American Zionist Groups Issue Joint Call for Jewish Military Force in Palestine

A call “to every Zionist, every friend of Palestine and every lover of democracy” asking them to help “in the determined fight to secure recognition of the right of the Jews of Palestine to organize a military force under British or such joint command as may be set up by the United Nations,” was issued here today jointly by the American Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs, the Zionist Organization of America, the Hadassah, the Mizrachi and the Zionist laborites.

Signed by the presidents of each of these organizations, the proclamation points out that “the responsibility for leading and directing this major Zionist task must rest primarily upon organized Zionists and the constituted Zionist authorities. It cannot be left to individuals or groups who are not prepared to accept either the authority or the policies of the Zionist movement.”

Declaring that for two and a half years the Jews of Palestine, supported by the whole Zionist movement, have repeatedly voiced the demand for the creation of a Jewish military force based on Palestine under British command, the proclamation says that “the denial to Palestine Jewry of the right to take up arms in their own name, under their own flag, and under British command, represents a distressing refusal to make full use of all the manpower and resources available for the United Nations on one of the war s most vital fronts. Moreover, both directly and by implication, the right of the Jewish people to national status in the Jewish National Home land is being challenged.”