Excerpts from a Speech by Ben Gurion, Jerusalem, 12 December 1938 Source :
Central Zionist Archive, Jerusalem, Z4/20.892.
During the 1930's, Palestine was under British Mandatory rule. In 1939, in response to the developing Arab-Jewish there, the British authorities set strict limits on Jewish immigration, in a series of laws and measures known as the 'White Paper'. The Jewish institutions in Palestine, led by David Ben-Gurion, sought to nullify these restrictions in order to continue making the country a Jewish national home, and to come to the aid of the Jews of Europe.
From time to time, a historical event occurs. We had thought that 1933 was such a turning point in the history of the persecution of the Jews. We, the Zionists, certainly did not make light of the magnitude of the catastrophe that effected German Jewry and the Jews of the world in 1933, when Hitler came to power. But even the pessimists among us could not imagine what this regime of evil and murder evoked. November 1938 is a new turning point, a new chapter, unprecedented, in the history of Jewish martyrdom. Not persecution, not expulsion - this is organised extermination, physical extermination. It is accompanied by the sadistic torture of an entire Jewish community, the 600,000 Jews of Germany and Austria. But it is far more than this. The Nazi pogrom of November of this year is a signal for the extermination of the Jewish people all over the world. I wish I were wrong. Up until now even Satan himself did not dare to go this far. Now that the restraints are gone, our blood, our dignity, our property are open prey, and there is no limit, no limit to what can be done to Jews.
This faces us, the Jewish people, the Jews in Eretz Yisrael (Palestine), with a new situation. None of us can remain what he was a month ago. After this signal for extermination, given in Germany last month, we must reassess our situation with regard to ourselves and to others. We must first examine what we are facing and what is to be done. The Nazi pogrom changed the position of Zionism within the Jewish people and within the world overnight. I do not want to deal at this time with the definition of Zionism. Zionism has many sources and roots, and it takes many varied forms. It is an ancient tradition, a love for the land, a religious command, a revolt against dependency and exile, a refuge from deprivation and persecution, an aspiration for liberty, a vision of a revolution, etc. etc…. For us, it is the redemption of the Jewish people, a comprehensive redemption of all of the Jewish people, a physical and spiritual redemption, economic and political redemption - the sole redemption. We believe that the Jewish people can exist only in the Land of Israel. The land of Israel is empty and meaningless without the Jewish people living in it…. We knew that carrying out the ideas of Zionism is … a project for generations.… We have been working for years, placing one brick on top of the other, building one piece after the other, with faith, with patience and with perseverance. We knew: These small pieces will be joined to larger ones. And we were not wrong. Had we not done this work in past years, we would be now empty-handed and helpless at this hour of need and calamity. However, we are now confronted with a new situation. We now have to speed up the work, not because of a change in our ideology. Fate and the danger of extermination that results from the violent regime that is expanding and the possibility of losing the land for our future, compel us to step up our work, to follow a new tempo, to use different modes of operation and struggle.
We cannot face this terrible reality which threatens to mow us down here and in the Diaspora with words. Zionism as an ideology alone cannot exist and survive these upsurges.… Political life necessitates compromise. There is need for compromises in the relationship between nations. There is need for compromise also in the internal relations of a nation. There is one point, however, where there can be no compromise: this is in Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel.… Faced with the danger of extermination from Hitler and his allies, there is only one urgent, imperative, essential, categorical need: the speedy immigration of hundreds of thousands of young Jews.… Immediately after the pogrom in Germany, we informed the government and the people of Britain that the land of Israel can immediately absorb one hundred thousand Jews, and several hundred thousands if the Jewish people and the governments of America and Britain will extend financial aid. Zionism at this time means extensive, massive immigration of hundreds of thousands. Any other version of Zionism has no right to exist at such times…. If Zionism fights for this now, it will survive and, I believe, win.
