Jewish Resistance Groups Pledge Peace During Immigration of 100,000 Jews to Palestine

All three groups within the Jewish resistance movement today joined in pledging that they would not violate the peace “necessary to bring our brethren” into Palestine, but would, on the contrary, take measures to guarantee the maintenance of such a peace. The statement was made on a broadcast of the “Voice of Israel,” underground radio of the Jewish resistance forces.

The radio, replying to Prime Minister Attlee’s statement that the Jewish “illegal armies” must be disarmed before 100,000 Jews could be admitted to Palestine, said on behalf of all resistance groups that “the Jewish community will not surrender the arms which defended it against recurring dastardly attacks throughout the period of Jewish settlement, and which continue to protect Jewish lives, rights and future peace. The Jewish forces will continue to remain independent and will not accept orders from foreign rulers.

“Attlee’s demand for the disarming of the Jews is only a ruse designed to get the British Government out of fulfilling the inquiry committee’s compromise recommendations, particularly immigration.

“We emphatically reject Attlee’s libel that we are obstructing the immigration if 100,000 Jews– the only obstruction to this continues to be Attlee, his Government, and his abortive policy,” the broadcast declared. It pointed out that the Jewish people “aspire to complete national independence and are not content with the immigration of 100,000 Jews, even if the recommendation is implemented promptly and faithfully.”

Responsible Jewish circles today told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that surrendering arms as the British Prime Minister had demanded means suicide for the Jewish community in Palestine. “Attlee’s bargain with lives, which is a form of political blackmail, will not have any effect on the Jewish community’s determination to save the remnants of European Jewry and bring them to Palestine by any and all means, even if it involves the loss of innocent Jewish lives,” a Jewish spokesman said.

He declared that the “spark of hope” offered by the inquiry committee’s report and by President Truman’s statement had been “extinguished ruthlessly” by Attlee’s statement. “Every child in Palestine knows that neither the Arabs nor the Jews will lay down their arms. The former because of love of opportunities–political opportunities included–that arms offer, and the latter because they remember only too will the bitter experiences of years past, when they were unarmed and exposed to the mercy of murderers, while the British administration was incapable of protecting lives and property.”