A

7

a N J

Policy of peace and friendship vital

Can Israel be secure?

By SOLLY KAYE

and Canadian and for many others,

events in the Middle been the cause of

g security. ands more have emigrat- n the earnest hope that ablishment of a Jewish 1 state in Israe] would the age-old problem

it is a fact that one and

f million Jews ar

in Israel, and that

land is now in the 1

a powderkeg. Many Jews |

that by

nestly believed on Egypt, put a stop to fron- strengthen

Isr ge wou

ts and

Today. they know

book of I it armed Jordan to. invade

ished state of

the book of ers, ~ ey encour- mmigration of sums of

invested huge money in Israel and wooed it At the same their: best to Arabia’s_ king bitter in his hatred anyone) with arms

“for the

old imperialist sto and conquer.

pendence of yas promised to the reward for helping

Ar abs as a the Allies in the First World

estine wi Zionists reward for the

ac hz a ror Ss in the same war.

NE

iends? Added to the division be tween the countries of the Mid- there is rivalry be- ests in, France and the . 22 is “vital area. They would love to sink their dif- ferences in unity inst the Soviet Union, but cannot turn backs lest their “allies” march on them. friend of Israel knows t without the help of the Soviet Union the newly born state would have had a far tougher in the danger years Indeed, it is

— home for

es

RE

0

Fates Se

This picture shows Chaim Israel, addressing the constituent

questionable as to whether it would have survived at all.

The Soviet Union made it clear from the outset that it believed the best solution to the problem in Palestine was for all the people there*to take part in its government. And as the overwhelming numbers were Arab and Jew, there should be set up a bi-national state, in which both peoples would have equal rights.

This was opposed by im- perialists. It was opposed by the Zionists. It was opposed by the rulers of the Arab coun- tries.

In the face of this the Soviet Union agreed to a_ solution that two states, one Jewish and one Arab, be set up in the territory of Palestine. This pro- posal was adopted by the United Nations Assembly by a vote of 23-13, with 10 absten- tions, with all the Arab states voting against.

In 1948 British troops were withdrawn from Palestine, The new state of Israel was set up and was attacked by the armies of the Arab states backed at

Weizman, first president of assembly at Jerusalem in 1948.

that time by Britain under a Labor government.

In this war,‘certain territory that was to have been the Arab state in Palestine was annexed by Jordan (with troops paid and léd by Brit- ain), while other territories were annexed by Israel.

Since then, the Soviet Union pursued a policy of trade and friendship both with the Arab states and with Israel — until the Israeli attack in November:

1956. *

The situation worsened when imperialist pressure was used to get bases in the Middle East. When this was rejected by Egypt, earning the hostility of the imperialists, Israel’s gov- ernment pursued a policy of friendship and aid to imperial- ism.

The Bagdad war pact was welcomed by Israel, but op- posed by Egypt.

By its geographical position and its economic and political policy of helping more back- ward countries on the basis of

Concluded on Page 12

JOHANNESBURG: Gold and poverty

By ALEX LA GUMA

FONG ago it was alj roll-

ing land which grim, stern, bearded men guarded with long guns and narrow-minded bigotry. They guarded the land from the people from whom they had taken it. They lived in isolation, one from the other,

-and their minds grew stunted

and warped and murky with the disease of racial prejudice, until mental anaemia saw only white and the black was to be feared as a little child fears the dark.

Then one day a man walking

in the long fields came across a stone. It was soft as lead and dull yellow. This stone could be smelted, refined, pro- cessed and turned into the shiny metal which crowns were made of. And then the people knew that wealth lay beneath the brown earth.

And then men came with spades and pans and tools to tear up the land and wrench the richness from its bowels. They fought and cursed and killed for wealth below the green grass. They built shan- ties and sunk shafts. They poured in from all horizons. They built a roaring,-roistering town, and called it Johannes- burg.

% ot tt

But greed is a disease that gnaws at the vitals and eats at the soul. It spreads like mould and its remedy _is its satisfac- tion.

Foreign men coveted the richness of the Transvaal and the stern, bearded men tock their rifles down from the walls and their long columns rode out to fight the invaders. They lost because they were overpowered by sup rior num- bers and their own bigotry And thereafter the yellow gold was owned by. strange men who sat in clamoring offices and watched long ribbons of paper winding out of clicking machines.

Far across the seas, the gold became tiny numbers which in- creased or diminished. The owners of the gold did not dig it from the ground, they did not hear the sharp sound of a piclg striking rock or hear the clatter of pneumatic drills. They did not feel the sweat dripping from the brow or the hurt of strained muscles, the hard horniness of calloused palms.

Chinese werei brought to dig the gold, and when they could not do it, the black men were torn from families, wives, chil- dren and the ripe land to dig down into the darkness to find the yellow metal.

They sweated and died and created mountains where once the land had been green and virgin. And around the man- made mountains the shanties dropped away, and in. their place grew a jungle of granite and steel and chromium.

The mud paths became boulevards and macadam

roads. The swaggering miners of old were replaced by new swarms of harassed, wor- ried people, fenced in by stone and concrete and all forms of oppression,

Alongside the mines new in- dustries grew up and the army of workers grew up in num- bers and absorbed the atmos- phere of strength. And the workers were dark-skinned in the main, and the rulers of them feared them, and made laws to bind and pinion their strength.

es 03 es

Today the mark of racialism, oppression and brutality lies like a hideous birthmark on the face of Johannesburg. It is seen in the slums and locations, the bulldozed stretches of the Wes- tern Areas, the jam-packed jails and the police with pistols and sten-guns,

It is seen in hunger and rags, gangsterism and rioting. You can tramp the miles of streets and see no place to quench your thirst or appease your hunger. The bright signs re- flect the rule of white suprem- acy. Bar-B-Que. 20th Century Fox. Giacomino. Palace Beer Hall. Woodpecker Inn,

The Flying Squad hurtles past, dodging the ~all-white buses. At the railway stations the cops stand by, to demand passes. Black men walk in fear.

But every coin has its re- verse. Beauty is found even in, a swamp. And the beauty is in the determination of the peo- ple. Beauty is in the long lines of bus-boycotters, the roar at a meeting of a people who no longer wish to be slaves.

There is beauty in the coffee stalls where you can buy a cup of steaming, hot brew and two delicious fat-cakes for a six- pence, and chat idly with the friendly man behind the coun- ter.

There is a richness greater than gold in the penny-whistle man walking easily along Prit- chard Street, playing his lively tunes,

There is a wealth untold in the welcome given by a work- ing family in Vrededrop, the cups of tea and the factory- made biscuits; the at-home in the location where the can of beer is passed from hand to hand, mouth to mouth.

There is beauty, too, in the welcoming smile of the she- been queen, for the shebeen has become a place of relaxa- tion, the local pub where pleas- antries are exchanged and the chatter is quiet and meaning- less.

, Beneath the stony facade of the City of Gold there is a song which singing cannot express. There is a cheerfulness -that laughter cannot satisfy. There is a vision that freedom will make as réal'as the sweat and the agony and the gold hihaa is its heart;

JUNE 14, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—”AGE 10