Friday, June 21, 1946
2 Zion Youths Sentenced
To Die for Raid on Camp
British Military Court Imposes Extreme Penalty for
Their Participation with Armed Jewish Group in Attack
on Largest Army Base in Palestine
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Joseph Simkhon, 19, and Itzchak
Michael Azbel, 24, were sentenced to death by a British military
• court here for participating in a raid by an armed. Jewish group
on the Sarafand camp. largest army base in Palestine.
The verdict is subject to confirmation by the general officer
in command. The two also were charged with participating in the
seizure of a large quantity of ammunition during the raid and
with firing at British soldiers. The raid took place on March t.
Five British officers are held as hostages by Jews who demand
release of the two condemned youths.
The Irgun Zvai Leuini, Jewish extremist underground group,
on June 14 acknowledged responsibility for the attacks of June 10
on three passenger trains in the Lldda district. Broadcasting in
Hebrew French,. English and Russian over the secret radio "Voice
of Fighting Zion," the announcer declared that the Irgun will pre-
vent Palestine from becoming a British base.
Yigdal Frucht, 18-year-old Jewish youth, has been sentenced
to 14 years imprisonment by a military court for taking part in a
diversionary attack during an attempt by Jews to cover the land-
ing of visaless immigrants on March 25.
Jewish Brigade Members on Hunger Strike
Frucht and two other youth were charged with firing at
British soldiers and -illegally carrying arms and ammunition. Oved
Rabinovitch, one of the other Jews, was sentenced to a four-year
term and the third youth was acquitted.
Word' has been received that 700 members of the Jewish
Brigade stranded at , Port Said went on a one-day hunger strike
last Sunday protesting the British Army's postponement of their
journey to Palestine, it was reported when 150 officers and men
of the Brigade reached the Sarafand army base.
The strike was called off when military authorities promised
to send home groups of 150 daily. When the first of the promised
daily transports passed through Kantara, border station. between
Egypt and Palestine, all soldiers - were searched for weapons.
Charges Britain Planned Ex-Mufti's Escape
Palestine's government-controlled radio broke a three-day
censorship imposed silence about the disappearance of the ex-
Mufti from France, with the bare announcement that it was
"understood on good authority" that he had escaped.
Within an hour of the broadcast, the Jewish self-defense move-
ment, Haganah, accused Britain of planning the ex-Mufti's escape
in order to focus Arab opinion on Palestine. The charge was
voiced over the underground radio, "Voice of Israel," maintained
by the Haganah. The broadcaster also explained that Monday's
attacks on three trains in. Palestine were "carried out because
Jewish patience is exhausted at the postponement of the admis-
sion of the 100,000 Jews."
3 Palestine Trains Wrecked By Armed Bands; Coaches Set Afire
JERUSALEM (Palcor) —Damage estimated at $400,000 to
Palestine Railway rolling stock was caused by widespread simul-
taneous attacks on June 10, when three passenger trains were held
up and wrecked by armed bands after passengers and crews were
ordered out. Ten passenger coaches of two trains were burned and
their engines destroyed. The third train was derailed. One train
guard was wounded.
An official government bulletin attributed the attack to
armed Jews and reports one Arab constable shot and seriously
wounded and another shot and wounded in the hand.
The first train, bound from Jerusalem to Jaffa was held up
between Sarafand and Tel Aviv. The engineer was forced to un-
couple the locomotive which was sent over a land mine on the
tracks and blown up. The passengers were ordered out of the
coaches which were set afire. Another train, traveling from Jaffa
to Jerusalem was halted between Lidda and Wadi Sarar, when
saboteurs among the passengers pulled the communication cord.
They were joined immediately by other saboteurs__who were wait-
ing near the tracks and proceeded to wreck the locomotive and
burn the coaches after forcing out the passengers and crew. The
third train, on the Lydda-Haifa line, was derailed by explosives
and now blocks the main line between Palestine and Egypt.
Five girls reported among 20 armed persons who board-
ed one train. The Tel Aviv fire brigade rushed all available equip-
ment to the wrecks. A Jewish engineer on one of the trains resist-
ed the attackers but was overcome.
2 Ships Seized in Palestine;
Van Paassen Books Barred
Montgomery Visits Jerusalem for Consultations with Mili-
tary Authorities on Plans for Converting Zion into
Chief British Base in Middle East
JERUSALEM, (JTA)—A prize •court ordered the seizure of
the. vessels "Tel Hai" and "Wingate" which were intercepted last
March transporting visaless Jewish immigrants to Palestine.
Lord Marshal Montgomery arrived in Palestine June 14_,for
a ,three-day stay during which he held consultations with military
authorities on the plan for converting Palestine into the chief
British stronghold in the. Middle East.
The Palestine censor issued an order prohibiting the importa-
tion of a number of books and pamphlets published in the U. S.
during the war. Thee list includes the books of Pierre van Paassen
describing Jewish contributions to the British war effort and Rabbi
Israel Goldstein's "Prepare the Way," published by the Jewish
National Fund of America.
British Press Reports Ex-Mufti Captured
LONDON (JTA)—Alt Sunday newspapers carried dispatches
that the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem has reportedly been captured and is
being deported on a British Warship to the Seychelles Islands in
the Indian Ocean.
Palestine Allocates 1,500 Visas for Month
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Palestine government allocated the
new immigration quota of 1,500 certificates for the month of June
15 - July 14, but the Jewish Agency will not get any this month.
"Haganah" Reveals British. Plan to Arrest 5,000 Jewish Leaders
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Details of an alleged British secret plan
to arrest 5,000 prominent_ Palestine Jews, including members of the
Jewish Agency executive and Mayor Israel Rokach of Tel Aviv, and
to raid all. Jewish settlements 'and colonies in an attempt to disarm
the Jewish resistance movement, were broadcast to the "Voice of
Israeli " -underground radio of the Haganah, •
Among the leaders. marked for arrest were David Ben Gurion;
Moshe. Shertok, Eliezer: Kaplan, Rabbi J. Fischman,. and all other
members of the Jewish Agency executive; also Dr. Bernard Joseph,
legal advisor of the Jewisti Agency; Mayor Rokach; Rabbi Neir
Berlin, leader of the World Mizrachi Organization; Shlomo" Eisen-
berg, general secretary of the Jewish Agency executive; and a num-
ber of other .Je.wish Agency officials. The plan provided that all
seized Jewish leaders be interned in _Palestine or deported.
THE JEWISH NEWS
Rosh Hashanah Greetings
Created By Five Artists
Page Three
Ex-Mufti's Escape Feared
As Plot to Create Pogroms
Five prominent Jewish artists
are now cooperating to give
American Jewry its first artisti-
cally Jewish Rosh Hashanah American Zionist Emergency Committee Sees 'Intrigue'
Designed to Produce Riots in Palestine; N. Y. Post to
Offer Reward for Mufti's Capture, Trial
7:4 A
'12.9:
5
A:411t.
igkaigga
ARTHUR SZYK MINIATURE
greeting cards through a project
sponsored by the National •Feder-
ation of Temple Brotherhoods,
Cincinnati.
The artists, Arthur Szyk, Tod-
ros Geller, Raphael Soyer, Will-
iam Auerbach-Levy and Stuy-
vesant Van Veen, have each
created a work which will be
reproduced in full color on the
cards to be issued this summer.
OUR CLASSIFIEDS. ADS
GET QUICK RESULTS!
NEW YORK (JTA—The reported "escape" of the ex-Mufti of
Jerusalem from France to the Near East was branded by the Ameri.
can Zionist Emergency Council as an "intrigue" designed to pro.
duce riots and progroms in Palestine.
"Why has the Mufti been helped to• 'escape' and who engineer.
ed his plane journey to Damascus? Has all this been done to make
it possible for Britain to claim that 'the Arab world will go up
in flames' if 100,000 homeless Jews are admitted into Palestine im-
mediately, as requested by President Truman and recommended by
the Anglo American Committee of Inquiry?" the Council asked.
T. 0. Thackrey, editor and general manager of the New York
Post announced that a series of rewards, from $5,000 up, would
be offered by his newspaper for finding the "escaped" ex-Mufti of
Jerusalem and bringing him to trial as a war criminal.
He pointed out, however, that the real trouble was not the
finding of the Mufti, but in locating an official agency that really
wanted to try him. It is questionable, he said, whether any of the
powers involved in the Palestine question want to find the ex-Mufti.
Simultaneously with the announcement, the N. Y. Post repro-
duces documentary proof that the ex-Mufti urged foreign ministers
of Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria to ship Jews to Poland during,
the Nazi regime in order to prevent them from reaching PalestinH
Asks Explanation of Ex-Mufti's "Escape" to Middle East
LONDON (JTA)—Britain has asked the. French government –roz
an account of the circumstance_s under which the ex-Mufti of Jeru-
salem escaped from France, a Foreign Office spokesman announced.
John V. Shaw, Chief Secretary of the Palestine government,
told a press' conference that the censorship imposed by the govern-
ment on reports concerning the escape of the ex-Mufti was "in the
interests of both the Jewish and Arab communities."
France Dismisses Police Official Following Disappearance
PARIS (JTA)—A high French police official, responsible for
the control of foreigners in the country, is understood to have
been relieved of duty following the disappearance of the ex-Mufti
of Jerusalem from his home in a Paris suburb where he had beeh
held under police surveillance.
AN
HISTORIC
MEETING!
Sunday at 3 P. M.
June 23
DR. EMIL SONUSIERSTEIN
Auditorium of Central High School
Linwood and Tuxedo
THE DELEGATION TO THE U. S.
Representing The
CENTRAL JEWISH COMMITTEE OF POLAND
will bring the first authentic report to Detroit Jewry on
conditions under which Polish Jewry fought for freedom
under the Nazis and on the present status of Polish Jewry.
Speakers:
bit. EMIL SOMMERSTEIN
MISS MAYA GROSSMAN
MAREK BITTER
JOSEPH ZACK
ANATOLE WERTHEIM
Meeting arranged under auspices of Jewish Welfare Federation of
Detroit and the Alli e d Jewish Campaign