Jews Announce Non-participation in Post-war Reconstruction Plan for Palestine

After several days of deliberations, the Small Zionist Actions Committee today adopted a resolution, by 21 votes to 1, announcing that Jews will refuse to participate in the post-war reconstruction plan of the Palestine Government which is based on the White Paper policy under which Jewish immigration to Palestine must cease next year.

“The Actions Committee,” the resolution reads, “reasserts that the Jewish people and the Jews of Palestine will not participate in the reconstruction plan announced by the High Commissioner of Palestine as well as in any other future schemes based on the White Paper. They will fight all such schemes.”

Preceeding the adoption of the resolution, a general debate took place in which leaders of all Zionist factions expressed their agreement with the attitude taken by the Jewish Agency, opposing the post-war reconstruction plan of the Government, which was prepared without the advice of representative Jewish bodies. All speakers demanded that the Jewish Agency not restrict its opposition to the White Paper to merely non-participation in the reconstruction plan, which they said was intended to benefit only the Arabs, but urged the Agency to use all means to secure the White Paper’s revocation.

David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the executive of the Agency, in closing the debate, emphasized that the Jews of Palestine can be certain that the majority of Jews in the United States and other democratic countries will give utmost support to the Yishuv in the fight for its normal development and will concentrate all their efforts on securing annulment of the White Paper.