The Jewish Agency today called upon the United Nations for a “great act of state smanship” establishing Palestine as a Jewish state. The plea was made by David Ben Gurion, chairman of the Agency’s executive, in the sourse of a 15,000-word address, which took two hours to deliver.
Ben Gurion firmly rejected continuation of the Mandate, whether under British or U.N. supervision, or a joint trusteeship. He declared that a bi-national state (##)s “politically and biologically impossible” since it would be based on parity, which “would mean a permanent deadlock.”
In a significant departure from his prepared text, Ben Gurion recalled that the Zionist executive, meeting in Paris in 1946, had resolved to consider any proposal for the establishment of a viable Jewish state in Palestine, and he said that this stand was reiterated by the Agency representatives who met with the British Government in a series of informal conferences in London early this year.
Seated at the end of the same round table around which both the Peel Commission and the Anglo-American inquiry committee had sat, Ben Gurion presented the Agency formula for solution of the Palestine problem as “immigration and statehood for the Jews, economic development and social progress for the Arabs.”
CALLS FOR ARAB-JEWISH ALLIANCE AND ABOLITION OF WHITE PAPER
The United Nations, he said, “possesses the necessary authority to undertake what great act of statesmanship, which could change the face of the entire Middle {SPAN}(##){/SPAN}ast and free the energies of the Arab and Jewish peoples for a great constructive effort. You will achieve your mission successfully when you restore freedom to Palestine, give justice to the Jewish people and stability and progress to the Middle {SPAN}(##){/SPAN}st,” he told the commission. He said that “these objectives can be accomplished by the immediate abolition of the White Paper, establishment of a Jewish state and {SPAN}(##){/SPAN}omotion of a Jewish-Arab alliance.”
The Agency chairman said that the Jewish community heartily welcomed the commission’s inquiry, although it does not have “any reason to believe that on this oc(##)sion the Mandatory will respect your views any more than that of your predecessors.” (##) stated that England was in Palestine only as a trustee, and the U.N. had an obligation to see to it that such obligations as the Balfour Declaration were carried out. (##) cited the testimony of Lloyd George, Winston Churchill and others in this con(##)ction and then reviewed the Peel Commission recommendation of partition–interpo(##)ting at this point his remark about the Agency decision on a viable Jewish state–the issuance of the White Paper, and the murder of 6,000,000 Jews in Europe.
Before discussing the masacre of European Jewry, Ben Gurion declared that (##) individual Jew can be really free, secure and equal anywhere in the world as long as the Jewish people, as a people, is not again rooted in its own country, as an equal and independent nation.” His voice faltering, he then stated: “We suffered a creater disaster in Europe than the British Army. Can anybody realize what it means that 6,000,000 were put to death? Can one realize that a million Jewish babies were (##)ed in crematoriums? A third of our people, almost the entire population of Sweden, murdered. Who is prepared and able to guarantee that what happened to us in (##) will not happen again?”
CHARGES PALESTINE GOVT- WITH RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND POLICE STATE TACTICS
Declaring that there is only one safeguard for the Jews: “a homeland and state {SPAN}(##){/SPAN},” he said that that was possible only in Palestine, and “the Jewish people cannot give up, cannot renounce these two fundamental rights, whatever may happen.” He {SPAN}(##){/SPAN} that the racial discrimination practiced by the Palestine Government, through the White Paper provisions, endangered the status of Jews throughtout the world, “be {SPAN}(##){/SPAN} if the Mandatory is able to enact such regulations, why not other governments?”
Ben Gurion said that the White Paper policy could be implemented only by force, (##)ting in Palestine having become a police state with civil liberties abolished.(##) Palestine Government’s memorandum to the committee he described as full of half(##)s and “an open confession of the administration’s hostility to the Mandate.”
Explaining why he opposed a mandate or a joint trusteeship, the Agency spokes(##) said that Britain has failed in its task of settling large numbers of Jews in Palestine and of solving the country’s problems, and a joint trusteeship would do (##) “since an administration taking directives from different governments can hardly (##) such a task.”
Bi-nationalism would tend to preserve the status quo and freeze the development of the country, Ben Gurion asserted. He stressed, however, that the Agency re(##) any implication that “a conscious Jew, who cherishes his beliefs and language, cannot cooperate with a conscious Arab, who cherishes his beliefs and language.”
When Ben Gurion had concluded, Dr. Jorge Garcia Granados, the Guatemalan dele(##) said that he had several questions concerning the emergency defense regulations, (##) he would reserve until later. Ben Gurion began reading his speech at 9:45 a.m., (##) the chairman had allowed five minutes for photographs. There were no guards (##)nt in the YMCA building and no one was searched. One third of the chamber was (##), since a number of seats had been reserved for Arabs, who are boycotting the pro(##)ngs.
SLMAN DISAVOWS THEOCRATIC STATE; HOROVITZ SAYS IMMIGRATION AIDS ABSORPTIVITY
Rabbi Judah L. Fishman, Mizrachi member of the executive, followed Ben Gurion.{SPAN}(##){/SPAN}king in Hebrew, he disavowed any desire on the part of religious Zionists to establish a “theocratic state” in Palestine and said that there would be full freedom {SPAN}(##){/SPAN}ll inhabitants in a Jewish state. Any regulation which restricts Jews from en{SPAN}(##){/SPAN}ng Palestine is not only devoid of legality, “but positively sinful,” Rabbi Fislman declared. “This land was once ours, and by the grace of Heaven it shall be ours {SPAN}(##){/SPAN}.”
David Horovitz, head of the Agency’s economic department, testified that Palestine’s absorptivity was adequate for any amount of Jewish immigration, since immigrants bring skill, money and determination to build the country, which facilitates(##)settlement of more immigrants. He pointed out that when modern agricultural and (##)trial methods are employed, the potential of a piece of land or a factory can (##) increased six and seven-fold. Citing the fact that the Arab immigrants (##) Palestine tend to settle mainly in the Jewish-populated areas, Horovitz said (##) Jewish immigration has tended to raise the Arab standard of living and decrease (##) mortality rate.
The hearings concluded after Horovitz’ testimony. They will be resumed on (##)day morning, when Eliezer Kaplan, Agency treasurer, is scheduled to be heard.
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.
