Jewish shops closed and all Jewish workers remained idle today as Belgian Jewry observed a day of prayer and fasting in protest against recent events in Palestine. Large public meetings were held here, in Antwerp and other cities throughout the country.
As a luncheon at Antwerp’s town hall in honor of the delegates to the International Diamond Conference being held there now. Camille Huysmans, mayor of the city and Belgian Minister of State, declared that the only solution for the Jewish problem was a Jewish state in Palestine. He said that he expressed this opinion to former Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery when they visited Antwerp. He accepted the invitation of Oved Ben Ami, leader of the Palestine delegation to the diamond conference, to attend the formal inauguration of Antwerp Street in the colony of Nathanya.
Earlier, at the conference session, the delegates adopted a resolution proposed by the Palestine representatives petitioning the Allies to set aside 80 per cent of the stolen jewelry recovered from the Germans for a fund to rehabilitate displaced Jews.
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