Wjcongress, British Section, Charges Sir Alec’s Mideast Views Inimical to Peace

The British section of the World Jewish Congress charged, today that Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home’s statement of Britain’s Mideast policy last night was “not conducive to the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.” The charge was contained in an emergency resolution adopted at the close of the WJC’s biennial conference. The WJC called on the British government to re-affirm its support of the Security Council’s Resolution 242 envisaging a peace settlement based on secure, recognized boundaries for Israel and full recognition of her sovereignty by her Arab neighbors. The resolution called further for a British reaffirmation of support for freedom of navigation for all in international waterways and for the government to recognize that the unity of Jerusalem under Israeli rule has been to the mutual benefit of all its inhabitants. The resolution noted that the Israeli government has placed control of the holy places in the city in the hands of the religious denominations for which they have the deepest meaning.

The conference, attended by delegates from 83 organizations, was addressed by Israel’s Ambassador, Michael Comay and by Dr. Joachim Prinz, chairman of the WJC governing council. Mr. Comay said that Israel would not “gamble away her security for a phony peace.” Dr. Prinz complained that Western Jewry was extremely ignorant of Jewish lore and learning and was of a “different quality” than the six million European Jews destroyed by Hitler. “For the younger generation within American Jewry and within other Jewries is in desperate search for a meaningful existence as Jews,” Dr. Prinz said. He noted that many young Jews find fulfillment in Israel where “life, even death, become meaningful.” He went on to say that it was now quite clear that world Jewry could not exist without Israel.