Palestine to Get $25,000,000 in Reparations for Rehabilitation of Displaced Jews

The Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees has decided to allot $25,000,000 for the rehabilitation in Palestine of displaced Jews from Europe, it was announced here today by Dr. Bernard Joseph, legal advisor of the Jewish Agency. The sum was made available to the refugee committee by the Allied Reparations Commission.

Addressing a press conference, Dr. Joseph said that the Jewish Agency considers the $25,000,000 to be only a small fraction of the reparations due the Jewish people for property looted from Jews in Europe. The Agency is demanding all German property in Palestine as part of the reparations, he revealed. A memorandum to this effect has been submitted to the Allied Reparations Commission through the Palestine Government, he stated.

Dr. Joseph also disclosed that private Jewish organizations in Palestine, such as settlers associations of Jews from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Greece, have undertaken separate action, supported by the Jewish Agency, to secure reparations for Jews in Palestine who lost their property in the countries from which they escaped. Representatives of these organizations have left Palestine for various European countries to take up the matter of reparations.

The Jewish Agency has also submitted a memorandum to the United Nations with regard to general problems of displaced Jews and their emigration to Palestine, Dr. Joseph reported. He added that representatives of the Agency are now in various capitals attempting to secure support from governments who are members of the United Nations for the demands outlined in the memorandum.