All of Israel was in shock on the 19th of Iyar, 5684 (1924). There were public protests, articles written, enough of which were produced to be printed up in a hard cover book. Why the noise? A disgraceful chillul Shabbos had been perpetrated by two heads of the Jewish Agency, one from London and the other, a resident of Jerusalem.
It all began with a protest statement from Torah-true residents of Haifa who expressed their horror at the appearance of the aforesaid two Jewish Agency heads who arrived at the gates of their city and chose to accommodate themselves in a Christian hotel which served treif food. On the morrow, on Shabbos, they drove in their cars to pay a visit to the cement factory and oil refineries of Haifa in a blatant and scandalous exhibition of Shabbos desecration.
This event caused a hue and outcry throughout the whole world. On that Shavuos and the following day, Isru Chag, protest demonstrations were held in shuls throughout Eretz Yisroel. The protest was voiced especially from the heads and rabbonim of the Mizrachi movement who were stupefied to see how cooperation with the heads of the Zionist movement was a one-way road and, in effect, demonstrated the Zionist Agency's turning its backs in totality against the Torah.
HaRav Yosef Gershon Horowitz, Rosh Yeshivas Meah Shearim, expressed a heartbreaking cry which has eternal validity. He quoted the gemara in Bava Basra: "What is the nature of a protest? `Ploni appropriated my property' is not a protest. But if [the victim] says `Ploni stole my lands,' one can summon him to court. This is the proper way of protesting."
He continued, "I am a member of the Yishuv Hayoshon in Yerushalayim. We have been living here for eight generations. Torah-true Jews have settled through Eretz Yisroel as well, emigrating through much self sacrifice to settle in the Holy Land in order to observe the mitzvos of the Torah. You," he addressed the heads of the Zionist movement, "came here by force, not by force directed against the nations of the Diaspora but precisely directed against the Torah-true public. We were here before you, much before you. You didn't do us any good by coming nor did we disturb you in your work.
"But when you impose your desecration of the Torah and your public Shabbos violation, when you attempt by force of supremacy to ignore sensitivities of the Jewish people, we hereby inform you: `Ploni has stolen and we call you to court'; we are accusing you of theft. You hold the power, the authority, but we will continue to voice our protest so that at least, your `right of might' shall not receive any stamp of approval from our side."
These words were stated at the time as a warning against partnership with Zionism. But the heads of Mizrachi did not internalize the proper conclusion. They pinned hopes upon this one-sided partnership.
We, the sworn adherents of the Jewish faith, see the gaping depths to which the heads and advisors of the State had fallen where Shabbos desecration is regarded as the most natural thing. Those who violate the Shabbos in the name of the trash culture of the world's nations, should realize at least that a protest is not merely a declaration of `Ploni is a thief.' A protest must have its practical side, a pragmatic side, as `A summons to the court' to know that we have no partnership or part-and-parcel with the culture of these sinners.
