November 1931
T HE
494
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
PALESTINE IS FOR THE JEW By AGNES SCOTT KENT,* Toronto, Canada
and have always done, for the Moslems own the Wall. Thus has the Commission decreed. But because the Jews are Jews, they still will wail and worship at the ancient Wailing Wall, even if they have to do it in total darkness. The darkness of the night is a fitting symbol of their sorrow and of the darkness of their hearts. The Arab-Jewish question in Palestine is by no means settled ; and we un hesitatingly affirm that if never will be until He c o me s whose right it is to reign, and until He ensures the land to His own chosen peo ple. For the rancor of A r a b against Jew is nothing less than the age-old jealousy of Ishmael toward Isaac, be tween the son of the bondwoman and the son of promise, and this jealousy will continue a n d increase until the end. But the end is determined. Pales tine is for the Jew. The land is Israel’s —not by reason of Great B r i t a i n ’s pledge, but by di vine decree. T h e Abrahamic c o v e nant, not the Balfour Declaration, is the Jewish Magna Charta to thé land of Palestine. Could the statesmen of Great Britain and all the mighty statesmen of the League of Nations and of the world but see this truth within the Word of God, the mandatory task would at least be more clearly defined, if not made easier. Great Britain now, by her own confession, is in a quan dary. Her present attitude is ostensibly that of trying to ride upon the two horns of a dilemma. On one side, she is trying faithfully to fulfill the mandate ; on the other side, she is trying to conciliate the Arabs. Her task is not a happy one. To fail in her trust to the Jews would discredit her among the nations. At the same time, to incur dis pleasure from the Arabs of Palestine and Transjordania would be to stir up Moslems throughout the world. Opinion is divided as to how Great Britain is handling the intricate situation. Among the Jews themselves, the attitude toward Great Britain’s fulfillment of the mandate is so widely diverse that their Zionist ranks have, in con sequence, been split from end to end. T h e R esignation of D r . W e izmann From June 30 to July 15, there was held in the city of Basle, Switzerland (famous as the site of the first Zionist
M here was a strange occurrence one evening last July. It was on Tish B’ab, the Jewish annual commemoration of the destruction of the temple, and the second anniversary of the outrages at the Wailing Wall, which led directly to the Arab-Jewish rists of August, 1929. On this evening, ten thousand Jews, nearly all of them
Jewish youths and many of them bare- f o o t—t h e tradi tional Jewish sign of m ou r n i n g— marched in .single, file p r o c e s s i o n around the Wall, while thousands of older o r t h o d o x Jews sat on the out skirts do le fu lly chanting the Lam entations of Jere miah, rocking them selves backward a n d forward and wailing and moan ing as they chanted. The procession lasted from sunset until midnight; and t h e aston ish ing thing about it was that from nightfall u n t il midnight it was carVied on in total darkness, be cause lights at the
Wall are now forbidden by the Palestine Government, upon the recommendation of the Wailing Wall Commission. T h e P erplex ing A rab -J ew ish Q uestion This Wailing Wall Commission, which, after months of delay, finally presented its report to the impatient public last spring, recommended many things to Parliament that have been strange and heartbreaking to the Jews. Among them was the recommendation that the Jews be given clearly to understand that the Wailing Wall—sacred to them for centuries—is not theirs. It belongs to the Mos lems. The Jews, by Moslem sufferance, may go there for their accustomed worship at certain times, but under rigid restrictions. They must in no wise infringe upon Moslem rights or wound Moslem sensibilities by their orthodox practices. They cannot worship while Arabs are at prayer; they cannot blow their Shofar except at stated times; they cannot bring the benches for their aged and infirm; they cannot use the screen to separate their men and women. They cannot do several other things they would like to do ♦Graduate of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (’21), now editorial secretary, Toronto Jewish Mission.
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