The Forgotten Ally

PIERRE VAN PAASSEN continues to raise his voice in this howling desert of injustices. And it is a loud, clear voice. The static imperialistic policy pursued by the British Colonial Office seems to have woven a net of conspiracy to keep the heroism of one of our allies under cover. It goes so far as to deny that Palestine is an ally. Yet, in the Middle East, the Jews of Palestine have shown not only heroism but a magnificent morale. Their unconscripted young men have joined suicide task forces which beat out ground for the British Eighth Army, notably at Mechili and Bardia; their civilian population has thrown itself into the war effort with all the supplies and factories at their disposal, not for protection, nor for hope of gain, but because of their belief in right and democracy.

The Balfour Declaration, which gave Palestine to the Jews as a homeland and a refuge, has been almost totally rescinded by the White Paper of 1939 limiting the immigration of Jews to Palestine to almost nothing, giving as a reason the “inherent” Arab.Jewish animosity. Mr. Van Paassen charges that the British themselves fomented the Arab uprisings, and that if the Arabs were consulted, it would be found that they would rather than not have the Jews, who provide schools, work, and a certain security hitherto unknown among these traditionally poor and uneducated tribes. This is no raving of an Anglophobe. Mr. Van Paassen’s crusade is against institutional anti-Semitism. wherever it resides: nor is he the first to have discerned it in the history of the British mandate in Palestine.