One Jewish boy and an Arab were killed by police today, bringing the toll of two days’ race rioting in Jaffa and other centers to eleven Jews and three Arabs dead, with more than fifty Jews and an unascertainable number of Arabs wounded. Unconfirmed Moslem sources said eleven Arabs were killed.
Clashes flared anew this morning in the Keren Kateimanim and Shapiro sections near the boundary between predominantly Arab Jaffa and 100 per cent Jewish Tel Aviv, forcing police to fire when the crowd refused to disperse. Troops were stationed on the boundary tonight prepared to quell new disorders.
Danger appeared from a new source when Arabs began to fire Jewish homes near the Tel Aviv border. Mobs of Arabs filled the streets of Jaffa. Jews were not to be seen in the streets. Many, evicted from their homes, had fled to Tel Aviv escorted by police or unguarded, and sought refuge in post office buildings, big stores and public parks. A number bivouacked on the streets, especially Rothschild Boulevard, where they were cared for by members of the Women’s international Zionist Organization.
Although tension was high throughout the country, few disturbances were reported outside Jaffa. All was quiet in Haifa with heavily armed police patrolling the city and environs. The Jewish colony of Petach Tikvah was in a state of excitement over agitators’ rumors that Jews had killed scores of Arabs.
ARAB INCITEMENT HEIGHTENS AGITATION
Arab incitement to raids on Jewish colonies heightened the tension as Moslem leaders spread reports of Jewish attacks on Arab villages. Seven Arabs and two policemen were injured in clashes in Tul Karem, while ten Nathania colonists were wounded as they passed Tul Karem en route to Haifa and had to be removed to the Nathania hospital.
In Tel Aviv, the Hadassah Hospital issued an appeal for volunteer blood donors to submit to blood transfusions for persons wounded in yesterday’s riots. Thirty volunteers immediately offered their services.
Arab reports that Jews had destroyed villages in the vicinity of Nathania proved false upon questioning by a delegation of Arab youths from Tul Karem. Incitement in the Arab village of Umkhaled for a raid on Nathania failed when the population rebuked the agitators and reaffirmed their friendship with the Jews.
Heavily armed detachments of Cameron Highlanders patrolled the streets of Tel Aviv and Jaffa as the Jews began to bury the ten victims of yesterday’s rioting. Thousands heard Mayor Meier Dizengoff deliver an impassioned eulogy from the City Hall Balcony. The interments began at 4:30 o’clock this morning and will continue at dawn tomorrow.
Police efforts to restore communications between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv failed. Two steamships, the Koskiusco and the Jerusallemme, were forbidden to dock when they arrived at the port of Jaffa today. They were ordered to proceed to Haifa.
VICTIMS DID NOT DIE IN VAIN, DIZENGOFF DECLARES
Mayor Dizengoff sent the following message abroad through the Jewish Telegraphic Agency:
“When a nation wants to rebuild its home, it must fight. There is no fight without sacrifice. Though our fight is peaceful and cultural, others are handling the problem with Esau’s hands. More victims may fall, but so long as there is one Jew left we will continue our peaceful fight until final victory.
“Our sacred and dear brothers, you did not fall in vain. Every drop of blood poured out on this soil will double and treble our zeal. We swear that we will continue our work until every one of the dead is replaced by thousands from abroad to carry on the work until the ultimate salvation of the land of our people.”
POLICE GUARD ON JAFFA-JERUSALEM TRAIN
Transportation throughout the country continued to be perilous. A heavy police guard was riding the Jaffa-Jerusalem train with Jewish and Arab passengers segregated in separate compartments. Bus transportation was suspended because roads were unsafe and the police requisitioned buses owned by Arab and Jewish companies. All traffic, even pedestrian, between Jaffa and Tel Aviv was halted.
A seven o’clock curfew was invoked in the chief trouble centers. Despite the hazards of traveling, scores of Jewish physicians, here for the first World Congress of Jewish Physicians, which opens tomorrow, continued to tour the country.
Arab leaders pressed for a strike to be continued until Jewish immigration into the country and sale of land to Jews is halted. Demonstrations were held at Nablus and other cities. Police arrested an Arab on charges of murdering Eliezer Bishnitzky, one of the slain Jews.
The list of Jewish dead, as far as identified, follows:
Eliezer Bishnitzky
Chaim Chatzkewitz
Chaim Cornfield (United Press report)
Isak Frankel
Schmarya Kramer
Mr. Levinsohn
Chaim Sczegeda
David Shavdalon (United Press report)
Mordecai Friedman, of Canada, was erroneously reported dead.
As added details of yesterday’s rioting were revealed, it became known today that one Jew, Levinsohn, met death at the hands of Arabs who fired on him and his family from ambush as they were returning to the Tikvah quarter of Jaffa after a shopping trip. His son and three members of his family were wounded.
It was disclosed that the two Arabs killed were shot by Captain Riggs of the C.I.D. (Scotland Yard) in repelling an Arab attack on his automobile while he was transporting a wounded Jew to the Hadassah hospital.
The official version of yesterdays rioting said the disorders started at Jaffa yesterday morning when Hauranis attacked passing Jews and burned three Jewish buses. At that time they killed two Jews and wounded forty persons. Inadequate police forces were present at the time, it was shown today, and reinforcements did not arrive until noon.
SWEDISH VICE-CONSUL AMONG WOUNDED
Seven Jewish bus passengers were wounded yesterday near Mikveh Israel and Arabs attacked the International Tobacco Co. Swedish Vice-Consul Larson at Jaffa was seriously injured during the disorders and an official named Mood was slightly injured.
During the rioting officials of the Tel Aviv municipality remained in touch with the Government and issued a statement appealing to the public to remain calm. Moshe Shertok, of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, conferred with High Commissioner Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope and with Chief Government Secretary Sir John Hathorn-Hall.
After the first outbreaks, Arab and Jewish crowds camped on both sides of the Jaffa-Tel Aviv border with police stationed between to prevent disorders. Jewish shops in Jaffa were closed. Most of the Jewish injured bore knife wounds.
The rioting resulted from Arab demonstrations which were an outgrowth of resentment over the slaying of two Arab laborers in Neged, near Petach Tikvah, following a hold-up by Arab brigands in which a Jew was killed and two Jews were wounded.
Police meanwhile pressed a hunt for the bandits, who were reported to be part of an organization numbering more than 600 Arabs, supplied with money and arms and said to be operating in Syria and Transjordan as well as Palestine. Police offered a reward of $1,500 for apprehension of the brigands and $1,000 for the slayers of the two Arab laborers.
In Tel Aviv, scene of a Jewish demonstration Friday against alleged Government laxity in dealing with Arab banditry, police guarded approaches to the Hadassah Hospital. Where three wounded demonstrators were confined under guard without bail. Only the Red Mogen David (Jewish Red Cross), bringing wounded persons, were permitted through police lines to the hospital.
An operation for removal of a bullet was performed on Sholom Olacho, one of the thirty Jews wounded in Friday’s demonstration when police used guns and truncheons to disperse the crowd.
It was disclosed that a policeman named Kramer will be indicted by the police for unnecessary shooting. Newspapers said today that he had fired into the crowd as well as into the air.
One of the ten arrested in Friday’s disorders will be indicted for incitement to rebellion. It was revealed that several British policemen were hurt in the outbreak.
Meanwhile, the Government issued communiques to Arab and Jewish editors warning against publication of material endangering peace, advising them not to permit sharp criticism and asking them not to print falsified news reports.
“Gangs are the only way to scare off Jewish immigration,” it was declared by Akram Zuieter, leader of the Arab Nationalist Bloc, in addressing rallies at Nablus and Tul Karem.
Saturday night Arabs in Jaffa stoned Jewish buses, smashing windows, and attacked workers of the Ruttenberg Electric Works. A group of Arabs returning from a demonstration at Nebi Salach shouted anti-government and anti-Jewish slogans. Police did not interfere.
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.
