Joseph Berger on British imperialism’s utterly cynical policy in Mandatory Palestine. Needing to buffer its rule with loyal Jewish migrants, it had no intention whatever of ‘granting’ an independent Jewish state, despite backroom promises to Zionists. Rather, for nearly all of its rule it attempted to play Arabs and Jews of of each other, presenting itself as an ‘honest broker,’ despite being entirely responsible for the crises and conflict. The years of Mandatory rule under the first Labour governments of Ramsay MacDonald, Keir Starmer’s being only a more mediocre version of that mediocrity, were among the most duplicitous and vicious of the regimes to run the empire.

‘Bloodshed and Treachery of the MacDonald Government in Palestine’ by Joseph Berger from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 10. No. 30. June 26, 1930.

The imperialist system of violence and oppression represented by the MacDonald Government has been hard hit by the rise of the colonial revolution and is making desperate attempts to prevent the outbreak of a new insurrection in the Arabian countries which would mean a colossal strengthening of the anti-British struggle for freedom and also a turning point in the attitude of the Mahommedans in India. This explains the grotesque manoeuvres of the British policy in Palestine.

First of all the British tried to calm down the Arabian nationalist leaders by putting up a temporary bar to further Jewish immigration into Palestine. Although this order is temporary and the miserable economic collapse of Zionism long ago prevented any Jewish mass immigration into Palestine, the insulting form in which the immigration permission was withdrawn, and the sending of a special commissar, (Sir John Simpson) who is to inquire into the desirability of the prohibition of the sale of land to Jews in Palestine (this investigation is also intended to throw sand into the eyes of the Arabians with regard to the possibility of protection through the British against a Zionist invasion), was a cunning deceptive manouvre.

The inevitable and hypocritical cries of protest came from the Jewish world reaction, from “Vilna to San Francisco”, and from the religious “Agudass Yissroel” to the red-draped “Poale Zion” against this shutting out of the Jews from the holy land (which is actually, when seen from the Zionist standpoint and after all the services and boot-licking carried out, by Zionism towards British imperialism, peculiar thanks from the house of MacDonald.

This howl from the lackeys of British imperialism who see themselves cheated of their wages, is intended to nourish the illusion amongst the Arabaian leaders that MacDonald is prepared to give way a little (even at the cost of the Jews who have been used as the pawn in the game). At the same time the Arabian leaders would have an argument towards the Arabian masses in order to convince them that the negotiations with British imperialism and the journeys to London have met with a certain success; the authority of the national reformist leaders was to be strengthened, particularly against the national revolutionary wing (Hamdi Husseini) and against the rapidly extending communist agitation demanding the breaking off of all negotiations and the struggle against imperialism and Zionism by direct mass action.

Although MacDonald makes concessions to the reactionary Arabian leaders, this does not mean that his under-strappers in Palestine have abolished the regime of blood and terror against the masses. The persecution of revolutionaries is being continued. Arrests, raids and searches against revolutionary Arabian and Jewish workers are being continued. When it is a question of revolutionary workers, the representatives of the blood-bespattered Labour Government are not only ruthless and brutal, but also perfidious: Although the British government officially promised to introduce a special prison regime for politicals in accordance with their standard of life, a promise which was made only after a hunger strike of a hundred prisoners which lasted twelve days, the prison officials (apparently at the orders of the government) have reintroduced the old regime where Arabian political prisoners are concerned, and even increased the mishandling and brutality.

The British administrative apparatus in Palestine which carries out the orders of MacDonald and of the condescending Lord Passfield (Sidney Webb), hesitated a long time at carrying out the death sentences passed on the Arabian participators in the August disturbances. Protests against the execution of the Arabian peasants came in from the whole Arabian east, from various Mahommedan countries and from all circles of the population in Palestine (with the exception of the bloodthirsty Zionists whose English organ “Palestine Daily Bulletin” acted upon the principle “Rather hang innocent people than not hang at all”). But it was clear that British prestige could not be maintained without executions; in addition it was necessary to give the Zionists some sort of compensation for the ban on immigration.

The execution of three Arabian peasants in Jerusalem caused stormy protest demonstrations of the Arabian masses, violent collision with British troops occurred both in Jaffa and in Jerusalem. The brutal execution of the unfortunate Arabian Fellaheen exposed the hangman’s countenance of the Labour Government and will show the Arabian population not only in Palestine but in all Arabian countries the necessity for overthrowing British imperialist terrorism.

It must not be overlooked that both the bloody oppression and the cunning manoeuvres of MacDonald in Palestine are not only intended to continue the brutal suppression of the Arabian movement for freedom, but also to continue the British policy which has been carried out during the last twelve years, of embroiling the Jews. The Jewish population, with the exception of the Jewish workers who followed the flag of the Communist Party of Palestine, supported the Zionist campaign of incitement; the protest against the immigration ban were anti-Arabian provocations; the arrests amongst the Arab population and the severest punishments passed on revolutionaries, were greeted by the Jewish press. Instead of building bridges to the Arabian working masses, the Zionist organisations contented themselves with bribing suspicious elements and with dishonest manoeuvres in the interests of imperialism. Thus the Jewish population again ran the danger of supplying sacrifices for British imperialism in Palestine.

It is the task of the Communist Party of Palestine to organise the anti-imperialist struggle of the Arabian working masses and to win the Jewish working masses to take part in this struggle in their own interests. It is necessary for those communist parties working amongst the Jewish toilers in other countries (particularly Poland, Lithuania, Roumania, the United States etc.) to expose the dangerous and damaging role of Zionism. The Communist Party of Great Britain must pay constant attention to exposing MacDonald’s regime of terror in Palestine.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1930/v10n30-jun-26-1930-Inprecor-op.pdf