The demand that Palestine be placed under international control to enable “the rapid establishment there of a Jewish majority or the immediate establishment of a Commonwealth based on the possibility of a Jewish majority,” was voiced here last night by Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, one of the outstanding leaders of the Zionist movement, in an address delivered at the opening session of the 24th convention of the Zionist Laborite Party of America.
The interference of the British Colonial Office with the mandatory system under which Palestine is governed must terminate, Dr. Silver said. He emphasized that Zionism is a political and not a philanthropic movement and that its aim is to establish Palestine as a political state for the Jewish people. He urged an end to unnecessary polemics and futile discussions and concentration on the establishment of a Jewish majority in Palestine.
“The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration which is now being celebrated, reminds us of the fact that everything that was promised after the last war, including the rights provided for national minorities, have not been fulfilled, Dr. Silver declared. “But Palestine has become a reality. Even in the Middle Ages Jews enjoyed a certain legal status. Now they are totally outlawed in Axis Europe. Anti-Semitism is poisoning countries which have previously not been contaminated. The problem of the United Nations will remain unsolved and no peace will be durable if Jewish equality will not be carried out fully in practice.
ASKS FOR CLARITY ON STATUS OF THE JEWS AFTER THE WAR
“We cannot permit any conspiracy of silence with regard to the post-war status of the Jews,” Dr. Silver continued. “We are fighting as allies on the Egyptian front, on the Stalingrad front, in the Solomon Islands and we demand the restitution of our individual as well as national security.”
Dr. Weizmann, in a message to the convention, called upon the labor organization in Palestine to remain free from the corruptive influence of the “vast power which they acquired” emphasizing that this power was acquired by the laborites from the common efforts of all Jews. “In the society which we hope to build in this Jewish Commonwealth, there shall be neither oppressor nor oppressed, neither a dictatorship of capital or of labor, but a common heritage for all who have had a part in laying the foundations of the Jewish future in the Jewish land,” Dr. Weizmann’s message said.
The more than 1,000 delegates and guests at the opening session of the convention also heard Hayim Greenberg, leader of the Zionist Laborite movement in America, who demanded the establishment of Palestine as a “free Jewish Commonwealth.” He emphasized that “neither pseudo-socialism nor genuine socialism can solve the Jewish problem,” and urged unity between Zionists and non-Zionists as well as between Jews and non-Jews.
Dr. Nahum Goldman, member of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine addressing the convention said that the Arab-Jewish question can only be solved politically through a decision of the United Nations. “The future of a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine lies in the direction of close cooperation with the Near East a natural hinterland for a large Jewish population in Palestine,” he stated. “All this depends on Arab acceptance of Palestine becoming Jewish, which can be brought about only by the full weight of the final decision of the victorious democratic nations.”
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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.
