A resolution calling on the U.S. State Department “to undertake a new and dynamic effort” to end the Arab-Israel conflict, was unanimously adopted today at the 40th annual convention of Hadassah, now taking place here. The resolution also urged the State Department “to reconsider and suspend” its contemplated program of military supplies to the Arab States.
“We are convinced,” the resolution said, “that the distribution of arms to the Arab States without unqualified guarantees that they will make peace with Israel will weaken rather than strengthen the Middle East against the menace of Communism, because it will heighten tension in the area, obstruct regional defense and thereby play into the hands of aggressive Communism.”
The Hadassah resolution praised the Eisenhower Administration and Congress for measures taken “to extend economic aid and technical assistance to the peoples of Israel and the Arab States” and asked that this assistance program be continued “to raise living standards, develop economic stability and thus attempt to enlist the peoples of the Middle East in the defense of democracy and freedom.”
Introduced by Mrs. Samuel W. Halprin, Zionist Affairs chairman of Hadassah, the resolution noted that the American State Department had used its good offices to speed the conclusion of the Anglo-Egyptian agreement on the Suez and therefore “has the right and the obligation to urge the Egyptian Government” to abandon its illegal blockade of the Suez against Israel shipping.
In introducing the resolution Mrs. Halprin stressed that “the Egyptian blockade of Israel-bound traffic through the Suez Canal interferes with the legitimate shipping rights of many nations, flouts the doctrine of freedom of the seas, and is in flagrant violation of the United Nations Security Council resolution of Sept. 1. 1951.”
Discussing the proposal to send American military supplies to the Arab States, Mrs. Halprin said: “The Governments of the Arab States have never abandoned their war against Israel, and in fact have intensified it by their political and economic blockades. Neither the present policy of the Arab States nor past experience encourages confidence that arms made available to them will be used in resistance to Communist subversion or aggression, or in defense of democracy. On the contrary, the avowed and repeated declarations of Arab leaders give every ground for the fear that American arms will be used in a renewal of their warfare against Israel.”
MORE THAN $9,200,000 RAISED BY HADASSAH DURING YEAR
Hadassah raised $9,277,312 last year for its medical, social welfare, youth rehabilitation and land redemption programs in Israel, and for its Jewish education program in the United States. Mrs. Siegfried Kramarsky, national treasurer, reported to the convention.
Dr. Kalman J. Mann, director of the Hadassah medical organization in Jerusalem, reported at the convention that Israel is conquering its public health problem as well as its juvenile delinquency problem both of which threatened to grow to alarming proportions during the peak of refugee immigration following the establishment of Israel in 1948.
Of 825,000 Jews who entered the country in the three-year period, he estimated at least 200,000 were physically ill. These were treated and cured, he said. Many of the younger immigrants, who had spent their early formative years in fear and terror, had special emotional problems and needed skilled care.
Mrs. Abraham Tulin, chairman of the Hadassah Medical Organization, who presided, underscored the need for increased medical teaching and research facilities in Israel. She reported that Israel, with a total population of 1,600,000, today has approximately 3,500 doctors, but that more than 2,000 of the doctors are over 55 years of age. The shortage of doctors is particularly acute in the rural areas, she said.
She expressed the hope that the new $10,000,000 Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem, on which construction was started this month, would provide the facilities for medical education and research that would enable Israel to keep pace with the country’s medical needs.
Mayor Robert F. Wagner, extending greetings to the convention, paid warm tribute to Hadassah for its “tremendous medical program in the State of Israel.” The Mayor said he was particularly impressed with the work undertaken by Hadassah “to meet the unparalleled emergency created in Israel by the migration to that new democratic state in the Middle East of so many thousands of new people.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
