Jews to Oppose Trusteeship by Force of Arms, NY Herald Tribune, Apr. 23, 1948.

Tell U. N. Again They Will Set Up State May 16; Acrid Debate Continues

By John G. Rogers

LAKE SUCCESS. April 22.-While the United Nations continued today to struggle with the Palestine problem, the Jewish Agency for Palestine warned the U. N. once again that a Jewish state will be born on May 16 and that the Jews of the Holy Land will oppose by force of arms the imposition of a trusteeship on Palestine.

Partition of Palestine, the Agency contended, has gone so far that it cannot be turned back, and the real Palestine challenge to the U. N. is how to prevent the Arab states after May 16 from overthrowing the Jewish state by military measures.

Meanwhile, during more than four hours of debate today in the Political Committee of the U. N. General Assembly, the complex nature of the U. N.’s Palestine snarl was emphasized again and again as fourteen countries presented arguments that often clashed and varied widely.

Australian delegate John Hood introduced a resolution calling for the reaffirmation of partition, asking the U. N. Palestine commission to push the project on to completion, and asking the Arab states to keep hands off the political split of the Holy Land.
For Jerusalem Action

French delegate Alexander Parody introduced a resolution asking priority for immediate emergency measures to protect the Holy City of Jerusalem, including speedy appointment of a Jerusalem governor, empowered to recruit a special police force adequate to secure the historic city and its religious shrines.

Yugoslavia, the Ukraine and, in milder terms, Czechoslovakia, continued the Russian-bloc chorus which sticks to partition and assails the United States as a partition-wrecker determined to make Palestine into an American military base through the device of the trusteeship formula.

Brazil and Greece were the only countries to give any favorable words to the United States trusteeship proposal, and the words were restrained.

Yemen, Pakistan and Egypt continued the Arab and Moslem campaign against partition as an illegal, unworkable and unjust plan. Argentina joined France in expressing concern for the safety of Jerusalem and the Holy places.
Charges Massaere

Almost at the end of the day’s long debates Syrian delegate Faris El Khouri took the floor and asserted that he hall fresh news from the Haifa battle scene in Palestine-news that the Jews were throwing heavy shells at Haifa’s Arab quarter and conducting a masseur of Haifa Arabs-men, women and children.

This Mr. El Khouri said bitterly, fully supported the Arab charges that the Jews are out to exterminate or deport every Arab in the area of Palestine’s proposed Jewish state.

“It is a thing which is atrocious, he said. “We hear concern for the Holy places, but they are made of stone…. The defenseless Arabs are people who are exposed to destruction by the Jews.”

Dr. Jorge Garcia Granados, of Guatemala, a leading pro-partition delegate, retorted to Syria that everybody knew that a war was going on in Palestine and he asked Mr. El Khouri whether the Arabs in Palestine were firing flowers at the Jews.

Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, of Cleveland, head of the American section of the executive of the Jewish Agency, was the Agency speaker today before the fifty-eight-country political committee.

Abandoning partition, he said. would be rewarding the Arabs for their violent opposition to the U. N. partition plan.