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Will Not Quit Weizmann Tells U.S. Delegates

August 17, 1939
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Dr. Chaim Weizmann president of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Palestine, served notice at a meeting of the American Zionist delegation last night that he had no intention of resigning his posts as a gesture of protest against the new British policy on Palestine. Revealing that he had been advised to resign “with a bang” Dr. Weizmann said he had no faith in such methods because “in a world where bombs are constantly exploding the slamming of a door is not heard.”

In his first speech at the current Zionist meetings, Dr. Weizmann struck an optimistic note, asserting that everything was not yet lost. Without going into details, he disclosed that new elements had entered the situation which gave the Jews more force than they seemed to have at the time the British Government announced its intention of creating an independent Palestine state in which the Jews would be frozen as a one third minority.

After gaining the victory, the Arabs began to realize, Dr. Weizmann said, that it was an empty victory without the Jews. He revealed that during a recent visit to Egypt, a hotbed of opposition to Zionism, he discovered that responsible statesmen were beginning to realize increasingly the necessity of coming to terms with the Jews in Palestine.

The Zionist leader voiced the belief that the realization was growing in England that an adjustment other than the one represented by the White Paper policy had to be made in the interests of the British Empire. He said that it might take a year or two before the realization matured into concrete action but he was confident that the change would come. Instead of “slamming the door” on the British Government Dr. Weizmann proposed that the new executive committee to be elected by the Congress examine ways to enlighten public opinion in England and to foster better relations with the Arabs in Palestine.

U.S. GROUP MAPS PEACEFUL PROGRAM AGAINST POLICY

A peaceful program to combat Britains policy was adopted last night by 63 of the American delegates to the World Zionist Congress comprising the representative of the Zionist Organization of America and Hadassah at a meeting presided over by Dr. Solomon Goldman of Chicago president of the Z.O.A.

The program suggested by Dr. Goldman provides that

(1) The congress not discuss proposals for non cooperation with the Palestine Government and for illegal immigration but first set up committees to study the advantages and disadvantages of these proposals.

(2)While abstaining from general non cooperation the congress nevertheless declare non cooperation with the Government in matters regarding the establishment of an Arab state.

(3)The Congress establish an “Arab department” to build up relations with the Arabs;

(4) Zionist propaganda be intensified among Parliamentarians and other leading men in London, Washington, Geneva and Ankara, Turkey;

(5) The Zionists continue building new colonies and developing the Huleh region study the possibilities of Jewish settlement in the Negeb, southern Palestine.

Dr. Goldman declared that the American Zionists were firmly opposed to the British policy and determined to lend all their resources to the rebuilding of the Jewish homeland.

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