Weizmann Makes Last-minute Effort to Avoid Crisis in Today’s Elections in Palestine

With elections for the Jewish National Assembly of Palestine taking place tomorrow, Dr. Chaim Eizmann, president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, today cabled an appeal for unity to Jewish groups there urging them “to raise the fundamental aims of our national struggle above party strife.”

The appeal was cabled in connection with the fact that five right-wing parties are boycotting the elections as a result of internal dissension in the Yishuv. The five groups were still refusing today to participate in the balloting despite efforts by various Jewish leaders to convince them that it was essential for Jewish interests in Palestine that they call off their boycott.

“I confidently hope,” Dr. Weizmann cabled, “that all parties will stand together in an impressive manifestation of the Yishuv’s civil and national unity. The Jews of the world, the enslaved and the free, in full admiration of the achievements of the Yishuv during the time of peace and of war, look for the Jews of Palestine to set an example in international cohesion and driving power.

“Crucial responsibilities await the new Assembly. The unprecedented catastrophe of the Jews in Europe has imposed a unique role upon the Yishuv in the regeneration of our martyred people. I appeal to all sections to raise the fundamental aims of our national struggle above party strife and to rally around the Zionist leadership in order to achieve our historic goal which is the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth open to all Jews in need of a homeland and a living in fruitful collaboration with all countries neighboring Palestine.”

It was believed in Zionist circles here today that Dr. Weizmann’s appeal may avert the election crisis in Palestine. The groups refusing to participate in the elections include the influential Jewish Farmers Association, the Jewish Landlords Association, the General Zionists “B” group, the Zionist-Revisionist Party and the Association of Sephardic Jews. They charge that the Yishuv is being ruled by a “totalitarian regime.”