American recognition of a “Provisional Government of the Hebrew Republic of Palestine” and action by the U.S. to secure admission of this government into the United Nations was urged today by the concluding session of the two-day Conference on Hebrew Liberation sponsored by the American League for a Free Palestine.
The meeting also asked the U.S. delegates at the U.N. to secure an investigation of the “crimes” committed against Jews by the British administration in Palestine and suggested that Congress instruct the Executive Department of the government to protest to Britain against the alleged violation of the provisions of the Palestine Mandate and of the Anglo-American Convention on Palestine, signed in 1924. Congress was also urged to investigate the State Department’s activities in the Near East.
The U.S. Government was asked “to see to it that the subsidizing of feudal oppressors of the Near East is discontinued by private American interests, such as oil interests,” to prevent the British from using lend-lease armament to suppress liberation movements in the Near East and to disavow the Arab League “both on the diplomatic level and at the U.N.” The conference backed the “aspirations for national freedom” of the Assyrians, Lebaness and the Kurds and expressed the hope that “a close association of free peoples of the Middle East, including the Hebrews, Lebanese and Assyrians,” will be achieved.
The delegates voiced opposition to partition of Palestine and pledged to combat any British efforts to secure U.S. approval of partition.
A vigorous debate developed at the conference when a motion was made to adopt a resolution calling for the raising of a “Palestine Resistance Fund” to “provide the Hebrew Army with guns and munitions of war.” Many delegates opposed the resolution, stating that it would involve violation of U.S. laws. (The debate was continuing when the Bulletin went to press.)
Other resolutions scheduled for passage included one calling for a boycott of British goods to protest the events in Palestine and another proposing a $7,500,000 budget for 1947. Five million dollars of this sum would go for repatriation and relief of Jews in Europe, $1,500,000 for the establishment and maintenance of a provisional Hebrew Government and $1,000,000 to finance the activities of the American League for a Free Palestine.
Speaking at a dinner in connection with the conference, last night, former Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes demanded increased immigration into the United States and free immigration of Jews into Palestine. Immigration into Palestine, he added, should be under Anglo-American protection. The type of government Palestine should have should be left to the Jews and Arabs to decide without outside interference, Mr. Ickes declared.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
