A majority of the Americans in Palestine, 90 percent of whom are Jews, have informed foreign service officers that they intend to remain in the Holy Land despite Italian air bombings, the State Department said today.
Many of the Americans have moved to Jerusalem in the belief that this hallowed religious center would be spared enemy air attacks. The wives and children of American consular officials in Cairo also have taken refuge in Jerusalem.
Although most of the 8,000 American citizens in Palestine plan to remain, many hundreds are attempting to leave the country and return to the United States by the “back door” route which will carry them half-way around the world. There are no American ships now in the Mediterranean and sea travel in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea has been disrupted so the only sure egress from the Holy Land is by plane.
An air service is now operating between Palestine and Karachi, India, with all seats reserved six weeks ahead. From Karachi, Americans are transported to Bombay where they board American President liners to return to this country via the Cape of Good Hope.
The State Department said it had not yet received a request (reported in a Jerusalem dispatch) from the Association of American Jews in Palestine to provide the same facilities for evacuation from the Near East that have been provided in other parts.
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.
