Labor Draft Proclaimed in Israel; Irgun Announces Its Foreign Policy Program

Israeli Labor Minister Mordechi Bentov today announced a new manpower control act, effective immediately, under which all men over military age but less than 55 years old will be called up for labor in essential services in agriculture and industry, Women up to 50 will be liable to the labor draft. Punishment for violation of the measure will range up to ten years imprisonment and $10,000 in fines, the legislation is expected to release a large number of men and women now holding down essential jobs to the armed services.

The new Irgun-sponsored political party, Freedom Movement, has announced its foreign policy program, “The Jewish foreign policy’s main aim should be to ensure the unity of all parts of the fatherland under one Hebrew rule,” the party’s statement said. The Israeli policy will be one aimed at ensuring peace because “in a third world war there is danger for Israel.”

The statement also called for friendly relations with the U.S.S.R., “which helped Israel in its first difficult stages,” and friendship with the “great American people who include millions of Jews who support the Hebrew state,” It also urged friendship with all nations, big and small, strong and weak, which look to peace. The Jewish state will maintain good relations with its neighbors, the policy statement asserted, concluding that the general rule for the Hebrew foreign policy should be: Reciprocity of friendship for friendship, help for help and enmity for enmity.

In a special ceremony today 50 Jewish lawyers who recently were sworn in at the bar in the British courts before the end of the Mandate were sworn in as practicing attorneys by the Jewish Law Council.