THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, January 9, 1948

Reprisals and Snipings
Increase Zion Tensions

Defense Plans Mapped by Jewish Agency; Britain's Termi-
nation of Mandate Discussed in London; Leaders
Condemn '5th Column' Charge Against Refugees

Resume of Recent Events in Palestine
By Jewish News Correspondents

Serious conflicts between Jews
and Arabs over the control of the
area at the Wailing Wall, occa-
sioned by Arab sniping at anyone
'coming near to the Hotel Maar-
avi, the blowing up of the Arab
Higher Committee headquarters
in. Jaffa and sporadic fighting in
other sections of the country ag ;
gravated the situation in Pales-
tine.
In spite of the Arab attacks
which necessitated drastic de-
fense measures by Haganah, 700
Jews broke through the British
blockade and landed in Pales-
tine at Nahariah, south of the
Lebanese border.
At the same time, two boats
with nearly 15,000 Jewish refu-
gees were taken to Cyprus in-
stead of landing at Haifa. The
35,000 passengers included 1,700
children, 1,000 of whom are un-
der 5; 000 youths under 17 and
the rest trained halutzim. On
the five-day voyage from Burgas,
Bulgaria, six babies were born
aboard the ships and 10 more
were born upon arrival in Cy-
prus. There were 55 doctors
among the refugees.
Haganah Reprisals
Reprisals by Haganah brought
death and destruction in many
quarters. "Punitive action" at
Haifa followed the massacre in
the Haifa oil refinery. (A reveal-
ing story about the Haifa outrage
appears elsewhere in this issue.)
Arabs who attempted to, invade
Tel Aviv were repulsed with
heavy losses. Ten young Irgunists
disguised as British soldiers en-
tered Jaffa in a military truck
and bombed a cafe causing 19
casualties.
Haganah member David Kagan
was sentenced to five years im-
prisonment for carrying arms in
Salameh. Another Jew was given
a 15 year sentence for carrying
explosives.
Agency Plans Defense
David Ben-Gurion and Moshe
Shertok participated in Jewish
Agency meetings at which plans
were made for defense of 'the
Jewish. positions and for secur-
ing arms for the Yishuv.
Registration of youths for
Haganah continues and 10,000

are expected to be called to ac-
tive service immediately.
The food, railway and transport
situation is being gravely affected
and many portions of Palestine
are suffering from the crippled
positions.
Arab snipers prevented the
burying of Jewish dead on the
Mount of Olives and it became
necessary for .British troops. to
provide protection to relieve
the serious menace of the piling
up of the dead in Jerusalem.
Two Nazis, escaped prisoners
of war, were executed by Hag-
anah when they were found in
possession of documents implicat-
ing them with the Mufti-control-
led higher committee.
Meanwhile Arab brigands held
up and robbed five Palestine pas-
senger and freight trains.
Mandate's Termination
While British authorities in
London are discussing the prob-
able date for the termination of
the mandate, some officials favor-
ing an earlier withdrawal of
troops, Arab diplomats in Lon-
don are pressing for the negation
of the UN decision on Palestine.
One Palestine' government spokes-
man said in Jerusalem that the
British will not withdraw from
Palestine before May 15.
Panamanian 'diplomats in
Washington claimed that the flag
of their country was used illegal-
ly on the two refugee boats, Pan
York and Pan Crescent, which
carried the 15,000 passengers, and
an investigation was demanded.
Spread of a story that these
pasengers are the Russian -
"fifth - column" invading Pales-
tine was branded by Jewish
Agency leaders as "a contemp-
tible falsehood and a cruel_
joke" aimed at smearing the
movement of Jews from Ro-
mania to Palestine.
The Palestine Government's
announcement that it is seriously
considering calling in the Inter-
national Red Cross to take over
Government hospitals in the cur-
rent crisis is part of the propa-
ganda campaign designed to in-
crease tension in the country and
create the impression abroad that
a full scale war is going on in
Palestine, Jewish circles said here.

Norwegian Workers Stop
Arms Shipments to Arabs

NEW YORK (JTA)—The iron
and metal workers union in the
Norwdgian town of Raufoff has
unanimously voted to ban the
shipment of munitions to Iran
and Iraq, it was revealed in the
"Norwegian Digest," published by
the Royal Norwegian Information
Service.
The union acted after learning
that an order for munitions had
been placed by the two Arab
countries. Defense Minister Jens
Hauge upheld the decision of the
union, adding that no export of
munitions was being considered
by Norway.

Page Three

Advance Plans for Jewish Assembly

NEW YORK, (JPS)—The In-
terim Committee of the American
Jewish. Conference, meeting at
Hotel Pennsylvania, took the first
steps toward establishing the
American Jewish Assembly, per-
manent democratic organization,
representative of the Jewish na-
tional organizations and commun.
al bodies in the United States.
The meeting, at which Louis
Lipsky presided, decided to set
up a Preparatory Committee for
the American Jewish Assembly,
consisting of 20 nationally known
Jewish leaders. The appointment
of the folloWing committees also
was agreed upon:
1) A committee on elections, to

supervise voting for delegates to
the American Jewish Assembly;
2) a committee on national or-
ganizations to determinee the
elegibility and representation of
groups in the permanent body: 3)
a committee on community re-
lations, to determine the eligi-
bility of local communal bodies
and supervise the election of dele-
gates within the communities: 4)
a committee to draft a constitu-
tion to be submited to the first
convention of thee American
Jewish Assembly; 5) a commit-
tee on ways and means, to se-
cure funds for the budget of the
Preparatory Committee

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JDA Starts $6,000,000 Drive
For Fight on AntirSemitism

PHILADELPHIA, (JTA) — ; A
nation-wide campaign for $6,104.-
540 by the Joint Defense Appeal
to finance the fight against , anti-
Semitism conducted by the Am-
erican Jewish Committee and
Bnai B r i-t h Anti-Defamation
League was proclaimed here by
600 delegates attending the sec-
ond annual conference of the
JDA, fund-raising arm of the
Committee and the League.
Judge Joseph M. Proskauer,
president of the Committee, em-
phasized that organized anti-
Semitism is presently at a low
point, but warned that it still
remains a threat. Judge Pros-
kauer stated that civil rights as
understood by Americans include
the right to earn a living, gain
an education and the right to
proper housing "without limita-
tions of caste."
Frank Goldman, Bnai Britt'
president, concentrated his fire
on the social forms of racial dis-
crimination, the forms which he
said are known as the "gentle-
man's agreement approach." As-
serting that Americans were re-
jecting the overt, brutal anti-
Semitism of the Hitler philos-
ophy, he stressed that "polite
society refuses to give up its
own brand of anti-Semitism"
which he described as "less vis-
ible and less voluble."
Jacob Blaustein, chairman of
the AJC executive, said "the
work of the JDA-financed 'agen.-

-

ties is not limited to the old con-
cept of fighting the organized
anti-Semites, but extends to; the
greater basic and fundamental
objective of promoting broad,
wholesome relationships general-
ly between Jews and non-Jews."
Justice Meier Steinbrink, chair-
man of the Anti-Defamation
League, stressed American Jew-
ry's responsibility toward Pales-
tine and the future of many,
thousands of Jews overseas.
PraiSing the recently-issued re-
ports of President Truman's Com-
mittee on Civil Rights and the
Commission on Higher Educa-
tion, Dr. John Slawson, AJC ex-
ecutive vice-president, emphasiz-
ed that , the two organizations
"are determined that the con-
tents of these two reports shall
receive the widest possible cir-
culation and that the recom-
mendations shall be implement-
ed."
Donald Oberdoffer, chairman of
the JDA National Council,
sketched the growth of the Na-
tional Council to its present
strength of 587 members rep-
resenting 230 communities.

George L. Warren to Head
U. S. 'Delegation to IRO
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The
United States delegation to the
fifth part of the first session of
the IRO Preparatory Commission
will be headed by George L. War-
ren.

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