Arthur James Balfour in the Middle East, March-April 1925 “Perhaps it was an affectation, but he genuinely did not seem to realize how deeply he was loathed across the region. He had visited Syria for pleasure, “and had he the slightest inkling it would cause disturbances he would never have come.” In late March 1925 Arthur James Balfour visited the Middle East. He had been invited to open the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, so it was a good opportunity to see something of a region in which it could not be said his name was unknown. He landed by ship in Alexandria and visited Cairo before moving on to Palestine by land. Protests followed him all the way: in Gaza, Tulkarm, Jerusalem, Haifa, and other towns in Palestine, schools were closed and a general strike was declared. Completely boycotted by the Arabs, his consolation lay in the rapturous reception he was given by the Zionists. An honor guard of young men mounted on horseback met him at Rishon-le-Zion and escorted him to the settlement synagogue. Tel Aviv was bedecked with Zionist and British flags; at a civic reception a choir sang the Hallelujah Chorus. The redeemer had indeed arrived. In his speeches he described himself as an “old friend” of Baron Edmund de Rothschild (to whom he had addressed his famous declaration of 1917) and “one of the oldest Zionists, whose enthusiasm for Zionism antedated by very many years the Balfour Declaration”1 On April 1 he declared the Hebrew University open before an audience of distinguished guests who included Sir Herbert Samuel (the high commissioner), Viscount Allenby, and Chaim Weizmann. Then he made the mistake of going to Damascus. As his train rolled northward on the morning of April 8—no stops on this trip—villagers gathered by the side of the line to curse him. Anticipating even greater problems in Damascus, the French mandatory authorities escorted Balfour off the train before it reached the terminal and raced him away in a convoy of cars to the Victoria Hotel. A crowd of men of all ages, waiting at the terminal to greet him, rushed in the direction of the hotel when they learned he had left the train at the Qadam station. They demonstrated for an hour before retreating to the Hamidiyya market around the Umayyad mosque. (Salt 2008, 122) The next day thousands of demonstrators marched on the hotel after noon prayers, broke through the police barriers, and almost reached the front door before being scattered. The following day (April 10) there were more demonstrations. Armored cars and tanks were moved into the city and intimidatory runs made by low-flying aircraft. Balfour had still not been outside his hotel, and it was definitely time to move him on. The high commissioner, General Maurice Sarrail, arranged a distraction. Smoke bombs were dropped from aircraft. Balfour and his party were whisked out of a rear door of the Victoria in the confusion. They were driven straight to Beirut, where more trouble awaited. Demonstrations had been organized and a general strike declared, but the convoy veered off the main road and managed to reach the port without incident. Balfour was safely put on board a French ship, which sailed immediately for Alexandria. Perhaps it was an affectation, but he genuinely did not seem to realize how deeply he was loathed across the region. He had visited Syria for pleasure, “and had he the slightest inkling it would cause disturbances he would never have come.”2 Source: Jeremy Salt, The Unmaking of the Middle East: A History of Western Disorder in Arab Lands (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008, pp. 122-123).
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 22:50:18 +0000
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