Central Jewish Organizations Score British Immigration Ban; Term New Policy “illegal”

The American Jewish Conference and the World Jewish Congress today issued statements terming illegal the British action against visaless Jewish refugees seeking to enter Palestine.

Speaking for the American Jewish Conference, Henry Monsky, chairman of its interim committee, said that the Jews held for deportation in Haifa “are not ‘illegal’ immigrants in the eyes of international law and their peaceful admission is just in terms of any code of human society.

“The financing of Jewish immigration to Palestine, which Britain calls a ‘conspiracy’ is in fact a rescue operation taking place in the clear light of day,” Monsky stated. “Britain’s present policy has all the trappings of a war against an oppressed people fighting for liberation.”

The World Jewish Congress statement emphasized that “the action of the British Government in blockading Palestine in an attempt to cut off the so-called Jewish immigration is in itself the height of illegality. The Jews returning to Palestine are there, according to international conventions signed by Great Britain, ‘as of right and not on sufferance.’ The Mandate over Palestine vouchsafed to Britain by fifty-two nations does not accord to that country the right of sealing Palestine against immigration by unilateral action. By blockading Palestine against Jewish immigration, Britain is violating international conventions on which her Mandate on Palestine is based.”