An indictment of the British government in Palestine for having failed to prevent the Arab outrages against the Jews, and an appeal to the British people to make good their pledge to the Jewish people contained in the Balfour Declaration, were contained in a resolution of protest adopted at the Hotel Pennsylvania on Monday night, August 26, at a conference held under the auspices of the Zionist Organization of America, with the cooperation of other Jewish organizations of national and local character.
The meeting decided to call a mass meeting for Thursday, August 29, at 8 P. M. (tomorrow night), at Madison Square Garden, which has a capacity of 25,000. Leading Americans, Zionists and Jewish leaders are expected to address the protest meeting.
The following resolution of protest was adopted at the conference.
“The civilized world has been startled and horrified by the series of outrages perpetrated upon the Jewish population of Palestine by organized bands of fanatical Arabs. The Holy City, sacred to three great religions, has been desecrated and turned into a battleground under the eyes of the British administration, charged under the Mandate it has received from the League of Nations with the duty of preserving law and order and of facilitating the development of a Jewish National Homeland.
“All accounts point to the fact that these attacks upon Jewish life and property were premeditated, well-organized and concerted. The Arab aggressors were unlawfully armed. The Jews, particularly in the small outlying communities, were taken by surprise and put to the sword without an opportunity for adequate self-defense. Arab outrages reached the depths of savagery in the ancient city of Hebron, the city of the patriarch Abraham, where scores of Jewish scholars and students, utterly defenseless, were brutally massacred.
“These events have shocked mankind and filled every Jewish heart with horror and indignation. The Zionist Organization of America, which for so many years has been fostering the Jewish upbuilding of Palestine, pouring into the country tens of millions of dollars, and contributing to the health and well-being of the entire population without regard to race or creed, through the Hadassah Medical Organization, the benefactions of Nathan Straus and other agencies, declares that this crime against civilization will not swerve the Jewish people by a hair’s breadth from their purpose to rebuild Palestine, to re-establish its ancient homeland. We are resolved to continue our policy of peaceful development, but will insist upon putting an end once for all to the conditions that have made such things possible.
“We charge the British administration in Palestine with laxity, inefficiency, and an inexcusable neglect of duty in its failure to carry out the elementary functions of government through the protection of life and property.
“We charge them with failure to prevent the arming and organization of the Arab mobs. We charge them with failure to protect the Jewish rights of worship at the Wailing Wall a right held inviolable since the days of Omar and respected under Turkish rule.
“We charge it with a flagrant disregard of its obligations under the Mandate, derived from the League of Nations, which calls not only for preservation of the civil and religious rights of all, but also for active cooperation in furthering the establishment of the Jewish Homeland in Palestine by encouraging Jewish immigration and colonization on the soil.
“We call upon the British government and the British people, upon whose sympathetic understanding and sense of fair play we confidently rely, to redress the great wrong which has been done to the Jewish people and to the cause of humanity, to make a thoroughgoing investigation, punish the guilty, restore peace and order, and above all, to take drastic and farreaching measures to rectify the conditions which have made the tragic events of these days possible.”
Among the organizations which participated in the meeting were: the New York Zionist Region, Leo Wolfson, president; Independent Order Brith Abraham, Nathan D. Perlman, Grand Master; Mizrachi, Union of Orthodox Rabbis, Young Israel, Federation of Polish Jews, Federation of Hungarian Jews, Union of Roumanian Jews, Federation of Lithuanian Jews, Zeire Zion, and numerous synagogues.
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