Arab-jewish Round Table Conference and Equal Arab and Jewish Participation in Palestine Government M

An Arab-Jewish Round Table Conference and administrative changes to secure equal Arab and Jewish participation in the Palestine Government, are likely to be the principal demands which will be made by the new Palestine Jewish Assembly (Assefath Hanivcharim) now in session, if the Labour majority, holding 32 of the total number of 71 seats, carries the day against the Revisionist opposition, which to-day incidentally increased its representation from 15 to 16 seats, Dr. David Yellin, former President of the Vaad Leumi, and one of the veterans of the Palestine Yishub, losing his seat as one of the General Zionist representatives, the Revisionists successfully contesting the award of a fifth seat to the General Zionists, which had been given to him, claiming in their favour a balance of 178 votes. Mr. Gepstein, a leading Revisionist, replaces Dr. Yellin, and the General Zionists are left now with only four representatives, Mr. M.M. Ussischkin, Mr. Mayer Dizengoff, Dr. Benzion Mossinsohn, and Mr. Eliahu Berlin.

The Council of the Palestine Labour Federation, Histadruth Haovdim published to-day the resolutions of its last conference, approving the Jewish Agency negotiations with the British Government, demanding that the Yishub should participate in the Political Commission of the Jewish Agency, declaring itself in favour of an Arab-Jewish Round Table Conference, and for a greater share of responsibility in the Government by the inhabitants of Palestine, while denouncing, however, a Legislature in which the Arabs would be in a majority as against the Jews.

There was a seven-hour debate on an address delivered by Rabbi Ostrowsky to the Assefah on the relations between the Vaad Leumi and the Rabbinical Council. The debate became heated when the question of clericalism was dragged in, the Mizrachi insisting that the Vaad Leumi must guard against the infringement of religous sentiment. Labour representatives of all shades and also the women contended that liberty of conscience is as sacred as religion. The Revisionists took a middle course in the debate, which passed without incident.

The Revisionist spokesman, Mr. Weinstein, speaking last night in the Assembly, concluded his speech with a threat that the Revisionists would leave the Assefah if it approves the negotiations of the Jewish Agency with the British Government.

At the continued meeting this morning, Mr. Ben-Gurion replied that the Jews are not in a position in the present indescribably difficult situation to boycott the Government. Mr. Ben-Gurion went on to taunt the Revisionist hecklers by recalling that Mr. Jabotinsky as a member of the Executive had in 1922 signed the Churchill White Paper and that he had signed the instructions to all Zionist organisations to express confidence in Sir Herbert Samuel after the pogrom of 1921.

The Zionist objective, Mr. Ben-Gurion said, is not merely a Jewish majority in Palestine, but to bring in every Jew who wishes to embrace Palestine. Bi-nationalism is contradictory to Zionism, he declared, but if the Jewish State means Jews dominating Arabs we reject it.

The spokesman of the Left Poale Zion, Mr. Abramovitch, pleaded for a united Arab-Jewish Labour movement, asserting that Arab workers had fallen in defending Jews during the riots of August 1929.

Mr. Yaari, of the Shomer Hazair, said that they oppose Communism as they oppose Fascism. We aim at working in Palestine through Socialism, he said.

Dr. von Weisl, speaking for the Revisionists, said: Revisionists fight Labour because we are against Dr. Weizmann, whom Labour is upholding. Dr. Weizmann, he said, does not believe in the Jewish State, and he never believed in it, except perhaps between 1917-1919 under the pressure of Judge Brandeis. England, Dr. von Weisl argued, is aiming at establishing a Pan-Islamic Union with Jerusalem as its centre.

Mr. Jabotinsky at the 1927 Zionist Congress at Basle made a personal statement in reply to Dr. Weizmann’s question why he, Mr. Jabotinsky, had signed the White Paper of 1922. In his reply to the general debate Dr. Weizmann had said: When Jabotinsky was put before the grave trial, a grave trial for us all, of signing the White Paper, he did not deliver the speech which he has delivered here, but he signed. He could not have done otherwise. However, difficult it might have been. And we shall have to work for a long time until the White Paper becomes a Blue-White Paper.

Mr. Jabotinsky in his explanation said: I had just returned from America and found the ultimatum waiting to be signed. I had to accept Dr. Weizmann’s assurance that the battle was lost. Out of loyalty to Dr. Weizmann I decided as a member of the Executive to bear the responsibility together with my colleagues. I regret, Mr. Jabotinsky concluded, that my undeserved loyalty has been so misused.