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Biltmore Declaration Will Be Principal Zionist Demand at Peace Conference

November 27, 1942
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The Biltmore Declaration, demanding the post-war establishment of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth, which has been adopted by American Zionists and approved by the Jews of Palestine, will be the major demand of the Jewish Agency at the post-war peace conference, David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the executive committee of the Jewish Agency, declared here addressing a conference of General Zionists.

“The preparations for the peace conference,” Mr. Ben-Gurion said, “actually started the moment the Atlantic Charter was drafted. Special committees are already working on peace plans in Washington and in London. It is for this reason that it became necessary to urgently adopt the Biltmore declaration demanding at the same time a Jewish Home Guard for Palestine and Jewish immigration into Palestine under all circumstances.”

Pointing out that the victory of the United Nations will present the problem of immediately rescuing Jews from the countries which will gradually be liberated, Ben-Gurion said that the Zionists must develop a campaign of world-wide propaganda on a large scale stressing Palestine’s possibilities for absorbing large masses of Jews. “In accepting the Biltmore Declaration we have to be prepared for friendly negotiations as well as for fighting for our cause,” he emphasized.

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