A report published by the War Ministry today charges the Jewish Agency “and its associated bodies” with encouraging an unfriendly attitude on the part of the Jewish population in Palestine towards the British.
The report, which deals with problems of the British forces in the Middle East during 1943 and 1944, was submitted to the War Ministry by Gen. Sir Henry Maitland Wilson. It says that Palestine is suffering from “political troubles” and attributes them to “the ambitions, suspicions and lawlessness of some elements in the Jewish population.”
The Jewish Agency, Gen. Wilson reported, is in some respects “arrogating the powers and the status of an independent Jewish government.” He accused the Agency of defying the British Government by resisting, the attempts to locate arms caches in the Jewish settlements. The report also enumerates instances of unrest among some units of the Palestine Regiment. On the other hand the report declares that “the Arabs in Palestine have given no cause for anxiety from the security aspect.”
(A Jewish Agency spokesman in Jerusalem today termed Gen. Wilson’s report “a slap in the face of the Jewish voluntary war effort.” He said that the report “amounts almost to falsification, and is certainly distortion of the Jewish war effort picture.” Bitterly commenting on Gen. Wilson’s observations, the spokesman reviewed the military, economic and security efforts made by Palestine Jewry during the war and their sacrifices before and after the battle of El Alamein.)
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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.
