Weizmann Rejects Trusteeship; Urges Jews to Take Firm Stand on Partition

Breaking his silence, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, who is planning to leave the United States within ten days, tonight issued a statement criticizing the U.S. proposal for interim trusteeship for Palestine and urging the Jewish people to “take its stand firmly” on the U.N. partition decision.

“There are three established principles in the Palestine question,” Dr. Weizmann said. “The first is that to prolong tutelage and delay a final solution based on independence is to increase confusion and bloodshed. The second is that to make Arab consent a condition of a settlement is to rule out all chance of a settlement. The third is that to abandon a judgment under pressure of Arab violence is to given incentive to further violence.

“The recent United States declaration fails to take account of these three elementary facts, and runs counter to everything that long experience has taught. Trusteeship for Palestine was rightly rejected unanimously by several organs of the United Nations; and surely the very conditions which made the last months of the Mandate so tragic are likely to apply to any trusteeship.

“I, therefore, feel convinced that the Jewish people must take it stand firmly on the settlement recommended by the General Assembly. The United Nations and its leading members will find no satisfactory solution for Palestine – except by moving forward resolutely to the implementation of that settlement.”

“The decision of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the Jewish National Council of Palestine that upon termination of the Mandatory Administration — and not later then May 16 next — a Provisional Jewish Government will commence to function in cooperation with the representatives of the U.N. then in Palestine’ was hailed today as a ‘courageous and statesmanlike action’ by the American Zionist Emergency Council, which represents the entire Zionist movement in the United states.