The Resources of Palestine
NUMEROUS arguments, political and economic, are brought to bear against the movement to direct the colonization of the Jews to the East, or, properly speaking, to Palestine. The chief arguments of its opponents are:
Arguments Against Palestine
Palestine is not fit for colonization because of its thousand years’ desolation and the decline of agriculture which has placed it in such a state as to make its improvement impossible. The dismantling of the forests has altered the once favorable climate; the thin layer of soil formed on the slopes of un- fertile mountains has been washed down by the heavy winter rains; the valleys, in the absence of draining facilities, have turned to swamps and breed malaria and other diseases.
These are given as the reasons for the present state of Palestine. It is further said, there can be no hope of improving conditions except by spending a few decades in constructing sanitary works to remedy the deleterious influences and thus to make the country favorable for settlement. Consequently, it is futile to attempt to colonize in Palestine, whether individually or by means of association, unless we are prepared to expend an incalculable sum as a sinking capital; and if capital is required, far better results could be obtained in Argentine, Canada, or even in Russia. And again, Palestine is too small and too mountainous for the accommodation of a large number of people; the climate is bad, worse than other parts of the Orient.
In order to disprove these serious charges, it will be necessary to consider with some care the principles that underlie, or should underlie, the work of colonization in Palestine and its neighboring lands. Of what use
will be the beautiful and solid structure if its foundations are unsound; of what significance ardent and disinterested labor, if expectations cannot be realized?
The Principle of Colonization
Let us deal first with the geographical principle of colonization, i. e., the peculiarities of the soil, its fitness for agriculture, its topography, its size, accessibility, natural resources and all other factors that may have some bearing on the value of the land. . . .
It is remarkable that after so much work in exploration, the knowledge of the country remains confined to scientific circles. The public at large remains totally ignorant. The probable cause of this ignorance is the lack of roads in Palestine.
Travelers having little time at their disposal, confine themselves to the beaten path of the Jaffa-Jerusalem road, and at most take a turn to Jericho and Bethlehem. The best part of Palestine, therefore, escapes their observation. The road to Jericho cuts through the Wilderness of Judah, which is a tract of waste land. While in Jaffa, the traveler does not give himself time to visit the neighboring country, where he could see the well-cultivated and flourishing colonies. The spot where he may get a true impression of the rich flora of Palestine is in the Hotel du Park, a garden built by Baron Ustin in Jaffa. Tourists suppose, doubtless, that this flourishing oasis was planted at the expense of a colossal sum of money and incredible efforts. As a matter of fact, the Hotel du Park is an experiment garden which plainly demonstrates how little manual labor is required in this beneficient climate to cultivate forests and groves of tropical and sub-tropical trees and shrubberies. The Hotel du Park impresses one as a rich tropical garden. One sees varieties of fan-palms, the tropical forms of