Judge Simon H. Rifkind, advisor on Jewish Affairs to the Commanding General of United States Forces in Europe, today disclosed here that British authorities in Palestine, without consultation, had halted American plane service, which provided the sole link of Palestine Jewry with refugees in the displaced persons camps.
The plane, a converted “Flying Fortress,” had made four of eight scheduled trips carrying books for teachers and cultural workers and supplies for Jews in displaced persons camps in the American zone in Germany. This is most essential material, Rifkind declared, speaking before the Jerusalem Press Club. “Unless we want 100,000 patients instead of productive citizens to come out of the camps when they finally have a place to settle, we must find useful and purposeful activities for them because demoralization has already set in,” he added.
Commenting on the halting of plane service, which originally was instituted after he had interceded with Gen. Eisenhower, Rifkind said “all I am able to say is that plane connection was suspended at the insistence of the British authorities in Palestine. I will make a genuine effort to renew and reestablish service.”
Rifkind said he came to Palestine to answer one question by direct observation. Had refugees really found a welcome here? “After touring cities, villages and settlements, my answer is emphatically yes. Previously, I believed it was possible that the reported enthusiastic idealism concerning Palestine was a journalistic Hollywoodisation, but now I have found that fever to be a fact. Moreover, I have found optimism to be the characteristic mood here, despite expected despair, despite the tension, the roadblocks, the constant check-ups, and the vast number of garrison-like police stations all over the countryside.
“I find Palestinian optimism understandable only in terms of a spirit such as was expressed in America’s own pioneer days,” Rifkind added. “The Palestinian welcome to refugees is not without an awareness of the difficulties to be encountered by large scale immigration,” he continued, adding that he is returning to his European job with fullest understanding of why Palestine “for displaced persons is an expression of security, lack of hostility, and personal dignity.”
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