36 mahatma gandhi and the jewish national homeMahatma and the Jewish Cause
The overall views of the Mahatma toward Jewish aspirations ex-
hibited both a degree of consistency and fundamental contradictions.
Despite citing him ad nauseam, scholars have only highlighted the for-
mer aspect. Though he did say that “Palestine belongs to the Arabs,” it
was not the Mahatma’s central view on the subject.
Let us fi rst look at the consistencies. The Mahatma had argued through-
out that the Jewish national home should be realized only with the consent
of the Arabs of Palestine. Much to the consternation of his Jewish and Zi-
onist interlocutors, he repeatedly underlined the need for Jewish accom-
modation with the Arabs. From the very beginning, he was not blind to the
Arab character of Palestine, and in so doing, he unequivocally rejected the
arguments of Israel Zangwill that Palestine was a “land without people.”^51
While gradually diluting his opposition regarding a Jewish homeland, he
emphasized the need for the Jews to cooperate with the Arabs.^52 Even in
his private statement to Kallenbach, he declared: “No exception can possi-
bly be taken to the natural desire of the Jews to found a home in Palestine.
But they must wait for its fulfi llment till Arab opinion is ripe for it.”^53
Gandhi periodically repeated this argument, and even in his Harijan
article, he stressed the need for a cooperative attitude:
They [the Jews] can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs.
They could seek to convert the Arab heart.... They can off er satya-
graha in front of the Arabs and off er themselves to be shot or thrown
into the Dead Sea without raising a little fi nger against them. They
will fi nd the world opinion in their favor in their religious aspira-
tions. There are hundreds of ways of reasoning with the Arabs, if
they will only discard the help of the British bayonet. As it is they are
co- sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no
wrong to them.^54In short, Jewish aspirations must be realized in consonance and not in
confl ict with the Arabs.
This position lines up with the Mahatma’s basic belief that liberation
could not be realized through a collaboration with imperialism. His atti-
tude toward World War II clearly exhibited this line of thinking. He re-
fused to support the British war eff ort even in defense of democracy. He