Access is available on and off campus to current McMaster University students, faculty and staff.
The Palestine Statehood Committee Records, 1939-1949, "Concerning the campaigns for a Jewish Army; to save the Jewish people of Europe and the establishment of a Hebrew Republic in Palestine" consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports, publications, advertisements, and clippings related to five committees active in the United States from 1939 to 1949: the American Friends of a Jewish Palestine, the Committee for an Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews, the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, the American League for a Free Palestine, and the Hebrew Committee of National Liberation. Among these papers are selected materials spanning the years 1939-1942 on the activities of similar groups in Great Britain and France: the British League for a Free Palestine, and the Ligue francaise pour une Palestine libre. The Committee's goals included the creation of an independent Jewish army to fight the Axis powers, the rescue and repatriation of European Jews in Palestine, and the re-establishment of a Jewish nation in an independent Palestine.
The papers have been organized into four series: I. Correspondence, II. Public Statements, Press Releases, Reports, and Clippings, III. Subject Files, IV. Files of The Answer, advertisements, and clippings. Each series contains papers in Hebrew as well as in English. From the contents of Series I and Series II can be derived a chronology of the activities of the committees and a background of events which influenced their actions. Series III provides additional information on individuals, organizations, and topics of importance from Series I and II. Series IV is a record of the publicity campaign directed by the committees in the United States.
