A plan for the excavation of a channel between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea in Palestine for the purpose of creating a waterfall 1,300 meters high which would furnish an abundance of cheap electricity for the Middle East has been prepared by American scientists, it was revealed here today by David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, addressing a meeting of the Histadruth, the Jewish Labor. Federation of Palestine.
“We have plans for developing Palestine industry by using the cheap electricity which the project visualizes,” Ben-Gurion said. “We plan to develop the harbors of Haifa and Tel Aviv. But we must carry out our plans with a tempo that will enable every Jew who may wish to do so to come to Palestine after the war.”
Speaking on Arab-Jewish relations, the leader of the Jewish Agency said: “We do not take from the Arabs any of their houses or land. Their property will remain in their hands. But we disclaim their right to hold 18,000,000 dunams of desert land between the gulf of Akaba and Jericho and between the territory south of Tel Aviv and the Negeb. We have plans for the development of these lands by preparing reservoirs for rainwaters and by bringing the waters of the Jordan river to the Negeb. We want to settle these desert lands.”
ZIONISTS WANT SEAT AT THE FORTHCOMING PEACE CONFERENCE
The United Nations, Ben-Gurion continued, must allot a seat for Zionist-Jewish representation at the forthcoming peace conference. F. severely criticized those supporting the program advocated by Dr. J.L. Magnes for the post-war establishment of a bi-national Arab-Jewish state in Palestine.
“The British White Paper limiting Jewish immigration and land acquisition in Palestine will not be realized because we have enough strength to prevent its realization,” Ben-Gurion concluded. “It is hardly imaginable that the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem who works for the Axis, or his representative, should have a seat at the forthcoming peace conference and present plans to throw our Jewish immigrants into the sea. We have enough strength not to allow our fate to become similar to that of the Syrians. It is not important that we are only a half-a-million people in this country. We have a strong will and we intend to use it to the utmost, and the civilized world will help us.”
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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.
