Thursday, November 13, 2014
Elder of ZiyonI also point out from the attention of the members of the committee the method of inciting a riot by constantly reiterating the possibility of riots.
The Arab press has been carrying on for the last three or four months a propaganda intended to warn the Jewish people that riots were coming. Now, I am not speaking of the Arab people in general, or the peasants working in the fields, but of the agitators in the cities, members of nationalist clubs in the cities, members of Arab nationalist clubs. They are the ones, these members of the Arab nationalist clubs, who are responsible for carrying on this propaganda, which keeps on repeating again and again that riots are coming. The action which has been taken by the British Government and by the Allies is intended to protect Jewish interests. The Balfour declaration prevents riots; the influx of new Jewish immigration prevents riots. It is the assumption that every act on the part of the Jewish people is inherently wrong, and therefore produces riots. The idea is put forth that every act of the Jewish people to maintain business or establish themselves or every act of the Jewish people in trying to get a foothold tends toward riots, and is used as an argument in favor of riots. It is said that if you do this or that riots will happen. I submit that that is not an indication of friendship, and that any witness who presents this plea or any witness representing any group who develop such ideas of animosity and hatred in his demands ought to have his testimony very carefully scrutinized by the members of this committee.
Sound familiar?
Of course, then as now, the same leaders who "warn" of riots are the ones who incite the riots. The book quotes the British report on the beginnings of the 1920-1921 riots in various parts of Palestine that killed dozens:
At 9 a. m. on the morning of April 4 [1920] the usual band of Hebron pilgrims to the feast of Habi Moussa entered Jerusalem, to the accompaniment of sword brandishing, shouting, and dancing. Several notables, including the Sheikh of Hebron, began to harangue the crowd. The speeches, coupled with a display of the portrait of King Feisel, soon worked up the excited audience to a dangerous pitch of enthusiasm, and suddenly the window of a Jewish shop was shattered and stones commenced to fly. The crowd swept through the Jaffa Gate into the old city, brutally attacking the Jewish passers-by and methodically looting the Jewish shops. The Jewish casualties numbered 170. Significant is the fact that children and aged people together constituted 50 per cent of the injured. It is noteworthy that there were simultaneous attacks in three different Jewish quarters of the old city, and for two hours the infuriated mob was free to wreak their worst on helpless victims, of whom so heavy a toll was taken.
Sinister rumors and blood-curdling threats of massacre continued for the succeeding days to disturb the Jewish population...
