No Peace in Palestine

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Transcribed from the clipping

WHEN the United States and Britain expressed horror at the recent Israel-Jordan border incident, followed by temporary suspension of American aid to Israel, we remarked that judgment should be suspended until more facts were available. Most of the news at that time consisted of statements on the incident by parties to it.

Now, however, the United Nations Security Council has heard a lengthy report by General Bennike of Denmark, heading the UN truce supervision group in Palestine. In addition, Israel has made a conciliatory gesture, and American aid has been restored. His report tells of great tension on both sides, violence by both sides, with great danger to the peace of Palestine.

Each side apparently feels honestly convinced that its acts of aggression are justified as defense against the aggression of the other side. Each side feels that the other "started it." This sort of background feeling, as long as it continues, will block essential cooperation and breed more incidents by both sides.

The background is so voluminous that the general could have written volumes without including it all, so he limited himself to incidents occurring in 1953. Perhaps the initial cause of the whole business occurred in 1917, when Britain made conflicting promises to Arabs and Jews.

Then, after World War I, Arabs who with British help had won their freedom from the tyrannical Turks might have been less unwilling to let the Jews have part of Palestine than they were after World War II.

The UN failed to settle the problem peaceably, an Arab-Israeli war was fought, ending in temporary truce agreements which, as General Bennike points out, "have lasted too long not to have lost part of their effectiveness." The existence of almost 900,000 Arab displaced persons, mostly in the Palestine area, makes the problem almost insoluble.

Neither side can provide for them without outside help, and the two sides disagree on the kind of arrangement they will agree to. Eric Johnston is now in Palestine as trouble-shooter trying to overcome this impasse. Unless he succeeds, the outlook for peace in Palestine is poor.

Bennike's report is a dreary account of innumerable incidents involving outrages by each side in turn. "Infiltration" is the root of the trouble. Arabs, many of them refugees, cross the Israel borders to steal, loot, and kill. Arab governments cannot control them, and, in Israel's opinion, don't even try.

Armed forces from Israel make wanton retaliatory attacks on Arab villages. Fixing the blame in each case is of little value. Without control of infiltration—which is hardly possible without resettlement of refugees—no permanent solution is in sight.

How this transcription was made

Date and publication rest on the collector's slide label; no masthead, folio or printed dateline appears on this clipping.

Context added by this archive

ONE RECORD FROM TWO IMAGES, per Maria's note. s076_2 is the top of the editorial — headline 'No Peace in Palestine', drop cap W, first three paragraphs ending at 'Perhaps the initial cause of' — and s076_1 is the continuation, beginning 'the whole business occurred in 1917'. The join is verified: s076_2's last visible words run straight into s076_1's first.

No masthead, no folio, no printed date; date is label-only. An unsigned EDITORIAL — note the first-person plural, 'we remarked that judgment should be suspended' — so there is no byline and no deck.

The 'recent Israel-Jordan border incident' is the Qibya raid of 14-15 October 1953, in which Israeli forces under Ariel Sharon's Unit 101 killed some 69 villagers, two-thirds of them women and children; the editorial never names Qibya, never gives a death toll and never says a village was destroyed.

WORDS FOR THE PLACE AND PEOPLE: 'Palestine' six times — 'No Peace in Palestine', 'the UN truce supervision group in Palestine', 'the peace of Palestine', 'let the Jews have part of Palestine', 'mostly in the Palestine area', 'now in Palestine', 'the outlook for peace in Palestine'.

For people: 'Arabs and Jews', 'Arabs', 'the Jews', 'Arab governments', 'Arab villages', 'almost 900,000 Arab displaced persons', 'refugees', 'Arabs, many of them refugees', 'the two sides', 'both sides', 'each side', 'Israel', 'Israel's opinion', 'the Turks'. WHAT IS ABSENT: the word 'Palestinian' does not appear.

The 900,000 are 'Arab displaced persons' — displaced by no stated agent, in a sentence where their mere 'existence' is what 'makes the problem almost insoluble'. They are a problem, not a people. The paper's solution is 'resettlement of refugees', with no mention of return. Nobody who lives in Palestine is named or quoted; the only person quoted is a Danish general.

The structure is explicitly both-sides — 'violence by both sides', 'outrages by each side in turn', 'Fixing the blame in each case is of little value' — and the paper's one plainly worded condemnation of Israeli conduct is immediately neutralised by that refusal to fix blame.

Cite this clipping

"No Peace in Palestine," The News Journal, 30 October 1953. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1953-014. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1953-014