The Daily Herald, official organ of the Labor Party, says today that it understands that a statement on Palestine will be made by the Government within the next ten days. The paper’s political correspondent predicts that Prime Minister Attlee will suggest that the problem is one that the United Nations will have to solve as part of the general peace settlement.
The London Jewish Chronicle reports that Attlee will be asked in Commons on Tuesday whether he will agree to the appointment of a Parliamentary commission to go to Palestine immediately and report back to the House on the situation there.
The Daily Herald yesterday devoted five columns to a debate on Palestine between labor members of Parliament Barbara Gould and Richard Stokes, with Miss Gould supporting the immediate admission of 100,000 Jews and Stokes opposing immigration. Asserting that bloodshed seems inevitable whatever decision is taken, Miss Gould said that “there will be far more bloodshed if the infamous White Paper is pursued than if the Government honors Labor’s pledges to the Jews.” She urged that the Jewish Brigade to brought back to Palestine to police the country.
NEW PARTITION PLAN FOR PALESTINE OUTLINED
Dr. Godfrey Driver, professor of Hebrew at Oxford, writing today in the Spectator, proposes a partition plan for Palestine which would allocate the plains to the Jews, the hill country to the Arabs and leave Jerusalem and other reserved areas under the authority of the High Commissioner. The Jews would also be allowed to develop the Negev, the arid southern section of Palestine, and other state lands, while the ports of Jaffa, Haifa and Tel Aviv would be made available to both Jews and Arabs.
Prof. Driver also proposes the establishment of a “Federated Syria,” to include Syria, Lebanon plus the Galillee section of Palestine, Transjordan plus the Arab portion of Palestine, and a Jewish Palestine. He points out that his plan would allow increased Jewish immigration, but not the admission of all of the European Jewish refugees, since, he says, Palestine is not able to absorb all of them. He recommends Nedegascar and Eritrea as additional areas for Jewish settlement, and asserts that if Zionist leaders refuse to agree to settlement outside of Palestine, they will be “responsible for the victims of future pogroms in Europe.”
A pronouncement today by the Beth Din, the rabbinical court, signed by Chief Rabbi Joseph Herzog and other prominent British rabbis, takes issue with a recent letter sent to constituents of the United Synagogue by Sir Robert Waley-Cohen, president, in which congregations were urged to request their rabbis not to inject the Palestine issue into the Synagogue. The rabbis say that the Palestine problem is definitely a religious issue since the White Paper is in conflict with the divine promise and the development of Palestine is a fundamental religious duty of Jews.
At the same time, Rabbi Herzog notified the secretary of the United Synagogue, who also signed the letter sent by Sir Robert, that he considered it a flagrant interference with the authority and jurisdiction of the Chief Rabbinate.
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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.
