000,000, sufficient funds will be secured to extend tobacco cultivation on a still wider scale.”

Context added by this archive

The clearest terminology evidence in this archive. To interview an Arab, the editor of an American Jewish weekly in 1927 has to tell his readers he sought the opinion of a Palestinian, and then put in brackets: not a Jew. The word by itself would have been understood the other way. The interview runs at length and is printed, as the paper says, without comment: the colonies are not prospering, their produce is exported because Arabs do not buy it, housing in both quarters is worse than London’s, and the fear of Jewish dominance may be irrational but it is there. The man says my people. He is not named. Beside him a photograph credits Zionist funds with introducing tobacco to Palestine three years earlier.

Cite this item

"The Modern View," The Modern View, 10 June 1927. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1927-016. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1927-016

Elsewhere in the archive

This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1812 to 2022. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.

The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the wire service that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. The city is derived from the masthead, not read off the clipping.

Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1927-016.

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