A JEWISH PROTEST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26199, 9 July 1946, Page 5

A JEWISH PROTEST

PROCESSION IN LONDON LONDON .July 7. Thousands of Jews, headed by the only Jewish Victoria Cross winner of the war, a former petty officer in the submarine service, Thomas Gould, staged a procession from the East End to Trafalgar square in a great protest demonstration against the British Government’s action in Palestine. The procession, in which there were Jewish girls, patriarchal rabbis, and elderly women, included several hundred exservicemen, also 200 young persons aged from 14 to 18 who had spent years in German concentration camps. They bore camp identity marks tattooed on the arm. The majority of the youngsters were transported from Poland when they were little more than babies. Two of them yelled to a reporter: “We must go to Palestine. Nothing will stop us.” Banners carried the slogans: “ Haganah led the Allies to Syria ”: “Thirty thousand Palestine volunteers served the Allies,” and “Release our leaders.” There were no disorders during the demonstration. A resolution passed by the Zionist Federation of Britain and Ireland, which was read out to the crowd and afterwards delivered to Downing street, called for the immediate release of detained members of the Jewish executive in Palestine, a cessation of the attacks against the Jewish settlements, and the immediate opening of Palestine to 100,000 Jews. Two thousand Glasgow Jews carrying banners marched through the city’s streets to the Great Synagogue as a protest against the British Government's policy in Palestine.