Replying to an Arab warning that “dire calamities” awaited the Jews throughout the east unless the Palestine Jewish homeland was abandoned, the Jewish Agency asserted today that “the return of the Jews to Palestine is dictated by historical necessity, and no dangers or threats will deflect the Jewish people from their path or stifle their urge for freedom.”
Massacres of Jews will not prevent the realization of Zionism, asserted Moshe Shertok, head of the agency’s political department, in a telegram to the Arab Committee for the Defense of Palestine in Damascus, whose chairman, Nabih el Azme, had wired Dr. Chaim Weizmann the ultimatum.
“We regret your complete misunderstanding of the Zionist movement, which has always derived strength from persecutions and massacres of Jews and will not be deterred by further killings, as eloquently testified by Palestine Jewry’s stand for three years,” the reply said. “The resorting to massacres by the Arabs of neighboring countries will not prevent the realization of Zionism and will only disgrace themselves, just as Tiberias will always remain a shameful stain on the Palestine Arab movement.
“We see the possibility of full and fruitful cooperation between a Palestine embracing Jews and Arabs and the neighboring countries for the good of all, but essential to that is the recognition of the basic Jewish rights in Palestine, whose realization will not harm but only benefit the Palestine Arabs. The return of the Jews to Palestine is dictated by historical necessity, and no dangers or threats will deflect the Jewish people from their path nor stifle their urge for freedom.”
A Jewish youth and two Arabs were added today to the mounting death toll.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
