Amazing facts concerning the callous brutality of Palestine police in dealing with cases of Jewish immigrants suspected of having entered Palestine illegally were revealed today by Haolom, official organ of the executive of the World Zionist Organization.
For some time past a savage hunt has been going on in Palestine for Jewish illegal entrants, with the police offering rewards for information concerning such immigrants and with widespread arrests of suspects all over the country, many of whom were later released.
YOUNG WOMEN MALTREATED
No mercy is {SPAN}show#{/SPAN} arrested Jewish suspects, Haolom stated, pointing out that even young Jewish women have been thrown into old jails, inadequately fed and forced to endure bad living quarters on the flimsiest information by any Arab who happened to have a grudge against the Jews. All suspects are in great danger of deportation if they are unable to furnish proof of their right to remain in Palestine.
Haolom relates the story of thirty-two Jewish girls who were hiking through the country, near Tiberias, far from the Syrian border, when they were arrested after an Arab boy had denounced them. They were thrown into an overcrowded jail at Bethlehem, where more than 100 prisoners are kept in a place built originally for sixty.
REFUSED BAIL BY POLICE
The court ordered them released on bail, but the police refused to obey the order and are keeping the girls on a starvation diet of bread alone, declaring that if they are released on bail they may marry Palestinian citizens and obtain the right to stay.
In Haifa three Jewish girls were arrested on the street, jailed and finally deported on an Italian steamer. Italian authorities refused to allow them to land in Italy and the girls were shipped back and forth between Italy and Palestine until the Italian captain prevailed upon Palestine authorities to take the girls off his hands. They are now imprisoned in the Bethlehem jail, where they await their fate.
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.
