Political report of the Executive of the Jewish Agency submitted to the ... Zionist Congress and the ... session of the Council of the Jewish Agency · 1937-08-01 · 8.1937 · p. Seite 50

50 before the publication of the Report of the Royal Commission. 67. One of the lessons taught by past disturbances and driven home with renewed force by the experience at Jaffa in April 1936 was the utterly precarious security position of the Jews living in "mixed" town areas and the extreme undesirability of creating new such areas in the future. It was, therefore, with great surprise that the Jewish Agency learnt after the disorders were over of the Government's intention to establish new Arab quarters in close proximity to, and even in the centre of, areas of Jewish urban settlement. One such project in Haifa was abandoned after the Jewish Agency had made representations against it, but similar efforts in regard to the proposed establishment of an Arab quarter south of Jaffa remained fruitless. In order to accommodate the Arab families of Jaffa, whose homes had had to be demolished, the Government had decided to build a quarter on a piece of State land situated very near to and in a commanding position over a large Jewish area of suburban development close to Mikveh Israel. An exchange of this piece of land for Jewish land lying nearer to Jaffa and further away from the Jewish area was made impossible by the very onerous terms stipulated by the Government, and the construction of the Arab quarter on the site in question was proceeded with to the dismay of the Jewish inhabitants of the neighbourhood. 68. Thanks to local initiative, new District Offices were opened soon after the outbreak of the disturbances at Nathania, and the Jewish District Officer who had previously been resident at Tulkarm as an assistant to his Arab senior was stationed at Nathania and took charge of the Jewish agricultural area around that settlement. On the termination of the Arab strike, there appeared to be some intention to liquidate the new District Office. The Jewish Agency made strong representations for their retention and no change has so far been made. In January 1937, the Jewish Agency represented to the Government the urgent need of appointing three additional Jewish District Officers, to be stationed at Hederah, Afuleh and Safad and take charge, respectively, of the rural areas between Hederah and Haifa, the Emek and Upper Galilee. The Government was urged to adopt with regard to the Northern District the system