Page:Olmstead - The New Arab Kingdoms.djvu/9

 obstacles to a Zionist state. The majority of the population of Palestine, descendants of pre-Mosaic Canaanites, are Muslims, and there exists a large sprinkling of Christians. The site of Solomon's temple is the third most holy Muslim shrine. When Jersualem was taken by, it was not handed over to the Jews. Instead, to quote his official report, "The Mosque of Omar and the area around it have been placed under Moslem control, and a military cordon of Mohammedan officers and soldiers has been established around the mosque. Orders have been issued that no non-Moslem is to pass within the cordon without permission of the military governor and the Moslem in charge;" Christian and Jew excluded from so sacred a place, and in favor of Muslims! The policy is clear. Equally clear is the proclamation which declared that the sacred shrine of Hebron, where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their wives, are supposed to be buried, "has been placed under exclusive Moslem control."

The lands belonging to Muslim mosques and schools, to Christian churches and monasteries, add the complication of vested interest. Much of the remainder is owned by Christian and Muslim notables and they are up in arms over the new invasion. Massmeetings of Christians and Muslims have been held, protection has been demanded against forced sales under unfair conditions, and the use of Arabic as the only official language. This has been conceded in principle and Allenby has refused to register land transfers made since the occupation. Sir Syed Ameer Ali, probably the greatest living Muslim publicist, has strongly declared the Germanic origin of Zionism and has categorically stated the displeasure of Muslims at the change of policy. British policy in the east does indeed rest on Muslim support and when he points out the relative numbers of Muslims and of Jews in the world and the number who today support Britain, he brings forward what after all must be the most serious objection, from the British point of view, to an independent Palestine.

The clash of Muslim and Zionist interests is undoubted. We need not on that account believe them hopelessly impossible of reconciliation. Many of the Zionists are now stating that it is "not only unwise but positively unjust to ask the peace Conference for an immediate Jewish state. It was for them to ask, in the first place, for recognition by the world that Palestine was the Jewish land in the past and would again be the Jewish land in the future. They should ask for opportunities to bring the Jews back to Palestine. It would depend on the Jews