American Zionist Council Lauding Rooseveltis Palestine Statement Demands “action Now”

Asserting that Jews everywhere “warmly welcomed” the declaration made by President Roosevelt last week to Dr. Stephen S. Wise, in which he reiterated his stand on Palestine, the American Zionist Emergency Council today issued a statement demanding “action now.” The statement was issued following a six-hour conference of the members of the Council.

“We would be failing in our duty were we not to emphasize the sense of deep disappointment which has been aroused among Jews by the fact that no visible action is being taken to give reality to this program,” the statement said. “The tragic plight of the Jewish people makes it imperative that the solution to which the President is lending the support of his great name and office be adopted and put into effect as soon as possible. In the interests of justice and humanity, there must be no further delay. We ask action now. Immediate steps must be taken to inaugurate forthwith the process of large-scale Jewish immigration into Palestine and the conversion of that country into a Jewish State.”

“Mr. Churchill’s recent intimation that a final solution of the Palestino problem will be deferred until the war is over is deeply disturbing,” the statement continued. “Hundreds of thousands of Jews are today clamoring to enter Palestine. Survivors of unimaginable horrors, all but an insignificant few are prohibited from entering the land promised them. The Jews of the world are entitled to have the doors of Palestine opened immediately to free and unrestricted Jewish immigration. The need for action in this respect is of such urgency that it should not await the formal decision establishing Palestine as a free and democratic Jewish Commonwealth. At San Francisco and in succeeding conferences many matters affecting the Mandate system in general and Palestine in particular will come up for consideration. We affirm the right of the Jewis people to be represented and heard at these conferences through the Jewish Agency for Palestine, internationally recognized as the spokesman of the Jewish people on all matters affecting Palestine.”