Hebrew newspapers commented bitterly today on yesterday’s announcement that 770 labor immigration certificates have been allotted by the Government for the four-month period ending July 31.
The schedule, providing the lowest monthly immigration average in many years, was assailed variously as a declaration of war, a “pharaonic decree,” and an “insult to Jewry.”
Davar, laborite daily, said in an editorial:
“The Government has declared war and we accept the challenge. The Palestine Jewish community and all Jewry realize that the schedule shows an absolute contempt for the principle of economic absorptive capacity (nominally the basis upon which immigration is regulated) and that it purposes to throw us back into the pre-aliyah (immigration) period.”
Haaretz, independent daily, refers to the schedule as a “pharaonic decree” and an “insult to Jewry, the mandate and Palestine.”
“It is in every respect,” the paper concludes, “as if it was intended to provoke the Jewish people.”
Haboker asserts the schedule aims to “undermine the foundations of the Jewish national home,” and declares, “We will fight this evil.”
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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.
