This fascinating essay, written by King Husseins grandfather King Abdullah, appeared in the United States six months before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In the article, King Abdullah disputes the mistaken view that Arab opposition to Zionism (and later the state of Israel) is because of longstanding religious or ethnic hatred. He notes that Jews and Muslims enjoyed a long history of peaceful coexistence in the Middle East, and that Jews have historically suffered far more at the hands of Christian Europe. Pointing to the tragedy of the holocaust that Jews suffered during World War II, the monarch asks why America and Europe are refusing to accept more than a token handful of Jewish immigrants and refugees. It is unfair, he argues, to make Palestine, which is innocent of anti-Semitism, pay for the crimes of Europe. King Abdullah also asks how Jews can claim a historic right to Palestine, when Arabs have been the overwhelming majority there for nearly 1300 uninterrupted years? The essay ends on an ominous note, warning of dire consequences if a peaceful solution cannot be found to protect the rights of the indigenous Arabs of Palestine.
So many billions of words have been written about Palestineperhaps more than on any other subject in historythat I hesitate to add to them. Yet I am compelled to do so, for I am reluctantly convinced that the world in general, and America in particular, knows almost nothing of the true case for the Arabs.
Our case is quite simple: For nearly 2,000 years Palestine has been almost 100 per cent Arab. It is still preponderantly Arab today, in spite of enormous Jewish immigration. But if this immigration continues we shall soon be outnumbereda minority in our home.
Damascus, Baghdad, Beirut and other Arab centres have always contained large and prosperous Jewish colonies. Until the Zionist invasion of Palestine began, these Jews received the most generous treatmentfar, far better than in Christian Europe. Now, unhappily, for the first time in history, these Jews are beginning to feel the effects of Arab resistance to the Zionist assault. Most of them are as anxious as Arabs to stop it. Most of these Jews who have found happy homes among us resent, as we do, the coming of these strangers.
Such fragmentary records as we have indicate that the Jews were wandering nomads from Iraq who moved to southern Turkey, came south to Palestine, stayed there a short time, and then passed to Egypt, where they remained about 400 years. About 1300 BC (according to your calendar) they left Egypt and gradually conquered mostbut not allof the inhabitants of Palestine.
It is significant that the Philistinesnot the Jewsgave their name to the country: "Palestine" is merely the Greek form of "Philistia."
Only once, during the empire of David and Solomon, did the Jews ever control nearlybut not allthe land which is today Palestine. This empire lasted only 70 years, ending in 926 BC. Only 250 years later the Kingdom of Judah had shrunk to a small province around Jerusalem, barely a quarter of modern Palestine.
I am not being facetious. All these claims are just as validor just as fantasticas the Jewish "historic connection" with Palestine. Most are more valid.
The Jews say, and rightly, that Palestine is the home of their religion. It is likewise the birthplace of Christianity, but would any Christian nation claim it on that account? In passing, let me say that the Christian Arabsand there are many hundreds of thousands of them in the Arab Worldare in absolute agreement with all other Arabs in opposing the Zionist invasion of Palestine.
We are told that we are inhumane and heartless because do not accept with open arms the perhaps 200,000 Jews in Europe who suffered so frightfully under Nazi cruelty, and who even nowalmost three years after wars endstill languish in cold, depressing camps.
And yet, to ease their consciences, these Christian nations of the West are asking Palestinea poor and tiny Moslem country of the Eastto accept the entire burden. "We have hurt these people terribly," cries the West to the East. "Wont you please take care of them for us?"
But we say that Palestine has already sheltered 600,000 refugees. We believe that is enough to expect of useven too much. We believe it is now the turn of the rest of the world to accept some of them.
And yet this same Americathe richest, greatest, most powerful nation the world has ever knownrefuses to accept more than a token handful of these same Jews herself!
If you or I were given a choice between a near-prison camp for the rest of our livesor Palestinewe would both choose Palestine, too.
But open up any other alternative to themgive them any other choice, and see what happens!
No poll, however, will be worth anything unless the nations of the earth are willing to open their doorsjust a littleto the Jews. In other words, if in such a poll a Jew says he wants to go to Sweden, Sweden must be willing to accept him. If he votes for America, you must let him come in.
The rate of increase has been terrifying. In a few more yearsunless stopped nowit will overwhelm us, and we shall be an important minority in our own home.
Surely the rest of the wide world is rich enough and generous enough to find a place for 200,000 Jewsabout one third the number that tiny, poor Palestine has already sheltered. For the rest of the world, it is hardly a drop in the bucket. For us it means national suicide.
The sorry story of the so-called "Balfour Declaration," which started Zionist immigration into Palestine, is too complicated to repeat here in detail. It is grounded in broken promises to the Arabspromises made in cold print which admit no denying.
In the 1920s, Arabs were annoyed and insulted by Zionist immigration, but not alarmed by it. It was steady, but fairly small, as even the Zionist founders thought it would remain. Indeed for some years, more Jews left Palestine than entered itin 1927 almost twice as many.
But the next yearthe year of Hitlerit jumped to 30,000! In 1934 it was 42,000! In 1935 it reached 61,000!
The present catastrophe may be laid almost entirely at your door. Your government, almost alone in the world, is insisting on the immediate admission of 100,000 more Jews into Palestineto be followed by countless additional ones. This will have the most frightful consequences in bloody chaos beyond anything ever hinted at in Palestine before.
It is your press and political leadership, almost alone in the world, who press this demand. It is almost entirely American money which hires or buys the "refugee ships" that steam illegally toward Palestine: American money which pays their crews. The illegal immigration from Europe is arranged by the Jewish Agency, supported almost entirely by American funds. It is American dollars which support the terrorists, which buy the bullets and pistols that kill British soldiersyour alliesand Arab citizensyour friends.
What would your answer be if some outside agency told you that you must accept in America many millions of utter strangers in your midstenough to dominate your countrymerely because they insisted on going to America, and because their forefathers had once lived there some 2,000 years ago?