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Posted on 09/28/2022 1:28:27 AM PDT by Conservat1
Hassan Sidky el Dajani, a prominent Palestine Arab leader, publishes an open letter to the High Commissioner in the Arab organ, “Al Hayat”, declaring that it is not unusual for Arab female children in Palestine of ten years of age and under to be “hired out” for as many as 25 years at the rate of a pound a year. The Fellah sometimes has to sell his sons as slaves at the cheapest price in order to use the money to keep body and soul together, and to keep his wife alive, el Dajani writes. I have been with my own eyes a thing of which I will tell you. A man stopped us as we were motoring to Haifa and said to the driver, “I have a little girl with me; we want to travel to Bireh (near Ramallah). Have you any room?”. The driver said he had room, and the man brought back a young peasant child, not more than eight years of age. Her clothes were ragged and she was weeping. I asked the man where he had got the child, and he told me he had “hired” her and was sending her to his brother in Bireh. “Her parents”, he explained, “have let me take her for 25 years for the sum of £25. There is nothing to be surprised about, for there are persons who make worse bargains and buy girls outright – for ever”.
Another passenger said: “It is true; I have bought a little girl for myself and another for a cousin of mine. Many of my friends have bought girls. Prices six months ago were much higher. I had to pay £28 for my child, to say nothing of £2 for the agent who managed the business for me. Now prices have fallen. We train these children, he continued, and so do not have to hire servants, just as our fathers used to do with their manservants and maidservants”. I asked the man what the Government had to say about such a practice and the reply was: “Many of the Government officials buy such girls themselves. This is the truth; ask the Governor of Nablus or let him make enquiries to prove the truth of what I have said”.
This, el Dajani comments, is Palestine under the British Mandate, under the British Flag, which waves for civilisation, freedom and peace in the world.
I guess that when slavery is outlawed, only outlaws will have slaves.
We're supposed to conveniently forget that the non-Judeo-Christian world had to have slavery removed by force. Even in the 20th century.
Slavery is still legal in many African and ME countries.
My FRiend,
Thank you for posting that interesting excerpt from a PDF. How did you find it? [This brings back memories of discussions of a former president’s alleged birth certificate.]
The PDF seems to be an image of a seven page, single spaced, manually-typed document dated February 13, 1931. Because it is so densely packed, I unsuccessfully attempted to convert it to a text or MS Word document to make it easier to read.
I have but limited knowledge of Middle Eastern history. Can you share any information about the “JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY LTD,” and perhaps help us to understand the groups mentioned and the context of the document?
This document, and others like it, must be very useful to historians to better understand the issues of that era, and how groups present information about those with whom they disagree.
In addition to referring to slavery in the ME, it also has interesting comments about oil pipelines and health care in the area.
All of us have have been burned too often to not be curious about the sources of documents we see on the inter-webs. I hope we can learn more about the authenticity of the document, who wrote it, the point of view of the author(s) etc.
Thanks
JGC
Whoops. I apologize. I missed this while searching for the original.
Here is the entire portion slavery portion of the document, provided by the Jewish Telegram Website. [and I will get that overdue second cup of coffee]
“Hassan Sidky el Dajani, a prominent Palestine Arab leader, publishes an open letter to the High Commissioner in the Arab organ, “Al Hayat”, declaring that it is not unusual for Arab female children in Palestine of ten years of age and under to be “hired out” for as many as 25 years at the rate of a pound a year.
The Fellah sometimes has to sell his sons as slaves at the cheapest price in order to use the money to keep body and soul together, and to keep his wife alive, el Dajani writes. I have been with my own eyes a thing of which I will tell you. A man stopped us as we were motoring to Haifa and said to the driver, “I have a little girl with me; we want to travel to Bireh (near Ramallah). Have you any room?”. The driver said he had room, and the man brought back a young peasant child, not more than eight years of age. Her clothes were ragged and she was weeping. I asked the man where he had got the child, and he told me he had “hired” her and was sending her to his brother in Bireh. “Her parents”, he explained, “have let me take her for 25 years for the sum of £25. There is nothing to be surprised about, for there are persons who make worse bargains and buy girls outright – for ever”.
Another passenger said: “It is true; I have bought a little girl for myself and another for a cousin of mine. Many of my friends have bought girls. Prices six months ago were much higher. I had to pay £28 for my child, to say nothing of £2 for the agent who managed the business for me. Now prices have fallen. We train these children, he continued, and so do not have to hire servants, just as our fathers used to do with their manservants and maidservants”.
I asked the man what the Government had to say about such a practice and the reply was: “Many of the Government officials buy such girls themselves. This is the truth; ask the Governor of Nablus or let him make enquiries to prove the truth of what I have said”.
This, el Dajani comments, is Palestine under the British Mandate, under the British Flag, which waves for civilisation, freedom and peace in the world.”
Thanks
JGC
It is Western Civilization that outlawed and abolished slavery!
Western Civilization is under assault today. Those who are assaulting it are both stupid and evil (the latter, of course, being the ultimate manifestation of the former).
Of course. But this is a characteristic of those living in the enlightenment of Western Civilization.
Reading more carefully, I realize that the Jewish Telegraph Agency was only reporting about the “Taqiyya” of the “prominent Palestine Arab leader.” [https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/taqiyya.aspx ]
The JTA was not asserting that the British condoned the slavery and child abuse by the Palestinians
>
“Western Civilization that outlawed and abolished slavery!”
__
Ditto.
Wowser.
How to write an article about selling little girls for “brides” without saying, “I’m selling this little girl for your [sexual] pleasure.”
Made me almost want to barf. I probably would if I had any recent meal.
‘Face
:o[
The African slave trade (centered on the Gold Coast) wasn’t created for he benefit of the slavers selling to markets in the New World. Even before settlers in the New World began importing Africans as chattel slaves, the Africans were selling brother Africans to the Arabs.
Name them.
The body of the story you offer as proof even admits their headline is A LIE.
"...[M]any don’t realize that slavery –although it may be illegal in the modern era – is still as prominent and present as ever as the Global Slavery Index estimates that over 45.8 million people worldwide are living in a form of modern day slavery...."
QUOTE:
"...[I]t may be illegal in the modern era....
Their grammar is as flawed as their factualness. Their meaning would have been less ambiguous if they had written, "Although it is illegal in the modern era...."
And then they begin with the equivocations ...
"...[M]odern day slavery is defined as a situation where a person cannot refuse or leave because of ...."
Is that so? Defined by whom? And who was it anointed them to make this definition? I'm curious to know because there isn't a single country on their list where slavery is allowable by law.
As example, India is #14 on their list, and this is excerpted verbatim from the Constitution of India:
Article 23 in The Constitution Of India 1949Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour
(1) Traffic in human beings and begar and other similar forms of forced labour are prohibited and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.
To be blunt, when they state that slavery is LEGAL in India, they are LYING.
Recreational drugs (cocaine, LSD, etc) are quite common in the US, but that doesn't change the fact that THEY ARE ILLEGAL. If the letter of the law in country 'X' states that slavery is illegal, the it's illegal, regardless how many people might be engaged in the practice.
In fact, to the best of my knowledge there isn't a single country on earth where chattel slavery is legal by law.
They're blowing smoke up your ass to reinforce their point.
Slavery is BAD. Everybody gets it. Fabricating tales to reinforce that point doesn't fool anyone worth deceiving.
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
― John Adams, The Portable John Adams
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