Speech #800054578

In the face of these solemn International covenants and commitments. Great Britain promulgated its infamous white paper of May 1939. arbitrarily cutting off the right of the Jews to settle closely upon the land of Palestine and to make It their Jewish national home. Britain has persisted in this action since that date with the result that Palestine Is a police state. ridden with terror. deprived of elementary civil rights or the equal protection of the laws. and barring from its gates hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees and DPs. the remnant of the martyred Jews of Europe. At the session of the United Nations Political Committee. to which I referred. I was amazed to hear not only the intransigeance of the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee. but the threats and belligerency of the other Arab countries. The delegate of Iraq. declared that Jewish immigration into Palestine as guaranteed by the mandate would be a declaration of war. and an invitation to fighting. He said such immigration would show the aggressive intentions of the Jews against the Arab countries. These words sounded strangely reminiscent of Hitler who declared against the aggressive intentions of the Poles and the Jews at the same time that they were being gassed and cremated. The Arabs demanded the immediate Independence of Palestinea palpable effort to freeze the status quo of an Arab majority without any reference to the fact that an illegal British policy barring Jewish immigration had left out the 500.000 Jews from Europe. who the AngloAmerican Committee of Inquiry estimated would emigrate from Europe to Palestine if allowed to do so. This number alone would give the Jews parity in population with the Arabs. The question we face is whether the democratic nations will permit themselves to be bullied by feudal princes and landowners holding millions of Arabs in abject subjection in their own countries.