1942 - La Conferencia de Biltmore (may)

La Conferencia Biltmore

La Conferencia Biltmore fue convocada como Conferencia Sionista Extraordinaria por el Comité de Emergencia Americano de Asuntos Sionistas (American Emergency Committee of Zionist Affairs), al no poder celebrarse el 22º Congreso Sionista por la Guerra en curso, y se celebra en Nueva York entre el 7-11 de mayo de 1942 en el Hotel Biltmore. Asisten 600 delegados sionistas y líderes socialistas de 18 países.

Es el resultado de una cambio de estrategia de los Sionistas socialistas liderados por Ben-Gurión que, sintiendo la apertura de una oportunidad, cambian la hasta entonces práctica de promover cautamente los asentamientos como clave de una futura soberanía judía y articulan audazmente la visión de un estado judío. En la Conferencia declaran que Palestina debía constituirse como una Commonwealth judía. 

La Conferencia provocaría una fortísima oposición de eminentes judíos neoyorquinos antisemitas, entre ellos el dueño del Washington Post, el editor del New York Times o familiares de los fundadores de Sears, que acaban fundando la ACJ (American Council on Judaism) para oponerse al proyecto de crear un estado judío en Palestina.

Entre los asistentes a la Conferencia:

• Jaim Weizmann, Presidente de la Organización Sionista Mundial;

• David Ben-Gurión, Presidente del Ejecutivo de la Agencia Judía;

• Nahum Goldmann, miembro del Ejecutivo de la Organización Sionista de América; y

• el rabino reformista Abba Hillel Silver.

Su declaración final es conocida como Programa Biltmore. En él, se vuelve a demandar la ilimitada inmigración judía a Palestina, territorio que debía ser la "Commonwealth Judía". La declaración es la primera en que organizaciones no sionistas se unen a las sionistas para abogar públicamente por el establecimiento de tal Commonwealth Judía. La declaración se convertiría en el programa oficial sionista.

Hasta entonces, el sionismo había evitado abogar públicamente por la creación de un estado concentrándose en defender la práctica construcción del Hogar Nacional Judío. El giro político esencial que supone el Programa Biltmore viene provocada en grandísima medida por el rechazo al Libro Blanco de 1939 y su imposición de una congelación de la inmigración judía en Palestina, avocando a los judíos a convertirse en una minoría. También refleja la mayor importancia que se le da a EEUU, como nueva gran potencia mundial, frente a la menguante Gran Bretaña.

El Programa no fue del agrado ni de Jaim Weizman, que pensaba que tras la Guerra un Churchill inclinadao a los judíos podría corregir a favor de los judíos el daño provocado por el Libro Blabco de 1939; ni a los partidarios del binacionalismo en Palestina, como Henrietta Szold and Judah L. Magnes, fundador de la Universidad Hebrea, que acaban separándose y formando su propio partido el Ijud (Unificación) para defender una federación árabe-judía.

El Programa Biltmore - Text (English)

1. American Zionists assembled in this Extraordinary Conference reaffirm their unequivocal devotion to the cause of democratic freedom and international justice to which the people of the United States, allied with the other United Nations, have dedicated themselves, and give expression to their faith in the ultimate victory of humanity and justice over lawlessness and brute force.

2. This Conference offers a message of hope and encouragement to their fellow Jews in the Ghettos and concentration camps of Hitler-dominated Europe and prays that their hour of liberation may not be far distant.

3. The Conference sends its warmest greetings to the Jewish Agency Executive in Jerusalem, to the Va`ad Leumi, and to the whole Yishuv in Palestine, and expresses its profound admiration for their steadfastness and achievements in the face of peril and great difficulties ...

4. In our generation, and in particular in the course of the past twenty years, the Jewish people have awakened and transformed their ancient homeland; from 50,000 at the end of the last war their numbers have increased to more than 500,000. They have made the waste places to bear fruit and the desert to blossom. Their pioneering achievements in agriculture and in industry, embodying new patterns of cooperative endeavour, have written a notable page in the history of colonization.

5. In the new values thus created, their Arab neighbours in Palestine have shared. The Jewish people in its own work of national redemption welcomes the economic, agricultural and national development of the Arab peoples and states. The Conference reaffirms the stand previously adopted at Congresses of the World Zionist Organization, expressing the readiness and the desire of the Jewish people for full cooperation with their Arab neighbours.

6. The Conference calls for the fulfillment of the original purpose of the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate which recognizing the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine' was to afford them the opportunity, as stated by President Wilson, to found there a Jewish Commonwealth. The Conference affirms its unalterable rejection of the White Paper of May 1939 and denies its moral or legal validity. The White Paper seeks to limit, and in fact to nullify Jewish rights to immigration and settlement in Palestine, and, as stated by Mr. Winston Churchill in the House of Commons in May 1939, constitutes `a breach and repudiation of the Balfour Declaration'. The policy of the White Paper is cruel and indefensible in its denial of sanctuary to Jews fleeing from Nazi persecution; and at a time when Palestine has become a focal point in the war front of the United Nations, and Palestine Jewry must provide all available manpower for farm and factory and camp, it is in direct conflict with the interests of the allied war effort.

7. In the struggle against the forces of aggression and tyranny, of which Jews were the earliest victims, and which now menace the Jewish National Home, recognition must be given to the right of the Jews of Palestine to play their full part in the war effort and in the defence of their country, through a Jewish military force fighting under its own flag and under the high command of the United Nations.

8. The Conference declares that the new world order that will follow victory cannot be established on foundations of peace, justice and equality, unless the problem of Jewish homelessness is finally solved. The Conference urges that the gates of Palestine be opened; that the Jewish Agency be vested with control of immigration into Palestine and with the necessary authority for upbuilding the country, including the development of its unoccupied and uncultivated lands; and that Palestine be established as a Jewish Commonwealth integrated in the structure of the new democratic world.

Then and only then will the age old wrong to the Jewish people be righted.