Page:The Truth about Palestine.djvu/19

 If, again, it be true that while "arms had been distributed to all Jewish colonies, Arabs, on the other hand, had been disarmed," it would be interesting to learn how it happened that during the Jaffa riots no less than 53 Jews were killed or wounded by bullets or bombs. A case supported by such evidence does not merit detailed analysis. It need only be added, with reference to the Haycraft Report, to which the Delegation makes a somewhat singular allusion, that the findings are that in Jaffa itself,

"We have no doubt that the Arabs were the first to turn this quarrel into a race conflict, and when once this issue was joined, they behaved with a savagery which cannot be condoned;"

that in the case of Khedera,

"It is clear that the colonists had done nothing whatsoever to provoke an attack;"

and that as regards the attacks on the five Jewish colonies,

"In none of these five cases can the conduct of the Arabs be excused or condoned. The bloodthirsty attacks on these peaceful settlements, which had been guilty of no provocation whatever, are among the worst features of the disturbances."

The primary object of the foregoing statement is to expose the disingenuousness and the frivolity of the grave accusations to which currency is being given by the Palestine Arab Delegation. The British Cabinet is accused of bad faith, the British Administration in Palestine of gross misgovernment, and the Zionist Organisation of wanton aggression. Every specific complaint on which the Delegation has ventured collapses, as has been shown, immediately it is examined. An indictment based on the complete disregard or the gross perversion of readily ascertainable facts carries with it its own refutation.