A demand that the Palestine Government immediate-restore a “minimum measure of democratic municipal adminstration” in Jerusalem was issued here today following a meeting of representatives of all groups in the Palestine Jewish community, called to discuss the situation created by the dissolution of the Jerusalem municipal council and the appointment in its place of a five-man British commission.
The Jewish spokesman, who included representatives of the Jewish Agency, the Jewish National Council, the Jerusalem Jewish community council, the Agudas Israel and the members of the dissolved municipal council, reiterated their denial of the government’s allegation that the Jews had refused to accept rotation of the mayoralty. They charged that no efforts had been made by government officials to meet with the Jewish councillors on the issue.
Regarding the government’s statement that dissolution of the council could not prevented since a quorum was not obtainable after the Arab councillors resigned last week, the Jewish leaders pointed out that the lack of a quorum could have been met by coming to the council two members representing the British inhabitants of the city. They also pointed out that when the Jewish members temporarily withdrew from the council, last year, the body continued functioning in their absence.
The Jews protested the “unwarranted aspersion” cast upon the Jewish community District Commissioner James Pollock when he declared that the Jewish community “had been unable to demonstrate political maturity,” and that “the Jerusalemites had forced the city a form of administration by commission.” They said that the Jerusalem Jews had indicated “a commendable degree of political maturity through their readiness – although they comprise two-thirds of the city’s inhabitants – to acquiesce in the arrangement whereby they had six out of the fourteen seats in the council. We regard it as unfair,” they concluded, “for the Palestine Govenment to blame its own failure on those who are now being deprived of their right of representation, although they did no more than accept the government’s proposals and declare their readiness to cooperate.”
The New Zionist Organization, acting independently, sent a memorandum to the government protesting its “handing over of the municipality to government officials who are neither Jerusalem nor Palestine citizens and who were not elected by residents Jerusalem.” It charged that the action was opposed to the Mandate and was an attempt to exploit Arab-Jewish differences to enforce direct British rule.
Editorials in all the Hebrew newspapers strike the same note, but the influential Arab newspaper Falastin restricted its comment to protesting the appointment of an inqiry commission to examine the administrative machinery of Jerusalem.
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