The reaction of British Zionists to the proclamation on the terrorism in Palestine issued this week by the Palestine Administration and the British Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East is voiced in today’s issue of the Zionist Review, official Zionist organ, which says that “any attempt to use these tragic events for anti-Jewish politics is unfair.”
Pointing out that the overwhelming majority of the Palestine Jewish community has expressed its condemnation of the terrorists, the Review says that undoubtedly all assistance will be forthcoming from the Jews. It points out, however, that “the Palestine Administration has proven highly inefficient in maintaining law and order. This is demonstrated,” it continues, “by the riots of 1936 and 1939 as put on the record by a Royal Commission. It is again shown in relation to a small gang of terrorists.
“Under the circumstances,” the Zionist publication adds, “it is hardly fair to place the onus of stamping out the criminals upon the Jewish community. It is still less fair to follow up an appeal for collaboration by a statement that terrorist acts can only bring shame and dishonor upon the Jewish people as a whole.” Far-sighted statesmanship, it concludes, must fully consider the psychological atmosphere produced by systematic appeasement of the Mufti oblique, by the White Paper and by the Patria and Struma cases.
John Mack, Labor M.P., declared today that it was unfortunate that in discussing the terror in Commons, Colonial Minister Col. Oliver Stanley did not make clear that Palestine Jewry is passionately opposed to any form of violence. Mack said that the Government, at the same time that that it scores the Jews, must not tolerate similar tactics by the Arabs.
Chief Rabbi Joseph Hertz, in a letter to the Times this morning, says that the wording of the proclamation was “unfortunate.” Citing the disturbances provoked by the Mufti, the chief rabbi recalled that at no time did the authorities blame the entire Arab people for the outbreaks.
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