Joseph M. Proskauer, president of the American Jewish Committee, today issued a statement expressing gratitude to President Truman and to the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine for securing the recommendation of immediate admission of 100,000 Jews into Palestine and of the abrogation of the British White Paper.
“It must be a source of satisfaction to all fair-minded and right-thinking people that the six British members of the Committee join with their American col. leagues in presenting a unanimous report which carries with it these changes in the policy heretofore followed by the British Government,” the statement said.
“The contemplated administration of Palestine under a United Nations trusteeship is also salutary and well designed to cause the government of the country to be in the interest of peace, justice and the welfare of all the inhabitants. We hail with approval the provisions of the report for the betterment of relations between Arabs and Jews and for the economic development of Palestine for the benefit of all.
“We are especially gratified that the Committee strongly urges upon the United Nations the implementation of the human rights provisions in the Charter. This is a long step forward towards the realization of an ideal under which all man, of whatever race or creed, can live in dignity and equality in any country of the world.
“The Committee is to be commended for urging that all countries of the world join in permitting the comparatively small amount of immigration that is required in order to relieve the strains and pressures which now exist in the sore spots of Europe.
“The American members of this Committee have in our judgment acted in the finest traditions of our country, and their success in reaching an accord with their British colleagues is an achievement of the finest statesmanship. We believe that the recommendations as to the immediate treatment of Palestine, which accord with the position consistently taken by the American Jewish Committee, should and will receive the approval of all right-thinking Americans.
“With respect to the ultimate recommendations, there will undoubtedly be differences of opinion. These recommendations on first reading seem to be in the spirit of the 1931 Resolution of the Council for the Jewish Agency, which declared for harmonious relations between Jews and Arabs based on the acceptance by both parties of the principle that neither is to dominate or be dominated by the other, and with the view expressed by Dr. Weizmann in 1936: “There is one indispensable condition, and this applies equally to both sides–to Jews and Arabs–that neither should dominate and neither be dominated by the other, irrespective of their members.”
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