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Soviet Consul Meets with Jews in Palestine; Says Russia Has Taken No Stand on Report

May 8, 1946
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Russia has not yet taken any official stand on the report of the Anglo-American inquiry committee, the Soviet consul at Beirut, M.N. Argonov, stressed today at a meeting in Tel Aviv with leaders of the League for Friendly Relations with Russia. Mr. Agronov denied the reports in the Arab press that the Moscow radio has criticized the committee’s recommendations.

Mussa al Alami, Palestine Arab leader, whom the Arab Higher Committee is planning to send to Paris to confer with the ex-Mufti, and to London to threaten the British Government with Arab reorientation towards Moscow, has been denied an exit visa by the Palestine Government, it was reported here today.

Early wakers in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem this morning found the walls plastered with leaflets of the Irgun Zvai Laumi which charged that the Anglo-American committee’s report “pronounces the death sentence on Jewish aspirations in Palestine and cuts off millions of Jews from Palestine.” Declaring that Prime Minister Attlee’s condition that the resistance forces disarm before the committee’s recommendations are carried out render the report worthless, the Irgun said: “Our fate binds us all, either freedom and independence or complete destruction and slavery, either a Jewish state or the concentration camp.”

High Commissioner Sir Alan G. Cunningham is reported to be planning to go to England soon to report to the Government on the reaction here to the report. Today, Sir Alan lunched with Dr. Chaim Weizmann, but nothing was disclosed concerning their conversation.

Continuing to tread softly in all matters dealing with the ex-Mufti, the Government censorship in recent days has killed every dispatch from abroad referring to the Mufti except for official statements or remarks in Parliament. It has also barred any mention of a Jewish government for Palestine.

The meeting of the Small Zionist Actions Committee scheduled for today was postponed following a telephone conversation between Jewish Agency leaders and Moshe Shertok. Shertok apparently informed the Agency that the British Government’s attitude towards the report was still unclear, and that no definite decisions have been reached.

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