Page Six

THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, December 8,

1944

WHAT IS A JEWISH COMMONWEALTH

WORLD JEWRY'S RESPONSIBLE LEADERS GIVE THEIR VIEWS ON THE SIGNIFICANCE AND MEAN-
ING OF THE ZIONIST DEMANDS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN PALESTINE

There is considerable confusion in some
Jewish ranks regarding the meaning of the
terms "Jewish Commonwealth" or "Jewish
State."

Adoption by the Foreign Affairs Committee
of the U. S. House of Representatives of the
resolution on Palestine again brings this issue
to the fore as a matter of U. S. Government
policy, and it is important that the Palestinian
issue should be clarified and should not be con-
fused.

The Jewish News therefore presents the
views of the world's outstanding Zionists on
the subject of a "Jewish Commonwealth."

Ettnality For All

By EMANUEL NEUMANN

Former Director, U. S. Zionist Emergency Council

Y a Jewish Commonwealth
"' Nye certainly do not mean a
State which is exclusively Jewish. We do
not mean to drive the existing Arab popula-
tion into the desert or cast it into the sea.
On the contrary, those who choose to do so
are to remain. Moreover, their civic and
personal rights shall be inviolate. There
shall be a full and complete equality before
the law. Not only that, but the Arabs shall
have every right and possibility to preserve
and develop their cultural and religious
heritage.. Their language shall be recog-
nized and their traditions respected. And
in addition they shall share fully in the econ-
oinic advantages and opportunities and the
prosperity which will come with the mod-
ernization of the country and the develop-
ment of its resources.

Indeed, this has already been the case
in a substantial measure. If, then, we are
asked what do we mean by the adjective
"Jewish" as applied to the future common-
wealth of Palestine my answer is that it is
a short and abbreviated way of saying that
through the repatriation of large numbers of
European and other Jews, the Jewish people
will attain a numerical majority in Palestine
and thereby permanently guarantee the
open door for others who may follow ; so
that Palestine shall never cease to serve as
a sanctuary and homeland for any and all
Jews from whateVer part of the world who
may choose to go there in the future. It will
also be a Jewish CommonWealth in the vital
sense that in that -country; in that little cor-
ner of the world, the•,Jewish .people, - no long-
er living under minority- conditiOns but as
a majority, will be free to apply their talent,
their industry, their genius and leave the
intangible impress of their civilization upon
their ancestral land as in the days of the
kings and the prophets.

But the development of this Jewish
''.Commonwealth shall take place under demo-
- cratic institutions and in a democratic spirit.
The - Jews will preponderate and lead in the
development of the country without domin-
ating or oppressing the minority. Jew.. and
Arab devoted to their respective cultures
and traditions shall co-operate as free and
equal citizens iand jointly contribute to the
prosperity and welfare of a Common single
Unitary state. The Arab citizens of the
Jewish Commonwealth will be as favour-
ably situated as are the French-speaking
citizens of the British Dominion of Canada.
It will be a free and democratic Jewish state
composed of Jews, Moslems, Christians and,
if there are any Buddhists, as well—com-
patriots, all. All shall be eligible to public
office, even the highest.

Three Principles

A Jewish. State

By DAVID BEN - GURION

By DR. CHAIM WEIZMANN

Chairman, World Zionist Executive

TT is premature to lay down a
'detailed plan for the constitu-
tion of Palestine after the war and to at-
tempt a reply to all questions which may
arise. It is, however, possible and necessary
to lay doWn the Most essential principles for
our own guidance and for the immediate
political job facing Zionism in educating
Jewish and general public opinion, in Amer-
ica, England, Russia and other countries, to-
ward a Zionist solution of the problem of
Palestine.
These principles are three
1. A clear and unequivocal reaffirma7
tion of the original intention of the Balfour
Declaration and the Mandate to re-establish
Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth as
made clear by the President of the United
States on March 3, 1919.
2. The Jewish Agency for Palestine' as.
the trustee for the prospective immigrants
and settlers should have full control over
Jewish immigration and be vested with all
necessary authority for the development and
upbuilding of the country. including the
development of its unoccupied and unculti-
vated lands.
3. Complete equality to all inhabitants
of Palestine, civil, political and religious;
self-government in • all municipal affairs;
autonomy for the different communities—
Jewish and Arab—in the management of all
their internal affairs—education, religion,
etc
Whether Palestine should remain a sep-
arate unit or be associated with a larger and
more comprehensive political entity—a Near
Eastern Federation, British Commonwealth
of Nations, Anglo-American Union or some
other larger association—will depend on
circumstances and developments which, can
neither be determined by us nor at 'present
be foreseen,' 'but this does not constitute a
special Jewish or Palestinian problem. . We
will be part Of the new world and the new
order, which, we believe, will emerge victor-
ious from this war. But whatever will be
the constitutional relation of Jewish Pales-
tine to other countries, there must be con-
tinued willingness and readiness for close
co-operation with the Arabs in Palestine as
well as the neighboring countries. Once the
bone of contention of Jewish immigration is
removed by clear-cut international decision
on the one hand, and assuring Jewish con-
trol over their own immigration on the other,
there is no serious reason to give up the
hope for Jewish-Arab co-operation.

President, Jewish Agency for Palestine and
World Zionist Organization

I

DO not think that any of us want a
Jewish State for the sake of the-
paraphernalia which is bound up with the
State. We want it because it is the sort of or-
ganization which technically, legally and mor-
ally gives you the right to develop the country.
to its fullest extent. I believe that we in our
conception differ somewhat from all the States,
which are being created so quickly and so eas-
ily in the Middle East. If a State serves the pur- -
pose of the majority of the inhabitants in order
to achieve the one great objective namely the
improvement of the standard of life of the peo-!
ple, then the State has a right to exist. And that
is the only criterion by which a State and its.
right to exist, and its stability and its value,,.
will be measured 25 or 30 years hence. I hope -
that all the States in the Middle East will
answer this criterion, which needs this concep-
tion to justify the demand for a State.

We ask for the State because we believe that
through the State we shall be able to do the
maximum good to the maximum of the people.
And in the future Jewish State all the in-
habitants, without distinction of class, race or
religion, would enjoy equal rights. That again
distinguishes somewhat the State which we
have in mind from the States which have been
created. Unfortunately—and I hope it will be
improved—Arab nationalism has proved nega-
tive and exclusive. They do not consider mi-
norities as groups which have to be integrated
in the general system of the State. If one
thinks of minorities in Arab States, one thinks
of the Assyrians in Iraq, or Jews in Bagdad.
But this is entirely alien to our conception of
the future society which we hope to build up,
and the very elements of the society in Pales-
tine today are indicative of what it is likely to
be in the future. I think it is almost a common-
place that Palestine is the only country in the
Middle East where the standard of life of the
Arabs went up by leaps and bounds. I believe
we shall probably have to go through a transi-
tion period until we can find our bearings, and .
the rapidity with which we can absorb people.
in Palestine will depend largely upon the ef-
forts of the Jewish community, and here again
primarily upon the efforts of the Jewish com-
munities in the Anglo-Saxon countries, and let
us hope also in Russia.

,

From time to time we notice in the English
and American papers, an attempt to analyze
the causes which have brought about the
growth of anti-Semitism, which exists in some
countries in a mild form, and in some countries
in a violent form. One is surprised at the tre-
mendous forces which are always mustered to
attack a small group of people; so many against
so few. The solution of our problem is the
creation of a home.

I believe Zionism can register a certain.
amount of progress in the fact that there is no
Jewish group which does not wish the gates of.
Palestine to be opened wide. Even the Council
for Judaism in America, which is headed by the
peak of assimilationist Jewry, even they pay lip
service, or perhaps are genuinely convinced as
to the necessity of opening the gates of Pal
estine. Of course, we should open them. They
have not overstrained themselves in trying to
open the gates of Palestine. To create the ab-
sorptive capacity of Palestine requires effort,
ingenuity, enthusiasm, idealism, and the pour-
ing out of energy. Nobody will do it for us..

JEWISH BRIGADE EMBLEM

This is the Blue-White Flag under
which the Jewish Brigade Group will
go into battle as a' fighting unit of the
United Nations. The - Jewish Agency
for Palestine submitted this design for
a flag and it has been officially approved.
The flag has two horizontal blue
stripes on a white background, with a
blue Shield of David in the center. A
blue-white-blue shoulder flash, with the
Shield of David in gold, has also been
authorized.
The designation (in white on khaki)
is "Jewish Brigade Group", with the in-
itials of the Hebrew equivalent above it.
The Hebrew, "Chativah Yehudith Loch-
emeth", means literally "Jewish Fighting
Formation."

Jewish history has always been working on
remnants. - Again we stand before a period
when we shall have to collect and assemble
remnants from the north and south, from the
east and west. Whatever we have done in the
past, whatever we shall do in the future, is only,
an instalment payment for what we owe to the
martyrs who died at Kiddush Hashem.

A Jewish State in Palestine would be more
than merely the necessary means of securing
further Jewish immigration and development.
It is a moral need wand poStulate, and it would'
be a decisive step towards normality and true
emancipation. I believe that after the war Jews
everywhere can gain status and security only
through .the rise of a Jewish State, and this
would be especially the case if that State is ,a .
part of the British - Commonwealth.