Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-27
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

Race war RACES in Jerusalem. The
city is now under martial law, but be-
| fore the military authorities undertook
to bring order out Of the rioting scores
of Jews and scores Of Arabs had been
killed and many more scores wounded
| But for the presence Of British troops,
some Of which had come by airplane
from Egypt, there Is no doubt that the
Arabs and other MoSlems would seek to
annihilate all Jews and perhaps include
Christians in their fanatical hatred of
all things not Moslem. Some Christians
have already been slain in the rioting.
- +
The immediate trouble began on Fri
day, August l6, when three Jewish boys
were attacked by group Of Arabs
while the Jews were playing ball. Sim
, liar trouble rose almost Immediately In
other parts of the city rs II by pre-
arrangement of a Moslem conspiracy.
The principal attack, however, was
made. upon the Jews at the Wailing
Wall, where they go to pray, leaning
against the great stone foundation OF
Solomon's Temple-all that Is left OF
the ancient ruined temple.
The friction is of long standing and
centers about the Wailing Wall. Some
months ago the All-Palestine Jewish
Committee for the Defense Of the
Wailing Wall issued a general appeal
dissertation Of that last remnant Of the
temple by the Moslems, who own it as
bit Of real estate, but hate it as a
shrine of the Jews, their enemies. The
protest begs that the Wailing Wallis
title be returned to the Jews through
government action, but the British
government, holding the mandate from
the League Of Nations. delays such ac-
ton on the pretense or policy Of dodg-
ing trouble by maintaining the status
quo ante. since the Arabs owned 1t prior
to the World War mandate. The Arab
population outnumbers the Jews ten to
one throughout Palestine.
+ Il +
In accord with Jewish custom, q par
tition wall Of wood separates the males
from the women at prayer. This wall
has given the Moslems an objective of
attack upon various occasions, when
they have torn it down, to the dismay
Of the Jews. Recently the MoSlems got
building permit from the government
for certain construction opposite the
Wailing Wall, with the stipulation that
Moslems should not pass that way dur
stipulation hundreds of Moslems ig-
nored, and they crowded In o mob
through the gate Of the wall dividing
the sexes ct prayer.
It Is claimed that the Moslems were
incensed by several hundred young
Jews, who assembled at the waiting
Wall, not for prayer but to celebrate
Zionism with the display Of flags and
with oratorical agitation. Thereupon
august 16l according to q report pub.
lished in the Jewish Daily Bulletin of
New York, 1000 Moslems poured out Of
the mosque where they had been cele-
brating Mohammet's birthday, and at
tackled the Jewish agitators, overturn-
ing their speakers table and selling
psalm books, written prayers and petit
| tons, which the devout Jews had put
into crevices of the ancient wall. These
papers the Moslems burned upon the
street.
Hence the chief rabbi Of Palestine, in
q press interview, gave this utterance:
"The Englishmen are proud that one
Of their kings sponsored the tranSla-
ton of the Bible into English, thus en-
riching the culture of the world. The
British administration Of Palestine must
now be ashamed that, under its rule,
the psalm books were burned In the
place which is hottest to Jews. near the
wall initiated by the author OF the
Psalms himself"
There Is one phase Of the situation
! which has not been discussed in the
press dispatches in connection with the
present trouble; it is the alleged siding
Of native Christians" with the Mos
lens, against the Jews. The statement
appears to an American Christian too
preposterous to be mentioned seriously,
but in q book by the well known
English writer, @. K. Chesterton, en-
titled 1.-THE New jerusalem" Is this
statement:
"The truth is that these guarrels are
rather about patriotism than about
religion, in the sense Of theolcgy-that
Is, they are just such heroic passions
as we can in the West by, the name Of
nationalism: but they are conditioned
| by the extraordinarily complicated
/ condition Of the nations. or what COR
responds 70 nations.
4 A.
Referring to two Jewish zionistic