Broken train windows, bullet holes in railroad coaches, cars derailed, shooting, wounding, killing, bomb throwing,—such were the scenes that greeted me on my recent trip to Palestine and gave me a vivid realization of the bitter feeling existing between the Jews and the Arabs. The Arab population has ocupied the Holy Land for a millennium and a half and they resent the entrance of Jewish immigrants who are pouring into the country by thousands every year. This is a feud which has continued ever since the time of Ishmael and Isaac; and the Arab, with a feeling that every man's hand is against him, fears that he is losing ground against the greed and craftiness of his younger brother.
Since April 19, 1936, the Arabs have been on strike. Their stores and shops have been closed; building has practically ceased; food supplies have been cut off or their entrance hindered; labor has largely stopped; and strike committees throughout the land are raising funds to support those who are refusing to work. When one visits the hitherto busy streets of old Jerusalem now, he finds the iron shutters closely drawn and business at a standstill, and sees very few people.
Now a person can walk along the streets freely and rapidly without fear of jostling the load from the head of a woman carrier, without being squeezed against the wall by a laden donkey, or running into a wandering goat.
Many of the Jewish stores are open, but are getting only a fraction of their former business. Policemen or British guards are in evidence to protect these Jewish shops. On the roads sentinels challenge and search occasional passers-by, especially those of Arab descent. All of the public buildings, such as the post office and the telephone exchange, are hea:ily guarded.
Traffic is slow and dangerous, as Arab bands constantly molest road and rail thoroughfares. The British government has a mandate over the land, and is endeavoring to keep the main cross-country routes open. Military escorts are sent over the principal automobile roads each day and always accompany the trains. Army airplanes circle overhead.
A description of my visit to the Dead Sea will illustrate the perils and delays of travel and the precautions taken. The buses were not running in the direction of Jericho, and it was with difficulty that we secured a taxicab. Considerable hauling was carried on, back and forth, from a potash plant on the northern shore of the sea, and we finally arranged to go with the military convoy that accompanied the trucks each day. Leading our caravan was a military car in which were eight or ten British soldiers with army rifles and a machine gun mounted above the driver. Next came private cars and several large trucks belonging to the potash company, carrying supplies and workers down, and bringing back heavy loads of potash. Following these, the last truck also carried soldiers, so that we were guarded by soldiers at the front and at the rear. Two airplanes circled over us as we proceeded and returned. Before we passed dangerous points, the military commander would bring all the trucks and machines close together. One bridge had been dynamited, so we had to drive through the gully at the side, and in a number of places the road had been torn up. At .various places we saw groups of soldiers on the hills doing scout duty or destroying stone barricades that had been erected by, marauding Arab bands for places of attack.
On a later trip into Galilee, when we inquired for taxicab and boat service, invariably the first question asked was whether or not we were Jews. When we gave a negative reply, the Arabs were willing to do almost anything to help us on our way. Returning from the Sea of Galilee to Haifa along the main road through Nazareth. our group of buses and trucks was led by a military car containing half a dozen armed soldiers and a mounted machine gun. Near the end of the procession was another carload of soldiers, and bringing up the rear came a radio truck which could signal for help in case of attack. The same day, another bus, while passing through Nazareth, found it necessary to go to a garage for repairs. As the Jewish driver was waiting for the work to be done, he was stoned, but managed to escape, and the bus was seriously damaged. We noticed that some of the buses in Haifa had heavy iron screening around them to protect passengers from flying bricks and stones.
The Jews' Wailing Wall is abandoned, and the holy places are not frequented. In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, aside from the Moslem guard at the entrance, half a dozen novice priests near the door, and two or three Greek attendants inside, the place was deserted. No tourists were about, no noisy guides. We went where we wished and did as we pleased, with no one to take heed what we did.
Almost every night, shooting could be heard in some section about Jerusalem. Portable barbed-wire entanglements are placed across many of the roads leading into the cities. Soldiers were everywhere—on foot, on the trains, in the stations, on the roads, in the country, at all gates and passages. All night long one can hear them racing along the streets and roads in automobiles and trucks. Usually when a British soldier is stationed on sentinel duty, he has an Arab guard or policeman with him, and possibly a Jewish policeman, as he is at a disadvantage in not knowing the language of the people. The Arabic and Jewish policemen are being paid an extra allowance by the government during these unsettled times.
In Jerusalem and most of the other cities and villages, a strict curfew law has been imposed, and all civilians are required to be off the streets from 7 P.M. to 4:30 or 5 A.M. Infringements of this, without permits, are punishable by fines and imprisonment.
(To be continued)
* Written at the Ministry's request while the author was on a world auditing tour for the General Conference in the late summer of 1936, and portraying situations as he found them in Palestine at that time. Some of these conditions, such as the Arab strike, closed shops, rigid curfew, and military regulations. do not exist today. The tension has eased, trade and traffic have almost resumed normalcy, and on the sur- face conditions have quieted. The underlying currents of resentment and distrust are still present, however, and we as workers should be conversant with the situation.
