The Case for a Jewish State
Gromylo, Andrei
The Case for a Jewish State Andrei Gromylo As is well known, the aspirations of an important part of the Jewish people are bound up with the question of Palestine, and with the future structure of...
...A just settlement can be found only if account is taken in sufficient degree of the lawful interests of both peoples...
...The Case for a Jewish State Andrei Gromylo As is well known, the aspirations of an important part of the Jewish people are bound up with the question of Palestine, and with the future structure of that country...
...I shall not speak of the conditions in which > these people are living...
...Neither history nor the conditions which have arisen in Palestine now can justify any unilateral solution of the Palestine problem, either in favor of the creation of an independent Arab state, ignoring the lawful rights of the Jewish people, or in favor of the creation of an independent Jewish state, ignoring the lawful rights of the Arab population...
...Reprinted, with permission, from ZIONISM, A BASIC READER, Herzl Press copyright © 1975...
...Quite a lot has been said on this subject by representatives who share the USSR delegation's point of view in this matter, and which support the plan for partitioning Palestine into two states...
...Neither of these extreme solutions would bring about a just settlement of this complex problem, first and foremost since they both fail to guarantee the regulation of the relations between Arabs and Jews, which is the most important task of all...
...Soviet Delegate to the UN, at the UN General Assembly, May 14,1947 and November 26, 1947...
...But these figures, which give an idea of the losses suffered by the Jewish people at the hands of the Fascist aggressors, give no idea of the situation in which the great mass of the Jewish people find themselves after the war...
...The experience of the past, particularly during the time of the Second World War, has shown that not one state of Western Europe has been in a position to give proper help to the Jewish people and to defend its interests, or even its existence, against the violence that was directed against it from the Hitlerites and their allies...
...That country has become the native land of both these peoples, and both of them occupy an important place in the country economically and culturally...
...The representatives of the Arab states claim that the partition of Palestine would be an historic injustice...
...A great many of these are in the camps for displaced persons, where they are continuing to suffer great privations...
...A great many of the Jews who survived the war in Europe have found themselves deprived of their countries, of their shelter, and of means of earning their livelihood...
...But this view of the case is unacceptable, if only because, after all, the Jewish people has been closely linked with Palestine for a considerable period in history...
...these conditions are well known...
...The Jewish people suffered extreme misery and deprivation during the last war...
...We must bear in mind the incontestable fact that the population of Palestine consists of two peoples, Arabs and Jews...
...This is a very serious fact, but unfortunately, like all facts, it must be recognized...
...It can be said, without exaggeration, that the sufferings and miseries of the Jewish people are beyond description...
...It is not surprising, therefore, that both in the General Assembly and in the meetings of the Political Committee of the Assembly a great deal of attention was given to this aspect of the matter...
...The total number of the Jews who fell at the hands of the Fascist hangmen is something in the neighborhood of six million...
...This interest is comprehensible and completely justified...
...almost complete extinction...
...This month's selection is taken from two speeches by Andrei Gromyko...
...The solution of the Palestine problem based on a partition of Palestine into two separate states will be of profound historical significance, because this decision will meet the legitimate demands of the Jewish people, hundreds of thousands of whom, as you know, are still without a country, without homes, having found temporary shelter only in special camps in some western European countries...
...The fact that not a single Western European state has been in a position to guarantee the defense of the elementary rights of the Jewish people or compensate them for the violence they have suffered at the hands of the Fascist hangmen explains the aspiration of the Jews for the creation of a state of their own...
...Each of these has its historical roots in Palestine...
...It would be unjust not to take this into account and to deny the right of the Jewish people to the realization of such an aspiration...
...Hundreds of thousands of Jews are wandering about the various countries of Europe seeking a means of livelihood and seeking shelter...
...It would be difficult to express by mere dry figures the losses and sacrifices of the Jewish people at the hands of the Fascist occupiers...
...Only about one and a half million Jews survived the war in Western Europe...
...In the territories where the Hitlerites were in control, the Jews suffered REACCESS presents classics and other documents from the Jewish past...
...In analyzing the various types of plans for the future of Palestine, it is necessary first of all to take into account the specific aspect of this question...
Vol. 1 • March 1976 • No. 8
