The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume] (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1939-1992, 1943-07-30
Read The Contention of
DAVID BEN GURION,
"NOW IS THE TIME TO FIGHT
What He Has To Saw About Palestine Is Provocative And
Stirrng-But What He Has To Say About Palestine is
Equally True About the Whole Jewish Problem
Everywhere in the World.

to Jews, and especially to the
Zionists. And so they have put
forward this scheme for the re
construction" of Palestine.
When war broke out, on Sep
TENDER 8, 1889, we stated that we
regarded this war forced by the
Nazis on Britain, as our war, and
that though a cruel blow had been
administered to us by the publica-
ton of the White Paper with
which we would never reconcile
ourselves, we were ready to place
everything we had at the disposal
of Britain at war. We did not
content ourselves with mere dec
larations and offered practical
help to the Government of Pales-
tine and the Imperial Government
in London. However, Chamber
lain's Government in London and
the White Paper Government in
Jerusalem rejected all our offers.
At the end of February, 1910
another blow was administered to
us: the Land Purchase Restric-
lions Ordinance. BY that law,
Jews were prohibited in their own
homeland to acquire by purchase
or lease or in any other way
/ except in a few towns and in a
restricted area on the sea shore
a plot of land, a house, a. tree or
water or a right to water supply.
BY that decree, we were even de-
prived of equality before the law
and racial discrimination was in
PRODUCED against Jews, something
which does not exist anywhere
else in the British Empire.
We asked the Government that
the Ordinance should not be en-
acted until the International Court
of the League of Nations had ex-
pressed their judgment on it.
And we had excellent precedent
for that demand. The same de-
mand was made by two of the
greatest legal experts of Great
Britain, who have both served as
Lord Chief Justice of England,
Lord Hailsham and Sir John (now
Lord Simon. When the introduce
ton of far smaller restrictions of
our rights was proposed in the
White Paper of 1880, these two
men asked the Government of the
day to Withhold action until the
International Court at the Hague
or the League of Nations had con-
sidered the legality of the pro-
] posals. But our demand was not
granted, even though not only we
alone, but the whole opposition in
the House of Commons declared
that the new ordinance was not
only a breach of the Mandate,
but also of the most elementary
principles of law in the Anglo
Saxon world. And in their oppos-
ition to this wholly unjustified
ordinance, the Opposition in Par
lament went to the extent of ex-
pressing, for the first time since
the outbreak of the war, their
lack of confidence in Chamber
lain's Government.
Nevertheless the Ordinance was
enacted without the authority of
the League of Nations and in
breach of the Mandate.
We Have Not Forgotten
We have not forgotten these
blows. We would not be worthy
of human dignity were we ever to
forget them. But we have also
not forgotten that there is a wal
going on, a war against Hitler
a war which Britain is leading
At that time Britain stood alone
in the field of battle while now
she is fighting side by side with
great nations. We regarded it as