Head of Americans for Haganah Disputes Jewish Agency Right to Dissolve Organization

The decision to dissolve the Americans for Haganah, which will remain in existence until October 1, and create a new Americans United for Israel “with a broader scope for activity” was a “completely autonomous decision and In no way connected, with any ukase of the Jewish Agency or the Zionist Organization of America, “Abraham Feinberg, president of the executive committee of the Americans for Haganah, declared in a statement issued here today.

Feinberg’s statement was issued in reply to a letter sent him last week by the American section of the Jewish Agency, charging that the decision to form the Americans United for Israel was a “flagrant defiance of the decision to dissolve Americans for Haganah.” The statement insisted that “to attempt to stifle or control this new organization purely on the grounds that it is not authorized by official Zionist parties, or by the Government of Israel is a violation of every basic right which we have as Americans.”

Feinberg also pointed out that the Americans for Haganah was not created by virtue of any authority of the Agency or the Z.O.A. but “was formulated by a group of Americans for a specific purpose which was to disseminate information concerning Haganah and to rally support for Haganah from the American public.

In attacking the Agency’s authority to order his organization dissolved, Feinberg asserted that the status of the Agency since the end of the Palestine Mandate “has not been clearly defined.” Until the status of the Agency is fully determined, the statement declared, the “American section has no right to assume powers which have not been delegated to it.” Feinberg also objected to the American section issuing a statement in the name of the full executive.