The Jewish National Council today proclaimed a 24-hour general strike by Palestine Jewry in protest against the British Government’s proposals to set up an independent state in which the Jews would be fixed as a one-third majority. The strike will start Monday morning and continue until Tuesday morning. Jews throughout the Holy Land will stop work, close schools and shops, and suspend all traffic and trade.
The Council’s proclamation called on the country’s 400,000 Jews to avoid demonstrations in the streets and to dedicate their minds to remembrance of the victims of three years of terrorism. The action was taken under mandate of an emergency conference March 1 of the representatives of all Jewish parties and national institutions.
In a manifesto preceding the proclamation, the Council declared that the British Government’s proposals were aimed at liquidation of the policy to facilitate establishment of a Jewish National Home, pledged in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. Proposals to limit Jewish immigration to 75,000 in five years were characterized by the manifesto as implying “coagulation of Palestine Jewry into a permanent minority and turning over of the national home to the Mufti.”
Continuing, the manifesto declared: “Palestine Jewry’s reply was clearly expressed in the manifesto of March 1 that it could not cooperate with the regime that was to be established and could not accept its authority. That answer still applies. Adherents of that manifesto are urging its implementation. In the coming days, the Palestine Jewish community will have a great political fight for the fate of the people of the homeland, which will be defended as befits Hebrews in the land of the Hebrews. United, responsible and disciplined, the community will be prepared for orders.”
Earlier, the first Jewish act of non-cooperation with the Palestine Government was taken when Vice-Mayor Daniel Auster of Jerusalem notified the authorities that the Jewish members of the City Council would not participate in further council meetings until Jewish national institutions had decided on their line of action. With the four Arab councillors alone present, the City Council failed to hold a meeting for lack of a quorum.
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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.
