Looking Back: December 2, 2011
75 Years Ago in the Forward
Testimony to the Peel Commission on Palestine indicates that during the years 1934-1935, no fewer than 25,000 Arabs entered Palestine from neighboring countries. The reason so many of these illegal immigrants have come to Palestine is because conditions in their countries of origin ? most came from Syria and Jordan ? are so poor. Palestine is currently in a relatively prosperous state. Moshe Shertok, the Jewish Agency representative to the panel, said that while Arab immigrants to Palestine are allowed by the British to come and go as they please, Jewish immigrants are dealt with in a most strict and stringent manner, ostensibly to prevent the entrance of Jewish communists. An appeal was subsequently made to the Commission that German Jewish children from the ages of 12-17 should be allowed special permission to enter Palestine.
50 Years Ago in the Forward
Having returned this week from a visit to the Soviet Union, Senator Jacob Javits said that recent attacks on Jewish leaders in the USSR are a result of the country?s anti-Israel political orientation. Speaking at a press conference at Idlewild Airport, Javits explained that his visit was trade-related, but that he also wanted to inquire about the Jewish situation. According to the senator, he was unable to speak to either local Jews or government employees about this situation because no one was willing to speak to him. ?It was as if they were covered by a cloak of silence,? said the senator.
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