A charge by the Archbishop of York that the “Jewish vote” in New York was paralyzing the United Nations in finding settlement of the Arab-Israel problem was condemned today by the foreign affairs committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, representative body of the British Jewish community.
The committee expressed regret that the Archbishop had made “a provocative and one-sided statement on matters in dispute and now under consideration by the Security Council” and said it regarded his statement as “likely to be prejudicial to the best interests of both Israelis and Arabs and to the cause of lasting peace which is the only solution for the present unhappy situation in the Middle East.”
Dr. Abraham Cohen, president of the Board of Deputies, addressing the 29th annual conference of the Jewish National Fund of Britain, described the Archbishop’s statement as “shameful exploitation of the miseries of half-a-million tragic human beings for political purposes.” The JNF parley, at its concluding session today, adopted a resolution deploring the loss of innocent Jewish and Arab lives in Palestine, but underlining the right of the Jews in Israel to defend their homes from Arab marauders.
Yesterday the Rev. C.C.I. Cleasey, chaplain to the Archbishop of York, declared that “the Archbishop was clearly not motivated in any way by anti-Semitic feelings. The questions is purely political.”
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