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Arab Guerilla Warfare Continues, Claiming 2 More Jewish Victims

June 19, 1936
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Two Jews died and six others were injured today as Arab guerilla warfare against the Government and the Jews continued in its ninth week, accompanied by bombings, attacks on Government forces, sabotage and attacks on Jewish settlements.

Arabs late this afternoon bombed a bus passing near Yazur on the way to Tel Aviv from Rishon-le-Zion. Josef Shefter, 28, of Vienna, manager of the Leviathan Tannery at Rishon-le-zion, was killed and six others, including Shimon Blad, 36, a Polish Jew, were less seriously injured. Shefter’s death brought the Jewish fatalities since April 19th to 31.

Abraham Ben Yehuda, 42, of Sosnowitz, Poland, died this morning of wounds received when a dairy truck he was driving was ambushed last Friday en route from Jerusalem to Ataroth.

The head of the British military forces in Egypt, Lieutenant General Sir George Wier, arrived here today by airplane for a short visit.

Using bloodhounds, police tracked a party of Arabs from Dannaba near Tulkarem and arrested ten in connection with the destruction of fruit trees at Kfar Jonah.

Three Arabs were wounded when they attempted to blow up a railway bridge near Nablus. They were taken to the hospital.

Troops exchanged fire with unknown attackers near Seirat el Adir. No casualties were reported. Police opened fire on Arabs attacking Jewish settlements at Menachemia, Sedgera and Har Canaan. None was injured.

A passenger train was fired on between Deselsheikh and Bittar. The train’s convoy returned the fire. No casualties were reported. An exchange of fire also occurred near Hartuv, where railroad workers were sniped at. None was hit.

Arabs fired on a police station at Bethlehem and were driven off by a return volley. Shooting also occurred at Mekor Haim on the outskirts of Jerusalem, at Tel Litwinsky, Kalmania and Kfar Azar. No casualties were reported.

Three huts near Lydda were burned down. A fire set to crops near Kfar Tabor was extinguished by police before it had made much headway. Telephone wires between Jerusalem and Jericho were out, as was the line between Seira tel Dir and Khan Luban.

An official communique confirmed that two bombs were exploded in front of City Hall in Haifa, wrecking a fence around it, shattering windows and injuring an Arab municipal employee. A small, primitive bomb went off near the Fast Hotel on the Jaffa road.

2 JEWS TO BE TRIED FOR JAFFA GATE BOMBING

The trial of two Jews in connection with a bombing at Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem, on June 8 which resulted in death to one Arab and injuries to twenty-four other Arabs and Armenians, was postponed today until next week.

The defendants, Abraham Mizrachi and Mordecai Nahum Mizrachi, were to have been tried under new emergency regulations fixing penalties of death or life imprisonment for terroristic acts, but the police asked that the charge be changed to simple attempted murder.

Mordecai Eliash, who represented the Jews before the Shaw Commission which investigated the anti-Jewish riots of 1929, is counsel for the two Jews. Jews claim the bombing was the work of an Arab who aimed at passing Jews but missed, hitting the Arabs and Armenians.

Numerous striking Arab shopkeepers in Haifa opened their stores today under the threat of six months’ imprisonment voiced in a Government ultimatum. Owners of shops that remained closed were being registered for trial by the police.

A train was fired on during the night between Lydda and Jerusalem. The military convoy returned the fire. No casualties were reported. Armored railway cars equipped with machine guns have been introduced on railroads to prevent attacks and guard against damage to railroad property.

Demolition of a condemned quarter of Jaffa for construction of two roads to the harbor got under way today. Thirty buildings of ninety-eight marked for destruction were dynamited while half a battalion of troops and wartanks stood ready to avert disturbances. Army engineers are constructing the roads.

Twenty-seven peasants were arrested at the village of Danba for uprooting trees in Jewish graves. Ten went on trial at Tulkarem.

Davar, Hebrew daily, declared in an editorial that the Government’s severe regulations had proved unavailing in freeing the country of Arab terrorism. It urged mobilization of Jewish youths.

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