Jewish Agency and U.S. Zionists Deny Plan for Partition or Appeal to United Nations

Spokesmen for both the Jewish Agency and the American Zionist Emergency Council today categorically denied a story appearing in the New York Times this morning which stated that the Zionist leadership had decided to present the entire Palestine issue to the United Nations in September and also that they were “reluctantly” coming to the conclusion that partition was the only solution of the Palestine problem.

The Times said that the Zionists would appeal to the U.N. for withdrawal of all Empire troops from Palestine. On partition, it alleged that Zionist leaders would be willing to have the eastern third of Palestine ceded to Transjordan, if the remainder would become a Jewish state.

The spokesman for the Jewish Agency flatly denied “the impression given by the story in the New York Times that a decision has been reached by Zionist groups regarding partition or submitting the Palestine issue to the United Nations in September.”

The American Zionist Emergency Council said it “has read with astonishment the report in this morning’s New York Times that unidentified Zionist leaders in the United States have reluctantly concluded that the only method of ending the Palestinian stalemate would be partition.”

“There has been no consideration of the partition issue by the World Zionist executive or by the Zionist leaders in this country since the rejection in 1937 of the scheme proposed by the Royal Commission, and no decision of any kind has been taken in this regard,” the Council said. “Any suggestion to the contrary is misleading and without basis in fact.

“The same newspaper report further alleges that the Zionist movement will seek to have its case presented to the Assembly of the U.N. by “a friend at Court”–one of the Latin American or Scandinavian countries or possibly Poland. This statement, too, is without foundation and reflects no decision on the part of the Zionist authorities here or abroad” the Council concluded.