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Zionist Council Ponders Reported Partition Plans

April 22, 1937
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The General Council of the World Zionist Organization weighed today possible effects on the Jewish national homeland movement which might result from the forthcoming report of the British Royal Commission on Palestine.

Any partition of the country could not be imagined without including Haifa and Jerusalem, the soul of Palestine, declared David Ben-Gurion, head the Jewish Agency for Palestine Executive. Various proposals for dividing Palestine between the Arabs and Jews have provided for internationalizing these two cities and other religious shrines.

Mr. Ben-Gurion pointed out, however, that the discussion was valueless for lack of knowledge of projects being considered by the Royal Commission.

The disturbances in Palestine have not ceased, but only stopped temporarily, he asserted. Warning that the Zionist movement was facing important tests, he said the coming months would bring out the question of the continuance in force of the Balfour Declaration.

Moshe Shertok, head of the political department of the Jewish Agency, who has just returned from London, this morning reported on London aspects of the Arab-Jewish controversy, and also on various possibilities regarding the Royal Commission report.

In opening a general discussion, Menachem Mendel Ussishkin, chairman of the council, condemned all partition schemes as imperiling the Zionist cause.

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