Palestine Jewish Press Irate over Grigg Statement on Terrorism

The recent statement by Sir Edward Grigg, British Minister of State in the Middle East, that terrorist activities in Palestine menace Zionist aspirations, is criticized in editorials in the Hebrew press. Sir Edward is here at present conferring with High Commissioner Lord Gort.

The influential Labor daily “Davar” says: “The Grigg statement evoked uneasy feeling in the Yishuv and cannot be allowed to pass, since we cannot admit that because of the crime of some dissident Jews those who are looking toward immigration to Palestine shall look in vain. Although the Minister mentioned the Agency’s, and other institutions’ denouncement of the terror, he added that he was awaiting deeds — doesn’t he know that the Yishuv has taken action against the terrorism, and is isolating the terrorists in cooperation with the authorities, even though the Palestine Government does not facilitate this cooperation.

“Doesn’t the Minister know that the Yishuv is doing more than the Palestine Government permits?” the editorial continued. “Why is he creating the impression that the Yishuv is responsible for the terrorism? Does he allow himself to accept as regards Palestine Jewry the principle of collective responsibility which he does not allow himself to adopt towards any other people? The Palestine problem cannot be described as only a problem of overcoming Jewish terrorism, the backbone of which has been broken, but a world problem which gave rise to the Zionist movement and which still exists.”

The newspaper “Haboker,” asks “how long shall be have to prove that we have rooted out the terrorist plague; and that since the statement by Churchill no acts of terror have been perpetrated?” “Hatzofe” writes that “although acknowledging the seriousness of the terror and the need to eradicate it, we must say that this is not a Palestine problem which requires solution, but a problem of the whole world.” It points out that “while fighting Nazis this same Christian world allowed the Nazis to execute their devilish designs against the Jewish people. This world, which promised to assist the Jewish people to renew their home in the land of their forefathers, has not allowed Jewish refugees to find shelter in Palestine. Our problem, unlike others, cannot be postponed.”