On Jews & Middle-Eastby by Mohandas K. Gandhi　　Part I ( その他人文科学 ) - あらぶだからぶら Dubai the Wonderland

１９３８年１１月にマハトマ　ガンディーが発表した、ユダヤ人と中東についての論文です。　ガンディーの原文そのままを三度に分けて掲載します。

This is an article written by Gandhi almost 80 years ago.
It shows his vision of how the Jews shouldn't create a homeland
in Palestine. Why the Jews don't belong in the Arablands.

Gandhi on Jews and Middle East

A Non-Violent Look at Conflict & Violence

It is of utmost importance to remember the time of this writing.
It is 1938, Hitler is ruling Germany, and the clouds of a terrible
conflict have begun to form. Gandhi's article shows his incredible
sense of right and wrong, his blind faith in his methodology,
and his profound vision of things to come. - Ed.

On Jews & Middle-East
by Mohandas K. Gandhi

Several letters have been received by me asking me to declare my
views about the Arab-Jew question in Palestine and the persecution
of the Jews in Germany . It is not without hesitation that I
venture to offer my views on this very difficult question.

My sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known them intimately
in South Africa . Some of them became life-long companions. T
hrough these friends I came to learn much of their age-long
persecution. They have been the untouchables of Christianity.
The parallel between their treatment by Christians and the
treatment of untouchables by Hindus is very close. Religious
sanction has been invoked in both cases for the justification of
the inhuman treatment meted out to them. Apart from the
friendships, therefore, there is the more common universal reason
for my sympathy for the Jews.

But my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice.
The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make =2 0much
appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the
tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to
Palestine . Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth,
make that country their home where they are born and where they
earn their livelihood?

Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England
belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and
inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in
Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct.
The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war. Surely it
would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so
that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as
their national home. The nobler course would be to insist on a
just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred.
The Jews born in France are French in precisely the same sense
that Christians born in France are French.

If the Jews have no home but Palestine, will they relish the idea
of being forced to leave the other parts of the world in which
they are settled? Or do they want a double home where they can
remain at will? This cry for the national home affords a
colorable justification for the German expulsion of the Jews.

But the German persecution of the Jews seems to have no parallel
in history. The tyrants of old never went so mad as Hitler seems
to have gone. And he is doing it with religious zeal. For he is
propounding a new religion of exclusive and militant nationalism
in the name of which many inhumanity becomes an act of humanity
to be rewarded here and hereafter. The crime of an obviously mad
but intrepid youth is being visited upon his whole race with
unbelievable ferocity.

If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for
humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton
persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified.
But I do not believe in any war. A discussion of the pros and
cons of such a war is therefore outside my horizon or province.

But if there can be no war against Germany , even for such a
crime as is being committed against the Jews, surely there can
be no alliance with Germany. How can there be alliance between
a nation which claims to stand for justice and democracy and one
which is the declared enemy of both? Or is England drifting
towards armed dictatorship and all it means?

Germany is showing to the world how efficiently violence can be
worked when it is not hampered by any hypocrisy or weakness
masquerading as humanitarianism. It is also showing how hideous,
terrible and terrifying it looks in its nakedness.

... To be continued

Part II　へつづく

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