The clerk's testimony, as AZR relays it: the relationship was set from the very first day, and knowledge of the Arabic language removed the "barrier."
"From the first day I showed my Arab fellow workers neither an attitude of pride nor an attitude of flattery, but the attitude of a comrade. And this I soon felt from their side as well. And we always strove to help one another with a comrade's help." AZR, "On the Other Hand" (relaying the testimony of a railway clerk), "Davar."
"Not knowing the language always creates a barrier between peoples. And perhaps it would be worthwhile for this language to be taught in all our schools." Ibid. (The brother of an Arab fellow worker taught him Arabic free of charge, "out of a pure feeling of faithful friendship.")
The sharpest point: the relationship did not change after the riots of 1929. AZR quotes the Arab comrade's words against the "politicians" who profit from hatred — a chain of divisions that echoes precisely AZR's own teaching against schism.
"I know there are politicians among us who find pleasure in conflicts between peoples and in spreading hatred, and I condemn them in my heart. Today they will scheme to create divisions between us and the Jews, and tomorrow between us and the Egyptians... and afterward simply between tribe and tribe, between family and family, and the land will fill with wars without end." Ibid.
"In conclusion, if a man comes and says that it is impossible to live in peace and friendship with the Arabs, do not believe him. I, from the experience of six years, know exactly the opposite." Ibid.
AZR does not merely relay testimony; he adopts it as his own position: the pursuit of "comradeship" as a human principle and a command of conscience.
"Would that such a relationship of comradeship multiply among all peoples, and especially between us and the Arabs... The will to help one another — not for the sake of gain, and certainly not for the sake of flattery, but because the personal conscience so commands — and the Jews and the Arabs shall be an example to all humanity." Ibid.
This position is not an anomaly but a direct continuation of his teaching: the chain of "divisions" the Arab comrade condemns is exactly what AZR fought against among his own people (see "We Are All Jews"); and "mutual aid" as a principle recurs from "Acquisitiveness" and from "On the Hebrew Commune." This is the positive side of that same "supreme heroism": defending one's dignity, yet refusing hatred — even toward a neighbor, and even after bloodshed.
This irenic piece is not the only thing AZR wrote about the Arabs. In the wake of the waves of violence (1920, 1922, 1929) he also wrote much harsher things, at times condescending. Anyone seeking his complete teaching must hold both poles together.
After the Nebi Musa riots in Jerusalem (Nissan 5680 / 1920) he writes in fury about the inciters and the rioters, yet directs the response toward building rather than revenge:
"The evil has come to pass: the European politicians set the Arab mob upon us, and there was a pogrom in Jerusalem... It is a government we wish to establish there... a kingdom of heaven, founded on honest labor... a pure culture, pure of bloodshed." AZR, "After the Pogrom in Jerusalem," "Kuntres," Nissan 5680 (1920), read/43908.
And after the confirmation of the Mandate and the murders (Elul 5682 / 1922) his language is sharper still, and includes a condescending remark about the Arabs:
"Some murderous Arabs apparently received it [the Mandate]... as an understanding to multiply bloodshed, the blood of the holy and the pure... [the idea of labor] may perhaps be of use at some time or other... when it penetrates also into the dark corners of the Arabs." AZR, "Upon the Confirmation of the Mandate and the Murders from Ambush," "Kuntres," 5682 (1922), read/43870.
And yet there is no reversal of position here, but a consistent structure whose tone shifts with the hour. Even in the sharpest pieces the same elements recur: the blame is directed at the inciters and the murderers and not at the Arabs as a whole; the response is not revenge but "honest labor" and building; and self-defense without fear but without hatred ("if the hour demands that we defend ourselves, we shall not hesitate"). Even in 1922 he hopes the idea of labor will reach "also... the Arabs."