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Palestine: A Policy is a history book by British civil servant and historian, Albert Montefiore Hyamson, which provides a history of the idea and practise of Zionism from the Eighteenth Century and the British Mandate for Palestine until 1942. ==Background== In 1937, against the background of the deliberations and findings of the Peel Commission, Hyamson wrote a number of letters to the editor of The Times newspaper. The first, in May, said that partition of Palestine was a bad idea and would mark a surrender to extremists on both sides. He wrote that partition would destroy the ideal of a Palestinian state with Jewish and Arab citizens living together, and lead to the creation of two mutually hostile countries that would require the British army to keep the peace between them. Hyamson's alternative was of 'the ideal of a united Palestine, with Jewish and Arab citizens all civilly and politically equal and free', organised under a system similar to the Ottoman millet approach where all communities would be given the widest possible autonomy in all matters.〔Albert M. Hyamson (''The Palestine Problem''. ) The Times, London. 5 May 1937: 12. The Times Digital Archive.〕 His second letter, written in July, entreated the British government to postpone partition while the moderate Jews and Arabs came to a measure of cooperation.〔Albert M. Hyamson ''The Palestine Report - Is Reconciliation Possible?'' The Times, London. 17 July 1937: 12. The Times Digital Archive.〕 In August he wrote to point out that it was the Jewish Agency and rather than the Zionist Organisation that could properly claim to represent the Jews of Palestine. Further, he believed that proposals for a hundred thousand Jewish immigrants per year would make the country impossibly crowded.〔Albert M. Hyamson ''Powers of the Zionist Organization''. The Times, London. 18 August 1937: 12. The Times Digital Archive.〕 Finally, in October he wrote to say partition was unpopular and should be avoided.〔Albert M. Hyamson ''Partition in Palestine''. The Times, London. 29 Oct 1937: 12. The Times Digital Archive.〕 He wrote another letter in April 1938 reflecting on the vote in the House of Commons to extend Palestinian citizenship to Jewish sufferers of Nazi oppression in Europe could only remain a gesture of sympathy, but remained impossible in practise and that it might be seen as a threat by Palestinian Arabs.〔Albert M. Hyamson ''Palestine Citizenship for Jews''. The Times, London. 19 April 1938: 12. The Times Digital Archive.〕 In the early and mid 1940s Hyamson promoted the bi-nationalism of Judah L Magnes whenever he could. He collaborated with Norman Bentwich and others in 1943 to distribute a pamphlet on the policy by Magnes. In an article published in ''The Contemporary Review'' in 1945 he set forth his reasons for supporting bi-nationalism (as the best compromise between either Zionist or Arab dominance of Palestine), which he reiterated in a letter to ''The Jewish Chronicle'' in 1946. Hyamson also wrote a number of articles supporting Magnes in ''The Jewish Outlook'', the journal of the Jewish Fellowship.〔Miller, Rory (2006). "(J.L. Magnes and the Promotion of Bi-Nationalism in Palestine )", ''Jewish Journal of Sociology''. Vol. 48, no1-2 p.63〕 Prior to the publication of ''Palestine: A Policy'', Hyamson was apparently worried by the Zionist reaction within the Jewish community and wrote to his friend Sir Ronald Storrs that he believed he would be 'in for a bout of persecution' on account of the book. He also asked Storrs, who wrote the foreword to the book, if he wouldn't mind toning down his comments as he was facing enough pressure without Storrs’ contribution adding to this.〔Miller, Rory, (''Divided Against Zion: Anti-Zionist Opposition to the Creation of a Jewish State in Palestine, 1945-1948'' ), Routledge, 2013 p.173〕 Storrs’s introduction likened Hyamson’s book to Norman Bentwich’s ''Wanderer Between Two Worlds'' for its ability to explain Jews and Zionism to Gentiles and its ability to see both sides of the argument. He also mentions that Hyamson’s dispassionate analysis might be taken as betrayal by more extreme Zionists. However, Storrs believes it would be a strange paradox if territorial Zionism overcame spiritual Zionism. After recapping a few of Hyamson’s main points (including that Hyamson would consider himself a Zionist), he concludes that few people would disagree that Arabs would benefit from Jewish cooperation and prosperity, and the book may be a step towards that understanding.〔Storrs, Sir Anthony in Hyamson, Alfred Montefiore ''Palestine: A Policy'', Methuen, 1942, pps v-ix〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Palestine: A Policy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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