Political report of the Executive of the Jewish Agency submitted to the ... Zionist Congress and the ... session of the Council of the Jewish Agency · 1937-08-01 · 8.1937 · p. Seite 92

92 connection of the Jewish people with Palestine. It furthermore provides for the official recognition of a Jewish Agency, representing the Jewish People throughout the world, as a body authorised to advise, and cooperate with, the Administration of Palestine on all matters effecting the establishment of the Jewish National Home. The Mandate neither expressly contains nor implies the recognition of any right of Arab peoples outside Palestine to have a voice in its affairs. The present mission of the Iraqi Foreign Minister, which is known to have been undertaken on , behalf of the Iraq Government, serves the purpose of investing Palestine with the character of an Arab country, and this runs counter to the policy embodied in the Mandate with international sanction. 5. According to information received by the Jewish Agency, the so-called Arab Higher Committee regards the Iraqi Foreign Minister not-only as an official representative of his own Government but as an official mediator between the Committee and the Government of Palestine. The Minister is generally believed to have been authorised by the Palestine Government to make certain assurances to the local Arab leaders with regard to the measures which Government will adopt following upon the cessation of the strike and violence, and the opportunities which it will accord the Government of Iraq to influence its future policy in favour of the Arabs of Palestine. The assurances alleged to have been made in connection with the cessation of the disturbances refer, among other matters, to the temporary suspension of Jewish immigration. The Jewish Agency must point out that a promise, express or implied, of the temporary suspension of immigration as a means of inducing Arab leaders to call off the strike and put an end to terrorist activities constitutes a violation of the declarations repeatedly made by the representatives of the Mandatory Government in London and in Jerusalem that no concessions would be made to violence. Moreover, in permitting the suspension of Jewish immigration to be' regarded as a foregone conclusion the assurance given by the Iraqi Foreign Hinister renders null and void, in the eyes of the Arab leaders, the statement made by the Secretary of State in Parliament on July 22nd and broadcast officially on several occasions in Palestine. The Jewish Agency desires to take this opportunity of re-iterating its categorical opposition to the suspension of Jewish immigration at any stage and in any form. It would regard such suspension as an infringement of the fundamental Jewish right embodied in the Mandate to unrestricted immigration into Palestine subject only to the limitations of economic absorptive capacity. It could not but consider such a step as a betrayal of the faith which the Jewish people had placed in the will and ability of the British Government to resist the pressure of terrorism and in their determination not to put a