100 years ago: Jews and Arabs together were building and benefitting from a modern Palestine ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Monday, April 27, 2026

100 years ago: Jews and Arabs together were building and benefitting from a modern Palestine

In 1926 there were a number of articles about how well things were progressing in Palestine. The Arabs had not ben killing Jews for a few years and they were benefitting from the better economy brought about by Jewish farming and industry. The Arab antisemites were dismissed as hotheads who had no following.

Here is one such article from The Age (Melbourne, Australia), Sat, Apr 24, 1926 ·Page 24:

PALESTINE REBORN
No country on earth can boast such romance and tragedy as Palestine. Besides being the birthplace of three of the world’s religions—Judaism, Christianity and Mohommedanism—it has suffered the drums and tramplings of innumerable armies, and might well be called the cockpit of Asia. Its very name is a modification of the ancient Philistia, the strip of country lying chiefly on and adjacent to the southern seaboard, reminiscent of ancient history, and later the scene of incessant conflicts with the invading Hebrews. Romans, Persians and Turks successively ruled the country, but the great war ushered in a new era bright with promise, and glorified with an idealism which recalls the propaganda and methods of all other conquerors, Joshua not excepted. The mandate under which Britain rules Palestine has already been a boon and a blessing.
The old corrupt and corrupting Turkish rule has given place to an honest and able administration, in which all the chief races are taking part. Democracy governs. Among Moslems as well as among Christians and Jews there is not only a remarkable increase of education, but a demand for it. Imagine Eastern girls working in Government offices without any detriment to domestic happiness! Sir Richard Burton when British consul at Damascus says about the natives of Syria:— "There is literally no limit that can be laid down to the native wit, the condition, the intellectual capabilities of Syria’s sons. They are the most gifted race I have as yet ever seen, and when the curse shall have left the country—not the curse of superstition, but the bane and plague spot of bad rule—it will again rise to a position not unworthy of the days when it gave to the world a poetry and a religion still unforgotten by our highest civilisation." Many years have passed since those words were written, and so far as Palestine proper is concerned the bad rule has gone.
Jews and Arabs are in many districts working cordially and successfully together, and after the ratification of the mandate the Zionist organisation issued a conciliatory appeal to their Arab fellow-citizens, declaring that the Zionist Jews had never contemplated "ever-ruling the other inhabitants of the country or turning them out of their homes." Their aim was to live peaceably with all the other inhabitants of the country, and convert the joint home into a progressive commonwealth. They urged the Arabs to share a common ambition—to rebuild the wasted portions of our holy land for the welfare of themselves and that of all mankind.
After his visit to open the Hebrew university in June of last year, Lord Balfour spoke of the previous five years as the most extraordinary and satisfactory ever known. He pointed to the improved roads, the growth of education, and the creation of great public works, all without cost to the British taxpayer. Palestine is actually paying its way, and can even boast a modest surplus. As for Jews as cultivators of the soil, they are showing the highest skill. Sir Herbert Samuel, ex-Governor, describes the members of the Jewish agricultural colonies, and there are about a hundred such colonies, as intellectually above the ordinary peasant; they read, they think, they discuss; in the evenings they have music classes, lectures; there is among them a real activity of mind. They know that they are an integral part of the movement for the redemption of Palestine; that their work is in line with ancient prophecies and the prayers of millions now, and so their work is ennobled by the patriotic ideal which it serves.
Before the war it was estimated that the Jewish population amounted to 100,000. This was reduced to 70,000 or 80,000, of whom 4000 were orphans. Women, typhus, cholera and starvation were the main factors in the reduction of population, but it must be remembered that women and children had been removed from the fighting zone, and young Jews of fighting age were drafted into the British army. What was to be done with the 4000 orphans of Jewish race? Orphanages were opened in Jerusalem, Safed and Damascus, and the principle underlying their instruction was to make them self-reliant and self-supporting as soon as possible.
Dame Millicent Fawcett, who made two visits to the Holy Land, has published, through T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., her impressions, entitled "Easter in Palestine," and as she had access to all officials her statements are as well authenticated as her descriptions are breezy and informing. Here is Palestine, she says, with 700,000 of a population, of whom about 83,000 are Jews and 73,000 Christians. In the British High School for Girls at Jerusalem there are no fewer than eleven different races represented among its 200 pupils. It is an extraordinary mix up of races. Jews and Moslem Syrians have changed nothing since the days of Abraham, but on the other hand there are groups as far advanced as their brethren in European countries. The conservative carrier has on his shoulders at night the little wooden plough he has been using all day, but his neighbor uses the very latest American implement.
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It is noteworthy that General Allenby’s first gift to the people of Jerusalem was a free supply of fresh water. Previously the supply had been stored in cisterns or pools, with the inevitable result of contamination, but the stand pipes of Allenby are seen everywhere. The people’s great difficulty was in understanding that the water was a free gift. "The Turks were here 400 years," they said, "but they never gave us even one drop of water." At the same time the unchanging people object to being cleaned up, just as frowzy and unwashed patients when taken to our hospitals vigorously object to being given a bath. The cleaner is not popular with the unclean. Nevertheless, stagnant pools and marshes have been drained, rubbish is now destroyed, and there has been a marked improvement in the health of the population. The streets are named, viz., David-street, Christian-street, Jaffa-street, but the names are not yet up. Everyone is supposed to know them. With the mixture of races in the city it would be necessary to put up the names in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
Leaving the Holy City, Mrs. Fawcett journeyed with not too much interest into Galilee. Near Tiberias the party came across a troop of Russian refugees busily engaged in the very desirable work of road making. These were stalwart, vigorous young men and women, full of physical health and high spirits. The first group looked more or less disrated university professors put to an uncongenial job.
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It is interesting to learn that the colony of Petach Tikvah (door of hope), founded by Laurence Oliphant in 1878, and aided by Lords Salisbury, Beaconsfield and Shaftesbury, is now, after severe setbacks, in a promising condition. Eucalyptus trees were planted by thousands. In the riots of 1921 it became the object of a savage attack by the Arabs, but was saved by a troop of Indian cavalry, and the sheikh who led the Arabs was sentenced to ten years' penal servitude. Since then the people of Petach Tikvah petitioned the Governor for the remission of his sentence, and Jews and Arabs in that part are now reconciled. The colony has fine orange and grape industries, up-to-date packing and grading sheds, gardens gay with flowers, and great water tanks for irrigation.
As indicating the stupendous changes which have taken place in the last few years, Mrs. Fawcett points out that whereas in 1866 the High Commissioner was protected on his entrance into Jerusalem by a considerable body of soldiers, nothing of this kind marked his departure in 1925. He was universally recognised as a man who cared especially for the welfare of the whole country. In fact also been admitted that the best guarantee for the future progress of Palestine is the bringing together of Christian, Jew and Moslem, and the emphasizing of the common object and cautiously increasing common aims and traditions. It is by death such measures as shall ensure the evolution of a national sentiment.
Palestine has been reborn; the old is the past war and the British mandate to secure for that historic country the conditions which make for its prosperity.