Says Inquiry Report Tends to Whitewash Government and Discredit Labor Party

“Concession to Criminality” is the name of the long editorial in the current issue of the “New Palestine,” official organ of the Zionist Organization of America, which discusses the report of the Palestine Inquiry Commission.

After showing that the Commission in its report is trying to hedge around the question of who were guilty of causing the August riots, the editorial says:

“Having thus muddled the public mind in regard to the guilt which it was forced to admit, the report of the Commission then goes on to make recommendations which can only be regarded (apart from the fact that they are entirely outside the terms of reference) as a direct reward to the Arab leaders for their connivance at the causes leading to murder: ‘In conjunction with other and more immediate causes for the disturbances, the feeling of Arab apprehension caused by Jewish immigration was a factor which contributed to the outbreak. The selection of immigrants under the labor schedule is, in effect, entrusted to the General Federation of Jewish Labor in Palestine. In the allocation of certificates supplied to them for this purpose, it is the practice of the Federation to have regard for the political creed of several possible immigrants rather than for their particular qualification for admission into Palestine.’

“Even if the accusation were true (which it is not) it would be an intolerable intrusion on our rights. We are building the Jewish Homeland, and not the Commission. Not even England. Shall we admit that in addition to the enormous natural difficulties of the task we shall put up with interference in our choice of human material? Shall we admit that others than ourselves are to judge which Jews make the best and most devoted workers?”

Two impulses were at work in the report, says the editorial, a desire to whitewash the Palestine administration and to discredit the Labor Party.