Jewish Agency Scouts Arab Threats; Says Palestine Jews Will Pesist Aggresion

A warning that the Jews in Palestine “will not stand inert and helpless,” should the Arabs commit unprovoked aggression against the Jewish National Home, was voiced here last night by a spokesman for the Jewish Agency.

In Jerusalem, David Ben Gurion, chairman of the Agency executive, issued a statement during the week-end declaring that the Jews will be able to implement a U.N. decision for the establishment of a Jewish State even if the British evacuate Palestine.

The statement issued by the Jewish Agency here reads as follows:

“The Jewish Agency for Palestine is constrained to comment on recent statements of the Palestine Arab Higher Executive and the political committee of the Arab League, in which they threaten to resort to force if the United Nations settle the Palestine problem in a manner unfavorable to the Arabs. A member of the Arab Higher Committee informed the press on September 27 that the time had come when the Arabs should resort to force to defend their cause. He further declared that the Arab League had approved a resolution promising arms, men and money, and that the state members of the Arab League Council, meeting next week, would be asked ‘to give us arms and money and raise men in their countries to come and fight.’

“Arab attempts to affect the United Nations decision by the threat of violence and bloodshed have been persistent ever since the United Nations was confronted with the Palestine problem last April. With the publication of the UNSCOP report and the convening of the present Assembly, these threats have become more blatant…..These attempts to influence the deliberation and judgment of an international tribunal by violent threats are wholly inconsistent with the letter and spirit of the United Nations Charter to whose observance the Arab states pay lip service.

“Whatever the reality of these threats, and the readiness and ability –doubtful in the extreme — of the Arabs to implement them, the Jewish Agency is confident that the United Nations will find means of restraining its members from embarking or assisting others to embark on courses repugnant to the purposes and principles of the Charter. Should international authority be defied and the Palestine Arabs be encouraged by the Arab states to commit unprovoked aggression against the Jewish National Home, the Jewish population of Palestine will not stand inert and helpless. They will defend their rights and existence with the utmost courage and tenacity of which they have repeatedly shown themselves capable in the past. In that event they will count on the sympathy and assistance of all peace loving peoples assembled in the United Nations for the purpose of ‘suppressing acts of aggression and other breaches of the peace.’

“Those who threaten violence should understand that they not only challenge the moral conscience of mankind, but are also bound to incur the fierce, sustained and justified resistance of those whom they attack.”

AMERICAN JEWISH CONFERENCE HOPES U.N. WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED

The American Jewish Conference, in a statement issued during the week-end, said:

“It is hoped that the British statement at the General Assembly will not have the effect of a threat aimed at intimidating the United Nations. The General Assembly has before it the well-considered majority recommendations of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, and whatever Britain’s conditions for participating in the implementation of the United Nations decision, the United Nations must act with speed and determination.

“The United Nations are now in a position to consider the Palestine problem free from any encumbrance of England’s special interest in the matter, and the reaching of a fair and just solution should be facilitated. It is to be expected that the mandatory power will withdraw from the country in an orderly manner in order to enable the population of Palestine to gradually assume the responsibility for the government and administration of the country. The Jews of Palestine are well able to take care of themselves and there is every reason to assume that the Arab population, in its own interests, will fully cooperate in maintaining law and order pending Britain’s withdrawal.”