Friday, March 15, 1946
Weizmann Outlines Views
At Hearings on Palestine
Nof Interested in 'Trappings' of a Jewish State, But Asks
'State Power' for Jews to Develop Zion; Wants Peace
With Arabs; Bares Churchill Promise
JERUSALEM, (JTA)—While armed guards, radio cars and
tanks toured the streets outside the YMCA building here where
the Anglo-American Inquiry Committee on Palestine is holding
the most important of its series of hearings, Dr. Chaim Weizmann,
president of the Jewish Agency for- Palestine and head of the
World Zionist Orzanization, delivered his stirring plea for the
upbuilding - of the Jewish homeland.
The security measures for the hearings are so rigid that not
even the . committee personnel can leave the King David Hotel,
where they are staying, without previously informing the guards
of where they plan to go, and accepting the company of bodyguards.
Correspondents were searched as they entered the YMCA
building. Police with tommyguns surrounded the building. The
large rectangular hearing room in the $1,000,000 YMCA building
was jammed. Ninety correspondents filled eight rows and Jewish
and Arab witnesses were in the first two, although separated by
the central aisle.
Dwells on Fundamental Causes of Anti-Semitism
The first witness was Chief Secretary John V. W. Shaw, who
greeted the committee on behalf of High Commissioner Sir Alan
Cunningham and presented a 26-chapter "completely objective"
report outlining the Palestine Government's opinions on the Jewish-
Arab issue. Shaw spoke five minutes.
After a brief adjournment, Dr. Weizmann took the stand. He
was. welcomed by British co-chairman Sir John Singleton, on be-
half of the committee.,
Declaring that he was aware of the tremendous responsibil-
ity involved, Dr. Weizmann said:
"I will be as objective as possible for a man in my position."
He then launched upon a careful analysis of the change in the
numerical disposition of world Jewry, which, he said, was home-
- less long before Hitler.
"One of the fundamental causes of anti-Semitism," the
world Zionist leader said, "is the fact that Jews exist, and the
growth of anti-Semitism is proportionate to the number of
Jews per square kilometer. We carry the germs of anti-
Semitism in our knapsack. We are told that we are the 'salt
of the earth'. But this is a left-handed compliment, because
too much salt meant that both the dish and the salt are
discarded.
"Here is a group of people who have lost all the attributes
of a nation, but still it has maintained its existence as a ghost
nation, stalking the arena of history, maintained it for thousands
of years. It is a belief in a mystical force, our conviction of a
return to Israel, which has kept us alive.
"Of the 1,250,000 Jews remaining in Europe," Dr. -Weiz-
mann said, "60 percent wish to leave, and this is a most con-
servative estimate. The prospect before them, of living amid
the tombstones of the past, is too much. They must go."
Fears Jews May Become Hostages of Arab Majority
Concerning the Arabs, Dr. Weizmann .stressed that "I do not
want to charge the Arabs with illiterate anti-Semitism. That would
be unjust. But listening to their leaders speaking in the heat of
polemics, one feels a bit uneasy. The pogroms in Bagdad, Tripoli
and even Cairo make one feel that Jews may some day become
hostages in the hands of the Arab majority. The Moslem world
has treated Jews with considerable tolerance. Jews should never
forget ,this. But there is no use in blinking at the fact that these
great human traditions are on the wane under the pressure of
growing nationalism."
Dr. Weizmann invited the committee to tour Palestine, and
"see the life, energy and vitality which has flowered in this earth."
The JelTvs of Europe, he continued, want to ,go only to Palestine,
and only Palestine • is willing to accept them. He asserted that
the country can absorb double and triple its present population
and added that he still has not given up hope of an agreement
with the Arabs.
Pounds on Table When Speaking of 6,000,000 Victims
"My brain reels," Dr. Weizmann said, "when I think of the
6,000,000 Jews who were killed off in such a short time, and
nothing has been done to prevent a repetition." His voice rising
and his fist pounding the table, he declared passionately: ,
"We are an ancient people. We have contributed to the
world. We have suffered. We have a right to live—a right
to survive under normal conditions. We are as good as anyone
else, and as bad as anyone else."
A country's absorptivity, Dr. Weizmann stated, "does not grow
on trees or in the streets. It must be developed, and developed
by those to _ whom it's a matter of life and death. We have the
vital r aw materials—the nature of our people." Replying to the
charge that the Jews took over the best land in Palestine, Weis-
mann said that marsh and stones had becothe "the best land",
because it was built up by the Jews. .
Recalling that he personally negotiated the issuance of the
Balfour Declaration, the venerable Zionist leader said: "I have seen
it whittled down. I have always been an adherent of gradual-
ness, and I was turned out of office for four years, because I would
not fix a goal. I felt that as long as Jews enter the national home,
a Jewish state would automatically develop. I was imbued with
British mentality, which does not cross bridges until it comes to
them. •
Situation Has Clianged Since 1931
"But since 1931 the situation has changed. First, there was
the whittling down of the Mandate, which culminated in the
White Paper, which definitely formulated a final solution, declar-
ing that Jews trust until the end of time remain a one-third
minority in Palestine. Second, there was the Jewish tragedy. The
problem became one of survival. Therefore, I wrote an article
,in 1942 advocating .a Jewish State."
Weizmann asked the committee to follow a line of "least in-
justice." He pointed out that the Arabs had emerged from the
war with two kingdoms, four republics, six seats in the UNO and
one seat in the UNO's Security Council, adding that "I do not
know whether this is commensurate with their, efforts in the war.
What- is the number of their casualties? What have they suffered?
He said that the Arabs cannot suffer economically, culturally or
religiously from what the Jews ask, and reiterated his willing-
ness to "extend our hand" at any time to the Arabs to discuss the
Palestine problem.
To a question by James MacDonald, Weizmann said that
while he felt that President Truman's request for the admission
of 100,000 Jews to Palestine immediately was "not unreason-
able," he would be agreeable, if a "certain number of the 100,-
000" were admitted "to see how it works out."
He was equally -moderate in answering a query by American
co-chairman Joseph C. Hutcheson concerning a Jewish state, de-
claring that "I am not interested in the trappings of a Jewish state.
I am interested only in the development of the country to its
fullest extent, which is only possible if we have state powers."
Asks How Will a Jewish State End Anti-Semitism in U. S.
Hutcheson then said: "I'll ask you two questions—First, you
ask support for a Jewish state on two grounds: that thereby, and.
only thereby, can be accomplished the purpose of permitting full
immigration and that if only you could establish a Jewish state
in little Palestine, or a little Jewish state in Palestine, you will
bring about some strange metamorphosis among the people of
the world, whereby anti-Semitism will vanish. I would like to
ask how establishment of a Jewish state will benefit the citizens of
,Jewish faith in my country, and how it will eliminate anti-Semitism
(Continued on Page 22)
-THE JEWISH NEWS
Page Three
Weekly Review of the News of the World
(Compiled from Cables of Independent Jewish Press Service)
AMERICA
Eight hundred repatriated Polish Jews and
2,000 non-Jews have been'assassinated by anti-
Semitic, anti-government terrorists, ranging all
over Poland since that country's liberation, H.
M. Caiserman, general secretary of the Cana-
dian Jewish Congress, who just returned from
a two-month inspection tour of Jewish com-
munities in Poland, revealed at a special press
conference held in New York under the aus-
pices of the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee.
Rep. Emanuel Celler (D., N.Y.) has urged
Secretary of State Byrnes to demand trial as
Nazi arch criminals of Haj Amin el Husseini,
.former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, now under
indictment as a war criminal by. the Yugoslav
government, and his cousin Jamal el Husseini,
who just returned to Palestine after nine years'
exile and assumed leadership of the , Palestine
Arab Party.
A. David Benjamin, counsel to the Republi-
can County Committee of Kings County, N. Y.,
has been nominated by Governor Dewey as a
City Court justice, to fill a vacancy resulting
from the recent election to the State Supreme
Court of Justice Jacob Livingston.
J. L. Teller, editor-in-chief of Independent
Jewish Press Service and Palcor News Agency,
and Mrs. Teller, left by air March 3 for Pales-
tine, via Lisbon and North Africa. Mr. Teller
will cover the hearings in Jerusalem of the
Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on
Palestine.
A sharp divergence of opinion between
American and British members of the joint In-
quiry Committee on Palestine on a policy to
meet the ever-growing infiltration of Jews
from eastern Europe into the U. S. and British
zones of Germany and Austria, prevented the
committee, now in Cairo, from filing an interim
report on the Jewish problem before leaving
Europe, Albion Ross, New York Times corre-
spondent, reports from Vienna.
Alvin E. O'Konski, (R., Wis.) urged the
House Military Affairs Committee to approve.
his plan to hire the 350,000 self-exiled Polish
troops, now in England and Italy under the
FibliMeit>D ify Jay Stvti.
-'•
command of Gen. Wiadyslaw Anders, as oc-
cupation mercenaries to replace American
troops in Germany and Austria. According to
the Warsaw government, , agents sent to Poland
by Gen. Anders are responsible for pogroms
against Jews and political' murders.
Outraged parents, teachers and 15 Civic
groups all over New York City joined forces
in protest against the Board of Education's re-
instatement of Miss May Quinn, Brooklyn pub-
lic school teacher suspended last October on
charges of displaying racial and religious in-
tolerance in her Masses.
PALESTINE
The Jewish Coinmunity Council of Safed and
the Bloc Committee of Jewish settlements in
Upper Galilee have demanded the immediate
release of 25 Jewish colonists comprising the
entire population of the new settlement of
Birya, who were arrested by police, March 1,
on suspicion of having participated in an
abortive attack against an Arab Legion camp '
on Mount Canaan, outside Safed.
The British government has notified the
Jewish Agency officially that German prison-
ers of war will not be brought to Palestine to
work on military installations as originally
projected by British military authorities. The
Jewish Agency and every Jewish Palestine in-
stitution had protested that the plan • consti-
tuted an insult to Jewish Palestine .9 ,- -1
provoke serious disturbances.
Rabbi Wolf Gold, Mizrachi leader, has
elected to the Jewish Agency Executive as a
member of the political affairs department. He
replaces Dr. Barth, who declined nomination
to the post by the World Zionist Conference in
London last summer.
Dr. Emanuel Neumann, chairman, and James
Hayes, chief engineer of the Commission on
Palestine Surveys, arrived in Jerusalem by air
from New York, with detailed plans for the
proposed Jordan Valley power and irrigation
project which they will submit to the - Anglo- ,
American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine
at its Jerusalem hearings.
•!,
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