Abraham Stavsky, young Polish Jew and ardent Zionist Revisionist was convicted today of having participated in the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff on the night of June 16, 1933. The mixed tribunal which decreed the death penalty for Stavsky found his fellow defendant and Revisionist, Zvi Rosenblatt, innocent of the murder.
The verdict, greeted with deep silence by the spectators in the digy old Jerusalem courtroom, came as a shock to Jewish Palestine which, since the dismissal of charges against Aba Achimeier, a third defendant, during the course of the trial, had confidently expected the clearing of the remaining two defendants.
THOUSANDS SEEK ADMISSION
Before seven o’clock this morning, milling thousands besieged the courthouse seeking entrance to the courtroom or a vantage point to learn the decision. Reinforced police detachments surrounded the building, and patrolled Russian Square facing the court.
Stavsky and Rosenblatt, smiling and chatting, were brought into the court at nine o’clock. Stavsky, until the court was called to order conversed with his aged mother, who came here from Poland following his arrest and who sat among the spectators a short distance front eh prisoners.
Attorney Samuel then proceeded to conclude his two-day summation with an impassioned plea for the acquittal of both men. He ended his address at eleven o’clock and the fate of the two men then judges. “A Majority of the court finds,” the text of the verdict declared. “that in Tel Aviv on the night of June 16 and 17, with premeditated intent to kill. Stavsky did take part in the premeditated killing of Arlosoroff by following him, waiting for him, stopping him and directing an electric torch upon him and by being close during the commission of an offense contrary to Article 170, Section 3. Paragraph B and C of the Criminal Law Amendment No. 2 of 1927.
“With regard to the accused Rosenblatt, the court does not find the material evidence required by Section 5 of the Criminal Law Amendment of the ordinance of 1924 to corporate his identification by Mrs. Arlosoroff.
“Rosenblatt is therefore acquitted of offense with which he is charged.
“With regard to the claim for compensation, the court does not see fit to exercise the discretion conferred upon it by section 6 of the Court Ordinance of 1925.
“The accused Stavsky will suffer death according to the Law.”
SHOUT INNOCENCE
As soon as the Verdict was read the courtroom, Stavsky sprang to his feet with a shout:
“I am not guilty!”
His mother burst into tears and cried Out:
“He is innocent! He is innocent!” Stavsky was given an opportunity to make a final statement to the court. Visibly excited; he addressed the court with a positive reaffirmation of his innocence.
“Know nothing of the murder.” he asserted heatedly. “I was sleeping during the murder at the Turgeman hotel in Jerusalem.
“This is a provocation by the Jewish Labor party and the Palestine government against me. I am totally innocent.
“You judges will be responsible for my life and for the lives of my parents. Those who have sworn falsely here will have to bear a guilty conscience. I believe British justice in England will teach how to sentence innocents.
“You have convicted here the honor of an entire nation-not mine-because I am innocent.”
GUARDED BY SEVEN POLICE
As Stavsky concluded this statement in a silence broken only by his mother’s sobs, his mother rushed to him and clasped her arms hysterically around his neck with a bitter wail. Police were able to separate her from her son only with the greatest difficulty.
Stavsky then ported from Rosenblatt and was taken from the courtroom under guard of seven British policemen while the handcuffs were stricked from Rosenblatt.
The verdict created a tremendous impression, not only in the courtroom but throughout the entire city. Although a force of police was a hand to suppress a possible demonstration, there was none as the verdict was received in stunned silence.
Samuel, in the closing paragraphs of his plea for acquittal of his two clients this morning reiterated his belief in the innocence of the two defendants.
“I claim that both men are not guilty,” he exclaimed in a tone of profound conviction.
“It was no political assassination.” he exclaimed. I ask the court to acquit them because Stansky does not fit the description because Rosenblatt was not dressed in an Oriental manner, because Mrs. Sima Arlosoroff desired to see photographs of Arabs, because Sima Arlosoroff allowed Smarmiest (the police officer) to telephone the Jaffa police that an Arab shot her husband.
“I ask the court to acquit both men because all this business of jackets we have heard is incorrect, because the identification of Stavsky was incorrect, because the identification of Rosenblatt was irregular.
IDENTIFICATION INCORRECT
“I ask the court to acquit both men because there was no evidence at all regarding the trackers” business, because there was inconsistency in the evidence of the trackers.
‘I ask this court to acquit because all identification was incorrect, because at the second identification parade the trackers saw Stavsky’s feet. I ask the court to acquit both men because Stavsky’s alibi is fundamentally true and spontaneous, because Rosenblatt that evening was undoubtedly at Kfar Saba which is proven even in the minutes of the meeting, and also, because Abdul Mejid made five persistent congessions.
“I claim both men are not guilty,” he concluded.
The trial of Stavsky, Rosenblatt and Achimeir opened exactly eight weeks ago today. Stavsky was accused of aiding in the murder; Rosenblatt of firing the fatal shots and Achimeier of conspiracy to murder. The Contention of the government was that the three defendants, all fervid Revisionists, had slain Arlosoroff because of political disagreements, Arlosoroff, as head of the Zionist labor movement in Palestine, was the chief foe of the Revisionist movement.
BLAME ATTACK FOR MURDER
The defense contention was that Arlosoroff was slain by Arabs seeking to attack Mrs. Arlosoroff as the couple strolled on a deserted section of the beach at Tel Aviv late in the evening, During the trial the defense made much of the fact that Abdul Mejid, a confessed murderer, had signed five confessions of the murder of Dr. Arlosoroff
The case, from the night of the murder on threw Palestine Jewish life into a turmoil and was followed closely by Jews, not only in Palestine, but throughout the entire world.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
