ORTHODOX JEWS IN PALESTINE SIR, With the discussion now going
on with regard to the inter- nationalisation of the entire area of Jerusalem is bound up the matter of the rights of minorities, Moslem and Christian. I would urge that the rights of the group of strictly Orthodox Jews known as Veturai Karto (Watchmen of the City), resident in Palestine for four or five generations, be guaranteed precisely as the rights of other minorities are guaranteed. They should be granted safety of life and limb and property. They should be assured of non-interference in their internal affairs by the Zionists: their Press, schools, institutions, religious courts and slaughtering-places should not be seized or tampered with. Thcy should not be subjected to taxation and military service by a State whose very " principles " they abhor. They did not participate in the elections, for they want no part or parcel in the new Zionist State. Simple justice requires that they be free of annoyance or molestation.
Members of this group have been persecuted by the Zionist Government. This is only the beginning. A new chapter in Jewish martyrdom has been opened. Only recently (Saturday, June 4th) some of them were attacked and beaten in Jerusalem by Zionist soldiers because they protested vigorously against public violation by them of the Holy Sabbath in the Holy City. None will rejoice more than these Jews if all Jerusalem, old and new, be internationalised, for then, without tics of any kind to the Zionist State, they can pursue the even tenor of their ways, serving God
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