Vladimir Jabotinsky, opening the First National Congress of the New Zionist Organization, last night rejected the proposed partition of Palestine as "death to Zionism" and condemned attempts to sever relations between the Holy Land and the League of Nations to achieve the annexation of Palestine to the British Empire.
The whole of Palestine, on both sides of the Jordan, must become an independent Jewish State, which will then decide its future connection with Britain, the president of the N.Z.O. told several hundred delegates gathered in Lucerne Hall.
He demanded that the Jewish Agency for Palestine, recognized by the League as representing the Jews of the world in Palestine dealings, be replaced by a Jewish national assembly. The N.Z.O. executive committee has already petitioned the League for democratic reform of the Jewish Agency, he revealed.
Mr. Jabotinsky received an ovation when he arose to deliver the opening address reviewing the Palestine situation, eulogizing the late Jacob DeHaas, American Zionist leader, greeting Zionist-Revisionists interned in the Palestine concentration camp at Acre, and paying tribute to Jews killed in Palestine disorders.
"Mass emigration is not only a Jewish question but a world problem," Mr. Jabotinsky asserted. "The future of Palestine is not the private concern of the Mandatory (Britain), but of all states interested in the affliction of the Jews, and which favor Zionism."
He demanded that "an international conference of friendly powers for a solution of the Jewish question should be convoked."
"We need not fear that such a conference will make a false decision," he added."There is no other way left except one — a whole Jewish country for the rehabilitation of the entire Jewish people."
Voicing "unshakable faith" in the League, he warned against attempts to liquidate Palestine’s connections with Geneva. He attacked the proposals of the Peel Royal Commission. Declaring the idea of transferring non-Jews from the proposed Jewish State was a crime against the national interests and honor of the Jewish people, Mr. Jabotinsky asserted there was room for both Jews and Arabs in Palestine.
He attacked the Havlagah (Jewish self-restraint) policy in the face of Palestine terrorism and declared the fact that Jews had finally refused to comply with the principles of passive toleration was "a spontaneous expression of the hurt national feeling which must not be regarded as the viewpoint of any party."
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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.
