National Assembly in Palestine Says Bermuda Conference Undermined Jewish Hopes

An appeal to the Allied Nations not to remain indifferent to the Nazi annihilation of Jews in Europe was issued here today by the Assefath Hanivcharim, the Jewish National Assembly of Palestine, following a special session devoted to voicing the reaction of Palestine Jews to the outcome of the Bermuda Conference.

Terming the conference a failure, the session addressed its appeal to the Allied nations asking them to initiate negotiations for an exchange of German prisoners for Jews in Nazi territories. It was emphasized that the appeal expresses the desire of all Jews in Palestine to give shelter to as many refugees as are admitted into the country, and urges the Allied nations to see to it that the gates of Palestine be opened wide for the admission of Jewish refugees.

“Not only did the Bermuda parley not give adequate expression to the plight of the Jews in Nazi Europe, but it actually undermined Jewish hopes that the remnants of these suffering victims will ever be saved,” Isaac Ben-Zvi, president of the Jewish National Council, said in opening the session of the Assembly. He praised the Jews in the ghettos for their heroic resistance to the Nazis, and declared that the Jews in Palestine will continue to demand from the democratic world that it rescue all the Jews who can still be saved from Nazi extermination.

Moshe Shertok, heed of the political department of the Jewish Agency, addressing the session, said the Jews should not be discouraged by the failure of the Bermuda Conference. He revealed that “at least one neutral country is ready for action, providing it is assisted by the Allied nations.” Chief Rabbi Herzog and Chief Rabbi Uziel also spoke.