Jews outside Israel must avoid “rekindling the old sparks of Arab-Jewish conflict.” Lester B. Pearson, Canadian Minister for External Affairs, told a Jewish National Fund rally here launching a drive for funds for the Martyr’s Forest in Israel.
Mr. Pearson asserted that the statesmen of Israel were progressing favorably toward mutual understanding with their neighbors. He praised Israeli men and women for “trying in the midst of overwhelming difficulties to give the civilized answer to racial persecution.” These efforts of a persecuted people to create a state of such stature as Israel provides hope for the future, he declared.
“The dual task of reclaiming a land placed as Israel is placed today and of restoring a dispersed people to normal living involves economic and what one might describe as purely human problems of such extreme difficulty that responsibility for dealing with the issues concerned could hardly have been assumed by present-day Jewish leaders, were it not for the intensity of the Jewish revolt against minority status,” the Minister said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.