Page:The Truth about Palestine.djvu/18

 Jewish Peril"—an inept concoction conclusively exposed by "The Times" as a clumsy and malevolent forgery, and referred to by the Delegation as "a book which should be read by everyone who still doubts the pernicious motives of the Jews towards the Powers that be, and towards civilisation." After this it is less astonishing than it would otherwise be to read in the memorandum that "Palestine suffers from her Jewish colonies"—thriving agricultural settlements to which British Consular reports have repeatedly referred as an invaluable stimulus to the economic life of the country as a whole; nor is it surprising to learn that Europe cannot reasonably "expect the Arab to live and work with such a neighbour"—a neighbour towards whom, it now appears from the "Official Statement," "there was never any hatred shown," and with whom the Arabs were accustomed to "live in peace and harmony" so complete that "things might have gone in this fashion and all would have been well."

The specific charges of aggression brought against the Jews by the Delegation are as disingenuous as its protestations of tolerance are, on its own showing, insincere. During the Jaffa riots in May, 1921, "it was stated by a British officer," the Delegation declares under the sensational heading "Explosives found with Jews during Jaffa Riots," "that a large quantity of explosives was discovered by him in a Jewish house." The Delegation is careful not to add that that statement, if made, was untrue. What were described at the time by Arab propagandists in Europe as three and a-half tons of explosives intended for nefarious objects, proved, when the matter was examined by the Haycraft Commission, to be "three and a-half tins of explosives and 100 detonators belonging to the (Kedem) Building Company, and used for blasting purposes. Undue importance has been attached to this episode, which has no significance of any sort."