The Zionist Organization of America appealed today to the “civilized world” on the basis of international law and obligations to the Jews to support the Jewish homeland in Palestine in the face of Arab disorders.
In what was described as the first official statement issued by Zionist leaders in America since the disturbances started, Judge William L. Lewis of Philadelphia, acting president of the Z.O.A., reviewed the background and fundamental issues of the Jewish situation.
He said the nineteen weeks of Arab violence are not only of “utmost moment” to the 17,000,000 Jews, but of equal significance to the “entire civilized world, whose conceptions of international law and international morality are involved in the fate of Palestine.”
The statement is divided into sections giving the historical background, portraying the pressure on the Jews in countries of persecution, describing the benefits to Palestine of Jewish colonization and presenting the outlook for the future.
The conclusion states:
“The Jewish people recognizes that cooperation with the Arab population is an essential of sound and steady growth, but the Jews are equally determined that no amount of violence and intimidation shall restrain or retard their upbuilding activities, for Jews feel that in a sense Palestine represents the last stand of an oppressed people, saviet itself from destructive forces.”
Asserting that recent events in Palestine have focused public opinion not only upon the “vandalism and murder” to which the Jewish community has been subjected but upon the basic issues involved in the effort of the Jewish people to re-establish the Jewish National Home in Palestine, Judge Lewis observes that the entire world is concerned in the Palestine situation “because of the Jewish problem which presses for a solution in many European lands today.”
“The world has created the Jewish problem. The world must help to solve it,” Judge Le is declares, pointing out that one of the methods to achieve that end is cooperation in the upbuilding of the Jewish National Home.
The statement stresses that Jewish rights in Palestine are buttressed not only by historical facts but by “the new international morality which prevails in modern civilization, accentuated by the medieval code of treatment of the Jews which still prevails in certain countries.”
Observing that protection of the weak is one of the major principles of the League of Nations, the declaration points out that the Jewish people, perhaps more than any other, have the grounds upon which to ask civilized mankind for redress against the persecution and discrimination which have made life intolerable for great masses of Jews in numerous lands.
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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.
