46
The second question : Have there been any attempts at collaboration between the Arab Higher Committee and the Jewish Agency for Palestine? Mr Zea-Gonzales (Guatemala) : I have just one question. It has been said on several occasions, but never officially by Arabs or Jews, that bad feeling exists between Arabs and Jews in Palestine. On the other hand, the Jews say there is no such bad feeling. What is the truth of the matter ? Do the Arabs of Palestine take sides in the tense political situation actually existing in that country ? Mr Gonzales-Fernanpez (Colombia) : I should like to ask Mr Katan, with the Chair's permission, this question : What are the views of the Arab Higher Committee regarding the composition of the proposed Committee of Investigation ? Mr Asaf Ali (India) : May Ibe permitted to repeat, word for word, what I said to the representative of the Jewish Agency. I congratulate the representative of the Arab Higher Committee on the very impressive statement which he has made. I should just like to ask two questions, which he may take down and answer later on in writing. He has made a reference to the pledges which were made to the Arabs from 1915 right down to 1920 —that is, before and after the Balfour Declaration —and he has said something about the " national Jewish home," which term appears in the mandate as well as in the Balfour Declaration. Does he or does he not realize —and this was the question which I put to the representative of the Jewish Agency—that a national Jewish home is easily contra-distinguishable from a Jewish State; that a national Jewish home, as mentioned in the mandate, is not inconsistent with a completely independent and Sovereign Arab Palestine State ? lam not commenting on the Tightness or wrongness of the promise which was made to the Jews for the establishment of a national Jewish home. That is an entirely separate matter. I am only drawing a legal distinction between these two entities, a national Jewish home and a sovereign Jewish State. My next question would be again the same as I put to the representative of the Jewish Agency, and that is about immigration. Is it a fact or is it not a fact that until 1900 not more than 4,500 Russian or other Jews who had been driven out of Czarist Russia had gone to Palestine ? Is it or is it not a fact that until 1920 not more than about 45,000 Jews from outside had entered Palestine ? Is it or is it not a fact again that by 1930 the immigrants had risen to a figure of over 150,000 ? Again, is it not a fact that by 1939 the Jewish population of immigrants had risen to about 600,000, when the white-paper was issued in 1939 restricting the immigration ? Finally, I would like to have him tell us whether all these immigrants are Arab-speaking or Hebrew-speaking or Yiddish-speaking immigrants. Is Yiddish, by any chance, a Hebrew language, or is it a mixture of Polish, Lithuanian, Rumanian, &c., and Hebrew—Hebrew being the script, the language being something else. Is it a fact that these immigrants are easily assimilable in Palestine ? Finally, I would also like the representative of the Arab Higher Committee to tell us whether it is or is not a fact that by 1915 it was well known that the Dead Sea contained chemicals with a value of about
Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.
By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.
Your session has expired.