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Palestine Students Rally to Meet Axis Threat; Ask Closing of Colleges

April 20, 1941
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Jewish students today demanded the closing of higher educational institutions to release men for the armed forces, as the Axis advances in North Africa and the Balkans brought the war threat closer to Palestine.

A special meeting of the Central Committee of Hebrew Students, embracing the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Haifa Technician and the Tel Aviv Economic School, adopted a resolution urging obligatory enlistment of students in order to fill necessary military units. A similar resolution was adopted by a country-wide conference of graduates of Hebrew colleges in Tel Aviv.

The Jerusalem conference was addressed by David Ben Gurion, chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive, and the Tel Aviv meeting by Moshe Shertok, head of the Agency’s political department. Shertok asserted: “It is our duty to throw ourselves into the struggle with heart and soul. We are fighting with our backs to the wall. Yet our will and endurance are immeasurably strong.”

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