Arab and Jews, Palestinians and Zionists: 1925 newspaper cuts through the obfuscation ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Arab and Jews, Palestinians and Zionists: 1925 newspaper cuts through the obfuscation

From the Tablet (Brooklyn):, June 1925.

Arabs Boycott Jews In Palestine
(By N. C. W. C. News Service.)
Jerusalem, June 24.—A boycott of Jewish merchants and Jewish merchandise has been proclaimed by the young Arabs of Jerusalem, with the avowed object of driving the Jews from Palestine. The movement is growing in popularity and has assumed serious proportions. Each person joining it pledges himself to refrain from transacting business with non-Arabs. The boycott even advocates refusal to sell real estate or other property to Jews.

Commenting on the movement, the paper, Meraat-el-Sherk, says editorially:

"May this movement spread throughout the country, for it is the best means of striking a decisive blow at the Balfour Declaration. What is the use of our outcries and protests if we facilitate the execution of the said Declaration by selling lands to the Jews and enrich them by doing business with them whilst neglecting Arab merchants?

"Every patriotic Arab must preach this idea and comply with it. It would be much better if women joined the movement also. Boycott the alien intruder. Boycott him with all your might. Do not sell land to him. Try it and you will see how in a short time he will be compelled to leave the country. In so doing you will have served your fatherland and inflicted a hard blow upon the Balfour Declaration.

"The only way of ensuring our salvation and rest, of ridding ourselves of the Balfour Declaration, is the complete boycotting of the Jews."

This is an early example of BDS, where Arabs decided to boycott Jews. BDS itself, in moments of candor, admits that the current boycott activities of Israel directly came from the Arab boycott of Jews in Palestine before there was an Israel. Obviously, the boycott was aimed at Jews, as this article shows.

But another framing that is taken as obvious in this article is perhaps at least as important:

Nowhere foes it use the word "Palestinian." It wants to protect "Arab" merchants and urges "patriotic Arabs" to join the boycott to "serve your fatherland." Even among the Arabs who claimed to be part of a country called Palestine, they didn't consider themselves Palestinians.

A tertiary point worth pointing out: they never accused Jews of stealing land. they urged Arabs not to sell land to Jews. Meaning that they all knew that there was nothing illegal or unethical going on, but they wanted to stop it in the name of forcing Jews to leave.

Nomenclature has changed. But the underlying facts have not. The conflict was always between Arabs and Jews, not between Palestinians and Israelis.

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