ACPC To the US, UN Jan 1948
The Meriden Daily Journal, Jan 28, 1948, p.9
Meriden Record, Jan 28, 1948, p. 7
To the United States and the United Nations...
Since the United Nations General Assembly voted for the partition of Palestine on November 29, 1947, a shameful and deeply disquieting situation has arisen to which public opinion cannot remain indifferent.
Openly defying the United Nations, the governments of the Arab Slates, themselves members, of tho UN, are deliberately encouraging aggression against the Jews of Palestine.
They are using Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and as bases for these operations. They are providing funds, ammunition and military training, and have already launched attacks in force from Syria and Lebanon against Palestinian Jews. In Palestine itself this state of affairs has resulted in unbridled violence by armed Arab hands organized by Haj. Amin el Husseini, the same Arab lender who during the war immeasurably aided Hitler in broadcasts from Berlin urging the Moslems of the Middle East to revolt against the Allies.
This campaign of violence has no moral justification. It is directed against a decision of the United Nations made after nearly twenty committees of inquiry had investigated the problem of Palestine over a period of more than twenty-five years.
The decision of the United Nations was, moreover, a compromise which granted national states in Palestine to both Jews and Arabs.
The campaign of violence we now witness is not a spontaneous uprising by the majority of Palestine's Arabs. On the contrary, they wish to live in peace with their Jewish neighbors. But they are terrorized by the ex-Mufti's bands assisted by his confederates in Cairo, Baghdad, Beirut and Damascus.
Significantly, Arab violence is largely directed against Jerusalem which, according to the UN decision, is to be an international territory because it is sacred to the Christian world.
The campaign of Arab aggression, led by a group of former Nazi allies and their accomplices across tho frontiers, is therefore directed not only against the Jews, not only against the peaceful majority of Palesline's Arabs, but against the authority of the United Nations itself.
This is a bold attempt to blackmail the United Nations into submission. It is an attempt by violence to render impotent the first groat decision, of the United Nations.
If this campaign succeeds, it will reduce the United Nations to a debating society. At a moment when world peace is the hope of all men of good will, it will smash the effectiveness of the only instrument for international peace we possess. It will disillusion those millions who had hopes that at last some way other than the holocaust of war could be found to settle international problems.
If the United Nations cannot make its Palestine decision stick, if a handful of willful men can prevent a UN decision from being carried out because they do not like that decision, then no future action of the UN will have, more worth than tho paper upon which it is written.
For this state of affairs not only the ex-Mufti and his cohorts are responsible. Other powers are not wholly free of responsibility. Tho British Government, which insisted that it retain sole control over Palestine and sole responsibility for law and ordor until tho termination of the Palestine Mandate, seems either unwilling or unable to maintain law and order. We do not attempt to judge whether this policy is dictated by unwillingness or inability. But the fact remains that tho security situation in Palestine is steadily deteriorating.
One thing is certain: while Arab bands attack Jewish settlements, blockade wide areas, and waylay traffic on the highways, British officials and forces have repeatedly interfered with Jewish defense and counterattack, repeatedly arrested and disarmed the defenders, and repeatedly confiscated their armaments.
The United Nations has not yet taken action against those overt acts of its Arab member-governments which constitute an open defiance of tho Resolution of the General Assembly and of the Charter itself. Nor has the United Nations reacted as yet to the fact that the ex-Mufti's bands and the attitude of the British Administration are a clear challenge and threat to the authority of this international body.
Even if the only issue at stake were the safety of the 700,000 Jews of Palestine, American public opinion should have been deeply concerned. Our Government was largely instrumental in bringing about the United Nations decision on partition. What had we in mind when wo encouraged the aspirations of the Jewish people to nationhood in Palestine? Was it our intention to leave them there defenseless?
Much more is at stake than our moral responsibility toward the Jews. We repeat, the very future of the United Nations is in jeopardy. This open defiance of the United Nations decision comes from a group of Middle Eastern states which depend upon the UN and the Western world for sovereignty and international recognition, for political and military protection as well as economic development.
If we permit such conduct on the part of the Arab States, then the authority of the United Nations will suffer a staggering blow which can result in incalculable harm to men everywhere.
Let us make no mistake about the danger involved in this situation. The conflict may assume world-wide dimensions, or, alternatively, this aggression of the Arab States can be restrained, thus making the Palestine solution a potent factor for peace and stability in the world. America must help to determine whether the effectiveness of the United Nations shall be destroyed. or strengthened.
The United States wants peace in the world. It is to its vital interests to uphold the Palestine decision of the United Nations.
Our Government should, therefore, actively support tho following measures:
Only in this manner can the United States and the United Nations prevent the threatened conflagration. The delay in implementing the UN decision has encouraged the Arab League and ex-Mufti in their defiance of the UN. And has forced Jewish people to resort to desperate means to provide themselves with arms for their defense and for the maintenance of the UN decision.
America Christian Palestine Committee.
To the United States and the United Nations...
Since the United Nations General Assembly voted for the partition of Palestine on November 29, 1947, a shameful and deeply disquieting situation has arisen to which public opinion cannot remain indifferent.
Openly defying the United Nations, the governments of the Arab Slates, themselves members, of tho UN, are deliberately encouraging aggression against the Jews of Palestine.
They are using Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and as bases for these operations. They are providing funds, ammunition and military training, and have already launched attacks in force from Syria and Lebanon against Palestinian Jews. In Palestine itself this state of affairs has resulted in unbridled violence by armed Arab hands organized by Haj. Amin el Husseini, the same Arab lender who during the war immeasurably aided Hitler in broadcasts from Berlin urging the Moslems of the Middle East to revolt against the Allies.
This campaign of violence has no moral justification. It is directed against a decision of the United Nations made after nearly twenty committees of inquiry had investigated the problem of Palestine over a period of more than twenty-five years.
The decision of the United Nations was, moreover, a compromise which granted national states in Palestine to both Jews and Arabs.
The campaign of violence we now witness is not a spontaneous uprising by the majority of Palestine's Arabs. On the contrary, they wish to live in peace with their Jewish neighbors. But they are terrorized by the ex-Mufti's bands assisted by his confederates in Cairo, Baghdad, Beirut and Damascus.
Significantly, Arab violence is largely directed against Jerusalem which, according to the UN decision, is to be an international territory because it is sacred to the Christian world.
The campaign of Arab aggression, led by a group of former Nazi allies and their accomplices across tho frontiers, is therefore directed not only against the Jews, not only against the peaceful majority of Palesline's Arabs, but against the authority of the United Nations itself.
This is a bold attempt to blackmail the United Nations into submission. It is an attempt by violence to render impotent the first groat decision, of the United Nations.
If this campaign succeeds, it will reduce the United Nations to a debating society. At a moment when world peace is the hope of all men of good will, it will smash the effectiveness of the only instrument for international peace we possess. It will disillusion those millions who had hopes that at last some way other than the holocaust of war could be found to settle international problems.
If the United Nations cannot make its Palestine decision stick, if a handful of willful men can prevent a UN decision from being carried out because they do not like that decision, then no future action of the UN will have, more worth than tho paper upon which it is written.
For this state of affairs not only the ex-Mufti and his cohorts are responsible. Other powers are not wholly free of responsibility. Tho British Government, which insisted that it retain sole control over Palestine and sole responsibility for law and ordor until tho termination of the Palestine Mandate, seems either unwilling or unable to maintain law and order. We do not attempt to judge whether this policy is dictated by unwillingness or inability. But the fact remains that tho security situation in Palestine is steadily deteriorating.
One thing is certain: while Arab bands attack Jewish settlements, blockade wide areas, and waylay traffic on the highways, British officials and forces have repeatedly interfered with Jewish defense and counterattack, repeatedly arrested and disarmed the defenders, and repeatedly confiscated their armaments.
The United Nations has not yet taken action against those overt acts of its Arab member-governments which constitute an open defiance of tho Resolution of the General Assembly and of the Charter itself. Nor has the United Nations reacted as yet to the fact that the ex-Mufti's bands and the attitude of the British Administration are a clear challenge and threat to the authority of this international body.
Even if the only issue at stake were the safety of the 700,000 Jews of Palestine, American public opinion should have been deeply concerned. Our Government was largely instrumental in bringing about the United Nations decision on partition. What had we in mind when wo encouraged the aspirations of the Jewish people to nationhood in Palestine? Was it our intention to leave them there defenseless?
Much more is at stake than our moral responsibility toward the Jews. We repeat, the very future of the United Nations is in jeopardy. This open defiance of the United Nations decision comes from a group of Middle Eastern states which depend upon the UN and the Western world for sovereignty and international recognition, for political and military protection as well as economic development.
If we permit such conduct on the part of the Arab States, then the authority of the United Nations will suffer a staggering blow which can result in incalculable harm to men everywhere.
Let us make no mistake about the danger involved in this situation. The conflict may assume world-wide dimensions, or, alternatively, this aggression of the Arab States can be restrained, thus making the Palestine solution a potent factor for peace and stability in the world. America must help to determine whether the effectiveness of the United Nations shall be destroyed. or strengthened.
The United States wants peace in the world. It is to its vital interests to uphold the Palestine decision of the United Nations.
Our Government should, therefore, actively support tho following measures:
- 1. A stern warning to the States calling for an end to the sabotage of the UN decision.
- 2. An unmistakably clear declaration to Great Britain that as long as she remains in Palestine, her armed forces can be neither neutral nor quasi-neutral, but must act in defense of public law and the UN decision.
- 3. Immediate use of the proper UN agencies to provide international military protection for Palestine Jewry and make immediately available the necessary military force to implement the United Nations decision on Palestine.
- 4. Immediate equipment of the Haganah under United Nations auspices to enable this Jewish constabulary defense force to carry out police powers within Jewish territory in Palestine.
Only in this manner can the United States and the United Nations prevent the threatened conflagration. The delay in implementing the UN decision has encouraged the Arab League and ex-Mufti in their defiance of the UN. And has forced Jewish people to resort to desperate means to provide themselves with arms for their defense and for the maintenance of the UN decision.
America Christian Palestine Committee.
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