Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 453

far from worsening in any way the lot of the Arab population as a whole, Jewish settlement activities have caused in many indirect ways an all-round increase of employment for the Arabs of Palestine. It remains, however, firmly convinced that an ingress of Arab labour into the sphere of Jewish employment is a process which, once started, can only with great difficulty, if at all, be checked and that given a continued shortage of Jewish labour this process must not only result in the permanent loss to Jews of labour positions which they rightly regard as their own, but is bound by progressive displacement to endanger the whole future of the Jewish working class. What has been taking place throughout the last year, and particularly in the last few months, is a displacement of Jews by Arabs in the orange-growing centres, developed from the very beginning by Jewish labour, and the penetration of Arab labour into other areas and industries which have so far been purely Jewish, not excluding the city of Tel-Aviv. It is a process which must be truly alarming to anyone to whom Zionism spells a normal economic and social existence for large masses of Jews, freed from the disability imposed by the age-long divorce from the soil and hard manual work and enjoying the privilege, which is the natural condition for any normal people, of doing its work by its own hands without shifting the burden of rougher occupations on to the shoulders of another race. In its discussions with the Jewish Agency, Government has repeatedly emphasised that it has no intention of forcing Jews to employ Arabs. The plain truth, however, is that the situation created by the inadequate supply of immigrant labour is forcing Jewish employers to resort to Arab labour as the only alternative to the ruin of plantations or the stoppage of building works. Once, however, a breach is made in the established practice, it is soon widened by people acting not under force majeure but merely taking advantage of the situation—or a short view of their own interest—by employing cheaper labour. In these circumstances it becomes a matter of selfprotection for Jewish workers to take steps to resist the onset of Arab labour upon their hard-won positions. The effect upon Jewish- Arab relations of this battle, forced on Jewish labour organisations and the community at large, and its results in terms of police and court action are an additional item, of no mean importance, to be included in the debit account of the present labour shortage. 2. The introduction of Arab labour into spheres of employment which had formerly been occupied wholly by Jews caused much bitterness. Feelings ran high particularly in the Sharon colonies where the principle of Jewish labour had in former years been strictly observed. The labour organisations resorted to the method of picketing the orange groves where Arab labour was being introduced, and in this way they had the support and active cooperation of members of other sections of the public. The attempts of the police to disperse the pickets led to clashes and mass arrests which in their turn called forth street demonstrations. In March, 1934, the Government published a bill to amend the Intimidation Ordinance by excluding from the definition of " industrial disputes " those in which the objection to the employment of certain workmen was based on racial grounds. The effect of the amendment, which in due course was enacted, was to prohibit even peaceful picketing in cases where Jewish workers intended to protect themselves against displacement by Arab labour. The Executive represented to Government that while the amendment purported to prevent racial discrimination by Jews against Arabs, it introduced itself an 453