De zoon van een gazzen

II Memorandum van de anti-Zionistische Jeruzalemse orthodoxie, gericht tot de Volkenbond. Het uit Jacob Israël de Haans pen stammende stuk, werd door de dichter gezonden aan de toenmalige Nederlandse Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken, Jhr. H. A. van Karnebeek (1874-1942), teneinde van deze zijde stem te verkrijgen voor het standpunt van de groep-Sonnenfeld.

The League of Nations Geneva.

Sirs,

Our Community which represents an important part of the Orthodox Jews of Jerusalem, living in the city of religious sanctity, the source of prophecy and everlasting peace, respectfully beg to submit the following memorandum to the notice of the noble conference whose object is the initiation of peace and brotherhood in the world.

We express to you our most profound gratitude for including in the sphere of your activities, the approval of the Palestine Mandate to Great Britain on ground of that magnificent declaration which promises to give to the suffering and wandering Jewish people the possibility of returning and rebuilding a faithful home in the land of its two thousand years’ yearning to which it has been devoted, notwithstanding its compulsory separation therefrom for nigh twenty centuries.

The observations to which we respectfully beg to draw the attention of the League of Nations, are as follows

1) In the terms of the Mandate, the Zionist Organisation is recognised as the representative of the whole Jewish people. The true fact, however, is, that about a million of orthodox Jews, for religious reasons, have deemed it necessary to organise themselves separately, under the banner of ‘Agu-dat Israël’, who do not recognise the Zionist Organisation as their representative, so that a great and important part of the people are really un-represented in the Jewish Agency of Palestine. Depriving an important part of the Jewish people from representation rights is not only a negation of the fundamental laws of justice, but in a certain measure it also retards the reconstruction of the country, which is so precious to their hearts and souls.

We therefore request the League of Nations’ conference to amend this clause in a manner as shall be acceptable to the wishes of all the sections of the Jewish people, who have the right to enjoy the benefits of the Balfour Declaration, by co-opting representative of the Agudat Israël in the Jewish Agency.

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