Jewish Agency Calls on U.N. Session for Interim Decision on Palestine Immigration

The Jewish Agency for Palestine today called upon the General Assembly of the United Nations at its forthcoming special session to issue an interim decision which would immediately open Palestine to Jewish immigration.

Pointing out that further delay may mean catastrophe for Jews who have now waited two years for liberation and reconstruction, the Agency declared that such an interim order is “dictated by every consideration of hunenity and international law.

“It would, moreover, serve as an immediate test of the significance of the forthcoming session. It would make it clear that no power can manipulate the General Assembly of the United Nations for the purposes of dilatory maneuver, accepting or rejecting its findings as it pleases.”

The Agency’s position was outlined in a statement issued following a meeting of the American section of its executive in New York, today. The statement pointed out that “the Jewish people approach the forthcoming U.N. session under a great disadvantage. Great Britain and the Arab world are formally represented in the U.N. and in a position to influence the decision. The party most vitally concerned has no voice, no vote, no advocate. But the Jewish people feel confident that they have both law and squity on their side. And they turn to the United Nations, appealing for a judgment which, expressive of the world’s goodwill and sense of justice, will bring an end to suffering and restore to them the rights, status and dignity of a free people.”

JEWS EXPECT U.N. TO MAINTAIN INTEGRITY OF PALESTINE MANDATE, AGENCY SAYS

Declaring that “after two years of delay” the future of the Jewish people in Palestine is at last on the international agenda, the Jewish Agency statement stressed that “in a previous international decision, the historic connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and their right to reconstitute their national homeland there were recognized by the League of Nations, ” when in 1922 it approved the Palestine Mandate.

“One of the last acts of that body was the rejection, by its Permanent Mandates Commission, as inconsistent with the Mandate, of the restrictions imposed by the Palestine White Paper, just before the outbreak of war in 1939.” The statement said: “Great Britain’s violation of the Mandate was allowed to continue without authoritative international challenge only because the League ceased to function and there was no international forum to which the Jewish people could turn for redress.

“Most of the nations now in the United Nations, as members of the League, were parties to the covenant with the Jewish people. The Jewish people look to the United Nations, as trustee of the world’s conscience, to maintain the integrity of that undertaking,” it emphasized.

“Events of the last 25 years, and in particular the experience of the last war, have proved the justice and the urgant necessity of fulfilling the high

ASKE INVALIDATION OF WHITE PAPER PENDING SOLUTION OF PROBLEM

“It is almost two years since the war ended in Europe. It was hoped that {SPAN}##ng{/SPAN} before this, the Jews would have been helped back to a normal life. But every {SPAN}##stacle has been placed in their way. The reopening of Palestine to large-scale ##wish immigration has been cruelly and indefensibly delayed. In makeshift camps in ##many and Austria, in internment camps in Cyprus, behind barbed wire in Palestine ##self, the Jews count off wasted days, waiting for liberation and reconstruction.{/SPAN}”These people are on the brink of despair. Further delay may mean a new {SPAN}##tastrophe for a people that suffered as no other in the war. It is imperative that ##e General Assembly act quickly and firmly. Pending an inquiry into the problem of a ##ng-term solution of the Palestine problem, the General Assembly could well exercise ##s great moral and political authority to invalidate the illegal provisions of the ##ite Paper.{/SPAN}”The General Assembly should call upon the Mandatory Power to conform in the {SPAN}##terim{/SPAN} period to the plain letter of the Palestine Mandate, to reopen Palestine to {SPAN}##ewish{/SPAN} immigration on a scale commensurate with present needs and to remove the ex{SPAN}##sting{/SPAN} measures of racial discrimination which restrict Jewish settlement on the land {SPAN}##nd{/SPAN} which are repugnant to the principles of the United Nations Charter,” the Jewish {SPAN}##gency{/SPAN} statement said.

ARABS WILL DEMAND U.N. SUPERVISE A PLEBISCITE IN PALESTINA

Faris el Khoury, Syrian delegate to the U.N. Security Council and spokesman {SPAN}##or{/SPAN} the Arab League, today said here that the Arab members of the United Nations will {SPAN}##emand{/SPAN} at the speciel session that the United Nations supervise a plebiscite in Pales{SPAN}##ine{/SPAN} for the purpose of establishing “a democratic form of government” there. He {SPAN}##dded{/SPAN} that the Arab delegations will also demand that all Jewish immigration to {SPAN}##alestine be halted between now and the plebiscite.{/SPAN}The Syrian delegation also announced that Syria will demand representation {SPAN}##n{/SPAN} the fact-finding committee which the special session is expected to appoint. He stated that the basic Arab demand at the session will be the early establishment of {SPAN}##alestine as an independent state.{/SPAN}