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Freedman Tells Court of His Efforts to Influence 52 Congressmen Against Zionism

May 9, 1948
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Benjamin Freedman, founder of the League for Peace with Justice in Palestine, revealed today that several days after the U.N. General Assembly adopted its Palestine partition decision, he addressed a private dinner of 52 Congressmen at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on the subject of Palestine during which he outlined his group’s anti-Zionist views.All expenses for the dinner were paid by him, Freedman said.

Appearing as a principal witness in a libel suit hearing brought against the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League by an attorney for the League for Peace with Justice in Palestine, Freedman said he contacted Rep. Ed Gossett, of Texas, early in December after the latter said on the floor of the House that that day when the U.N. partition decision was announced was “the blackest day in American history.”

During today’s cross–examination Freedman indulged in anti-Zionist utterances. The court asked him several times to refrain from using the term, ‘Jew state,’ in reference to Palestine, a term which he described as conceived by Dr. Theodore Herzl in his pamphlet, “Judenstaat.”

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