The Jewish Agency today rejected the allegations and accusations against it contained in yesterday’s statement by the Palestine Government as a “new demonstration of irresponsibility.”
In a statement issued here, the Agency said the British declaration “is certain to provoke new disorders and further endanger the lives of the people of Palestine.”
It accused the Mandatory Power of converting Palestine into a police state which denies fundamental Eights and freedoms to the people. Listing the Palestine Government’s restrictions upon Jewish immigration and its failure to cooperate with the Palestine Commission, the statement added: A government which pursues such a lawless policy is hardly qualified to lecture others on law and order.
“Once again,” it declared, “the Palestine Government interprets history in the sane manner as it administers Justice. It condemns Jews, it appeases Arabs, and it completely absolves Britons.”
The Palestine Government went far beyond the bounds of propriety, the statement continued, by suggesting that the Jewish community of Palestine may have to forfeit all rights to be numbered among civilized peoples. “The Jewish peoples-are the bearers of a long and honored civilization which far antedates those who now invoke prejudice to divide and rule as an instrument of imperialist policy.”
Last Friday, while Moshe Shertok was addressing the Security Council, British security personnel blew up hotels and apartment houses in the heart of the Jewish commercial center of Jerusalem, the Agency charged, killing more than 50 persons and wounding more than 100. “It is not suggested that these criminals acted with the knowledge of their superiors any more than Jewish terrorists act with the knowledge or consent of the Jewish Agency. But the Palestine Government has sought to use the chain reaction of terror and counter-terror initiated by this outrage to heap abuse on the Jewish Agency and to distract attention from its own culpability for these mounting disorders. Fury is no substitute for fact,” it said.
The statement reiterated that the Agency has always condemned violence and terrorism and will continue to condemn such tactics–“where it is committed by Jew, Arab or Briton.”
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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.
