David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency and one of the leaders of the Jewish Labor Party, today issued a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency declaring emphatically that “the Biltmore Declaration rules out any partition of Palestine.”
Ben-Gurion’s statement was made in reply to other leaders of the Jewish labor movement who oppose the Biltmore Declaration on the ground that the establishment of a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine, which the declaration urges, would lead to the partition of the country.
There is a great difference between what is implied in “a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine” and “the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth,” Ben-Gurion pointed out. He disclosed that when the text of the Biltmore Declaration was prepared in New York, some Zionist leaders suggested that it demand “a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine.”
“I opposed this formulation, and insisted that the text should ask for the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth thus definitely ruling out any possibility of partition,” Ben-Gurion emphasized. “I should like to know whether the phrase ‘Jewish National Home in Palestine’ which the Balfour Declaration contains, more effectively safeguards the integrity of the country than the phrase ‘Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth’ which the Biltmore Declaration contains.”
OPPOSITION SAYS FREE IMMIGRATION MUST PROCEED COMMONWEALTH
Isaac Tobenkin and Acron Zisling, leaders of the group in the Palestine labor Party which opposes the Biltmore Declaration, today issued a statement explaining that they are interested, at present, chiefly in securing the development of Palestine through free Jewish immigration and colonization, under the sole control of the Jewish Agency, with the aim of creating a Jewish majority in all sections of Palestine and not a part of it.
They do not oppose the eventual establishment of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth, the opposition leaders pointed out, adding that an interpretation of the demand contained in the Biltmore Declaration will have to be given “at the right time” by an authoritative body of the world Zionist movement competent to do so.
“Our proposal is entirely in accord with the policy which the Jewish Labor Party of Palestine adopted during the elections to the last convention of the Histadruth,” the opposition statement said. “We are responsible to our electors in the struggle for Jewish independence, for regulating mass-immigration and for securing a free hand in the economic upbuilding of Palestine.
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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.
