ثورة فلسطين - أسبابها ونتائجها
The Palestine Revolt: Its Causes and Consequencesby Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā

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ولكنهم على كل ما أوتوا من هذه القوى المعنوية، ليسوا بأولي قوة حربية؛ لأنهم كما قال الله تعالى فيهم: {أَحْرَصَ النَّاسِ عَلَى حَيَاةٍ} (البقرة: 96) وقد فقدوا ملكات الملك والاستقلال، وليس لهم من البراعة في الزراعة واستغلال الأرضين عشر معشار ما لهم من استغلال النفوذ، فهم يعتمدون فيما يرومون من الاستقلال في الوطن القومي في فلسطين على قوة الإنكليز تحميهم، وعلى استغلال أهلها العرب في تعمير ما يسلبونهم من رقبتها بجعلهم أجراء فيها، ولا يهولن أحدًا طلب عشرة آلاف من شبانهم الأمريكيين إذن حكومتهم لهم أن يذهبوا إلى فلسطين لقتال العرب؛ لأن الذي جرَّأهم على هذا هو ظل الدولة البريطانية، لا ظل الدولة اليهودية والراية الصهيونية، ولا شك أن الأمة العربية الحربية بالطبع أقوى منهم مهما يكن جمعهم وهجرتهم، وقد جمع اليهود وعدوانهم أشتات الشعوب العربية في أوطانها ومهاجرها، فاتفقوا على الدفاع عن عرب فلسطين وحفظ وطنهم لهم، واجتمعت كلمة العالم الإسلامي كله على تأييدهم، بل الأمر أعظم من ذلك، ولا قبل للدولة البريطانية بعداوة العرب والمسلمين، وإن كانت لا تزال مصرة على ظلمها في فلسطين.

(12) لقد كان الخطر الصهيوني على هذه البلاد عظيمًا لو جروا فيه على النهج الذي أشرنا إليه من أعمالهم في الأمم، من دس السم في الدسم، والصبر الطويل، مع إخفاء القصد البعيد، بنصب الحبائل الاقتصادية لابتياع الأرض بالتدريج، وجعل الهجرة إليها بالسير البطيء، ولكنهم استعجلوا، وقد يكون مع المستعجل الزلل، واغتروا باستخدام القوة الإنكليزية وضمها إلى قوتهم، وقد يحبط الغرورُ العملَ، وناهيك بغرور الماديين منهم بالمال، وغرور المتدينين منهم ببشارات الأنبياء، وغرور السياسيين منهم بما أوتوا من المكر والدهاء، ثم ناهيك بتأييد الدولة البريطانية لهذه القوى كلها بقوتها العظمى قوة التصرف في الأمم، والنفوذ في الدول، إذ أعطتهم بها وطنًا من أوطان الأمة العربية التي تعدها من ميراثها، وعند هذه الأمة من بشارة نبيها في الظهور على اليهود ما هو أصرح من بشارات أنبياء اليهود المبهمة، كما صرَّحنا به في العام الماضي وسنعود إليه بالتفصيل.

(وسنبين في الفصل الثاني من هذا المقال كنه حال الإنكليز وسياستهم مع العرب واليهود) .

English
translation

Yet for all these intangible strengths, they have no military power. As God Most High said of them, they are “the most eager of people for life” (al-Baqara 2:96). They have lost the qualities needed for rule and independence, and their ability in farming and working land is not one-hundredth of their ability to use influence. In seeking independence in a national home in Palestine, they therefore rely on English power to protect them and on the Arab inhabitants to develop the land whose ownership they seize, reducing those inhabitants to laborers there. No one should be frightened by the request of ten thousand young American Jews for their government's permission to go to Palestine to fight Arabs. What emboldened them was the shelter of the British state, not that of a Jewish state or Zionist flag. The Arab nation, warlike by nature, is surely stronger than they are, however great their numbers and immigration may become. The Jews and their aggression have brought together the scattered Arab peoples in their homelands and abroad to defend the Arabs of Palestine and preserve their homeland for them. The whole Muslim world has agreed to support them. Indeed, the matter is greater still: the British state cannot withstand the enmity of Arabs and Muslims, though it persists in its injustice in Palestine.

(12) The Zionist danger to this land would have been great had they followed the method we have described in their actions among peoples: mixing poison into rich food, waiting patiently while hiding a distant goal, setting economic traps to buy land gradually, and allowing immigration to proceed slowly. But they rushed, and haste can lead to error. They were deceived by their ability to use English power and add it to their own; pride may ruin the work. Consider the pride of their materialists in money, their religious members in prophetic promises, and their politicians in their cunning and resourcefulness. Then consider the British state's support for all these powers through its great strength, its ability to direct peoples and influence states. Through that power it gave them a homeland belonging to the Arab nation, which regards it as part of its inheritance. This nation has a promise from its prophet of triumph over the Jews more explicit than the vague promises of the Jews' prophets, as we said last year and will explain in detail again.

(In the second section of this article, we shall explain the true situation of the English and their policy toward Arabs and Jews.)

Analysis

Riḍā argues that יהודים YEHUDIM lack military strength, depend on English protection, and intend to reduce Arabs in ארץ ישראל EREẒ YISRAʾEL to laborers. He treats Arab and Muslim unity as the answer and invokes a prophetic promise of victory over Jews. This joins antizionism to claims about Jews as a whole and to a religious threat; it does not establish Jewish plans, Arab capacity, or future events. Qur'an 2:96 confirms the phrase he quotes about eagerness for life, but it does not support his inference that modern Jews lacked the qualities needed for rule or military defense. His parenthesis announces the next installment, published separately in the following issue.

A targeted check did not recover the reported request by ten thousand young American Jews. The United States diplomatic file for the 1929 violence concerns protection of American lives and property, claims, and representation before the inquiry. A contemporary American Palestine Jewish Legion report instead describes a planned colony of one hundred former legionnaires and a request that veterans be available to the Palestine administration during future trouble. These comparisons do not prove that Riḍā's report was false, but his number and claim of a request for United States government permission remain unverified.

The 1930 Hope Simpson report, an official British inquiry into contemporary land, labor, and immigration conditions, directly challenges Riḍā's claim that Jews lacked agricultural ability. It says the Jewish colonization departments were the only agencies pursuing a consistent agricultural development policy and records rapid development after the war. The same report criticizes a persistent Zionist policy of replacing Arab labor with Jewish labor in Zionist colonies. That record does not support Riḍā's claim that the general plan was to make Arabs the laborers who developed Jewish-owned land. Older private colonies did employ Arab workers, so the labor history was not uniform.

The absolute claim that Jews had no military capacity also fails. Britain formed three Jewish infantry battalions during the First World War, although the Jewish Legion was disbanded by 1921 and was not a sovereign Jewish army in 1929. The Haganah had armed members in 1929 and defended some communities after authorities refused its request to arm five hundred fighters, but a detailed study also describes its weapons and training as inadequate. These records show real but limited organized military capacity and continued dependence on British permission and protection in important places.