NEWS from one hundred years ago: JEWS AND ZIONISM

Israel Cohen is drawing large crowds while touring New Zealand on behalf of the Zionist movement. Zionism aims at creating a Jewish national state in Palestine. New Zealand troops, together with others from the British Empire, invaded and occupied Palestine during the First World War. William Massey, prime minister and leader of the parliamentary Reform Party, says the Jews are ‘a marvellous people.’ He speaks ardently in favour of making the new imperial territory a national state for Jews. Sir Robert Stout, an elderly Liberal, says that ‘the Semitic race, of which the Jews form a part, is one of the greatest the world has seen.’ Nobody, he claims, ‘can object to their desire to return to the country they so love ... they ask for the right to live in peace in Palestine, with no privileges beyond those enjoyed by the other peoples in that land.’ Cohen points out that at the moment there is ‘a slight political difficulty’ since ‘there are some 500,000 Arabs there, and only 80,000 Jews.’ The Arabs, he adds, ‘consider that they have grievances against the Jews.’ Jews have full legal rights in New Zealand but are often jeered at or looked down on by large numbers of people in nearly every social group.

The Dominion, 6 September 1920; New Zealand Truth, 18 September 1920