A nine-point political manifesto was issued today by the World Zionist Conference following the adoption of a $24,000,000 budget and the passing of a resolution empowering the World Zionist executive to raise additional loans for Zionist activities.
The manifesto protests the fact that the White Paper, closing the doors of Palestine for Jewish immigration, is still in effect. With the repeal of the anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws, the White Paper is characterized as “the only survival of racial discrimination in the civilized world” since it is directed specifically against Jews.
The White Paper is held responsible for the loss in the past of hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives. The manifesto charges that even now the White Paper is making impossible the rehabilitation of tens of thousands of Jews “languishing in camps.”
Emphasizing that the White Paper was condemned by the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations and by former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the manifesto recalls that Herbert Morrison, member of the Labor Government, declared that this document would not be binding for a Labor Cabinet, if the Labor Party came to power.
The Zionist declaration further reminds the British Government that it failed to receive Arab support and that the Arab states declared war against the Axis only when the United Nations victory was assured. “The Jews in Palestine were the only people in the Middle East who mobilised full support for the Allies, and the Jewish Brigade gallantly participated in the defeat of the enemy in Italy,” the declaration points out.
Other points of the manifesto emphasize that the surviving Jews in Europe “cannot remain in graveyards” and that “their only salvation lies in a speedy settlement in Palestine, ” and that “the Jews the world over will feel no freedom from fear unless their status is normalized and Palestine is established as a Jewish State.”
The manifesto endorses the attitude of the Jewish Agency that “the White Paper is void of moral and legal validity.” Now that the war is over, the Jews cannot acquiesce in the continuation of the White Paper under any circumstances, whether in its present or in a modified form, the manifesto declares.
“No solution, except constituting Palestine as an undivided and undiminished Jewish State in accordance with the original purpose of the Balfour Declaration, and no delay or half measures, can meet the tragedy and the increased sufferings of the Jews,” the manifesto concludes.
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.
