At a special meeting this morning, the executive of the Jewish Agency took under consideration the U.N. Assembly’s plea for a truce in the Holy Land until a final decision is rendered, and voted to call on all elements in the Jewish community to maintain peace, an Agency spokesman told a press conference.
He said that the Agency had not begun preparations for appearing before the U.N. inquiry committee, since it was not yet clear whether the probers would want to hear witnesses or merely study written memoranda. As soon as the inquiry body’s procedure is made known, the Agency will begin work, he added.
The Palestine Government, meanwhile, is going ahead with plans for accommodating the members of the inquiry committee and their aides. It is understood that part of the King David Hotel where the government’s secretariat is located will be cade available to the U.N. body. The area is surrounded by barbed wire and it is impossible to enter without special permits. A unit of 250 picked policemen has been assigned to act as bodyguards for the investigators, in addition to the regular militery guards who will surround their meeting place. The latter site has not yet been selected, but it is reported that the same YMCA building used by the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry will be used.
EXTREMISTS REPORTED READY FOR TRUCE IF GOVERNMENT WILL AGREE
It is learned that the Stern Group and the Irgun Zvai Leumi are carrying on discussions for a joint approach to the Palestine Government. The extremists are reported ready to suspend hostilities during the period of the inquiry, if the government promises to do likewise.
An anonymous spokesman of the Stern Group called the JTA office in Tel Aviv this morning, declaring: “We ask you to inform the world that we will not boycott the U.N. fact-finding commission, and guarantee their security when they come to Palestine.”
The left-wing Hashomer Hatzair today issued a leaflet praising the statement at the U.N. by Soviet delegate Andrei Gromyko, and demanding that the Jewish Agency “stay on the path of a progressive policy to foster Jewish-Arab rapprochement, aiming at the establishment of a bi-national state supported by all progressive forces throughout the world, which is the only way to solve the complicated Jewish and Palestine problems.”
A serious split has developed in the Tenua L’Achdut Avoda, the left-wing opposition to the Mapai (Palestine Labor Party), with a number of its leading members resigning to join the Hashomer Hatzair and others gravitating back towards the Mapai.
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.
