Jerusalem is the City of Peace, according to the meaning
of its name, but a city of war as its fate at the present is. Why is Jerusalem
a city of war? The Israelis agreed that it should be an international
city as decided by the United Nations on Nov. 29. But the British scheme
with Abdullah is to make it the capital of this puppet king. Thus it turns
out that the British and Abdullah are trying, by war and by siege, to
take for themselves the city which is declared by the family of nations
to belong to all nations.
Instead of all the nations defending Jerusalem against the
British and the Arabs, the Israelis, who already have the task of defending
their State against the onslaught of the armies of seven Arab states,
now bear the additional burden of defending Jerusalem and thus of fighting
for all the nations.
The invasion of Palestine by the Arab states and their war
against Israel should be met with international force, but the Security
Council hesitates to follow this path; and so, instead of receiving help,
the Israelis give help to all the nations that assigned Jerusalem as an
international city. Nor do the Israelis merely provide help; they actually
carry the entire burden of defending Jerusalem from those who strive to
make this international city their possession.
Strange as it seems, 50-odd nations do not come to the assistance
of Israel, but Israel, in addition to its own war, wages war on behalf
of the 50-odd nations.
* * *
On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly voted:
“To place the City of Jerusalem under international
trusteeship” with “the United Nations as the Administrative
Authority.”
“The City of Jerusalem shall be demilitarized, its
neutrality shall be declared and preserved, and no para-military formations,
exercises or activities shall be permitted within its borders.”
“A Governor of the City of Jerusalem shall be appointed
by the Trusteeship Council. He shall be neither Arab nor Jew nor a citizen
of the Palestinian States, nor, at the time of appointment, a resident
of the City of Jerusalem.”
“The City of Jerusalem shall guarantee free transit
and visit to residents of the Arab and Jewish States in Palestine.”
“The protection of the Holy Places, religious buildings
and sites in the City of Jerusalem shall be entrusted to a special police
force, the members of which shall be recruited outside of Palestine and
shall be neither Arab nor Jew.”
* * *
Thus the United Nations decided about the city that is holy
to a major part of humankind. It did nothing to implement its decision.
The Governor was not appointed, a police force was not sent to Jerusalem,
the city was not assured, and access to holy places was not guaranteed.
Instead of this, and even for many weeks before Great Britain
surrendered the mandate, the British did not object to Jerusalem being
put under siege; the mandatory made no effort to help keep the roads to
Jerusalem open for the transport of food to its inhabitants.
Jerusalem being under siege, the field guns of the British-Arab
Legion shell the residential sections of the city, and its hospital and
university in the suburbs. It has been under incessant fire for many weeks.
Before hostilities began and afterwards, the Israelis repeatedly offered
to remove Jerusalem from the conflict. The United Nations, however, have
done nothing, great or small, to bring order to the Holy City or to establish
its neutrality.
When the Vandals sacked Rome in the year 455, they erected
a memorial to themselves; their very name became a word for wanton destroyers.
The Vandals, however, did not profess any spiritual affinity of religious
feeling for Rome. But both the British and the Arabs declare that Jerusalem
is a holy city, and express pious sentiment for the City of Peace. The
waging of war in the City of Peace is sacrilegious and wanton, and it
is all the more so when the vandals who bombard it do so with pious words
on their lips.
If the nations of the world are an honest family and their
representatives in the United Nations act with integrity, then Jerusalem
can be saved from further destruction. Let a Governor be appointed immediately
for Jerusalem, whether it be Count Bernadotte or Harold Evans from Philadelphia
(both are already in Palestine) or Sir Carl Berendsen of New Zealand or
Evatt of Australia or Smuts of South Africa; let an international police
force be dispatched to Jerusalem and placed at the disposal of the Governor;
and let it be proclaimed that the family of nations does not intend to
allow Jerusalem out of its charge.
Were all the resolutions on Jerusalem written and accepted
only as a sham? You put your hand on the Bible when you swear. When you
put your name to a resolution on Jerusalem, it is a kind of oath. Should
this oath be broken, the United Nations will stand before the generations
to come as a company of welshers. Wars will never cease.
For if all the nations together cannot make peace in
Jerusalem, which is their common trust, then there will be no peace anywhere
on earth either for you or for your children.
