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140,000 Jews Ready to Defend Palestine, Kaplan Asserts on Arrival

May 19, 1940
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Declaring the Jewish community of 500,000 in Palestine is seeking to preserve peace in order to provide a haven and home for additional thousands of refugees from the distress and war areas of Europe, Eliezer Kaplan, treasurer of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, who arrived on the Atlantic Clipper today, asserted that if the war spreads to the Mediterranean a total of 140,000 Jews, men and women, will be prepared to defend the Jewish national home.

Kaplan said, that despite the war in Europe, Palestine was continuing its upbuilding and settlement program with the aid of American Jews, through the United Palestine Appeal.

Declaring that the war has neither stopped refugee immigration to Palestine nor slackened the pace of development internally, Kaplan said that provision must be made immediately for the 9,000 Jewish immigrants who will be permitted to enter Palestine under the current schedule.

Kaplan reported that the first shocks of the war which unsettled the economic situation in Palestine are being overcome and a reorganization of industrial and commercial activity has brought about the establishment of new industries.

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