OFFICIAL CIRCLES TODAY ADMITTED FEARS OF A GENERAL ARAB UPRISING AS DISORDERS WHICH BEGAN LAST THURSDAY ASSUMED A WIDESPREAD CHARACTER RESEMBLING THE 1936 REVOLT AND THE DEPOSED GRAND MUFTI, HAJ AMIN EL HUSSEINI, FLED HIS SANCTUARY IN THE MOSQUE OF OMAR LEAVING BEHIND HIM AN INFLAMMATORY MANIFESTO.
THE MANIFESTO, WHICH HAS ALREADY ACHIEVED WIDE CIRCULATION THROUGHOUT PALESTINE, CALLS ON ARABS NOT TO DESPAIR AND URGES THEM TO CONTINUE THE FIGHT AGAINST THE JEWS AND THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. FINAL LIBERATION, IT PROMISES, IS COMING DESPITE “JEWISH INFLUENCE OVER GREAT BRITAIN.”
COINCIDENT WITH THE MOSLEM LEADER’S FLIGHT, REPORTEDLY TO SYRIA, THE FOLLOWING INCIDENTS OCCURRED YESTERDAY AND TODAY:
A JEWISH BOY OF 11, NAMED SHARBI, WAS MURDERED IN HIS SLEEP BY FIVE ARABS WHO FIRED INTO HIS BEDROOM IN THE YEMENITE QUARTER OF NESS ZIONA.
AN ARAB NOTABLE, KEMAL ALAMI, A RELATIVE OF THE GOVERNMENT ADVOCATE WHO RECENTLY RESIGNED HIS POST, WAS SHOT DEAD IN THE CHRISTIAN QUARTER OF THE OLD CITY.
FIRE PARTIALLY DESTROYED THE STRATEGIC LYDDA AIRPORT, WHICH HAD NOT YET BEEN ENTIRELY COMPLETED, CAUSING DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT $35,000. THE IMMIGRATION OFFICES AT THE AIRPORT, A POLICE STATION, A HOTEL AND OFFICES OF THE DUTCH K.L.M. AND POLISH LOT AIRLINES CONTAINING OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS AND CREWS’ PASSPORTS WERE GUTTED. WIRELESS APPARATUS AND THE TELEPHONE EXCHANGE WERE ALSO DESTROYED.
THE DEAD BODY OF OSCAR STRAUSS, 35-YEAR-OLD GERMAN JEW, WAS FOUND ON THE SHORE OF KESSARIA, BUT WHETHER HE WAS MURDERED OR HAD COMMITTED SUICIDE WAS NOT IMMEDIATELY ESTABLISHED.
AN ARAB WOOD PRODUCTS FACTORY NEAR THE GOVERNMENT OFFICES IN JERUSALEM WAS SET AFIRE.
AN AUTOMOBILE CARRYING JEWISH PASSENGERS WAS FIRED ON AND OVERTURNED, SERIOUSLY WOUNDING TWO OF THE OCCUPANTS AND SLIGHTLY INJURING TWO OTHERS. AN EGGED BUS WHICH CAME TO TAKE THE WOUNDED TO A HOSPITAL WAS FIRED UPON.
SAMUEL GUTMAN, A HUNGARIAN JEW WAS STABBED AND SERIOUSLY WOUNDED WHILE WALKING IN THE KEREM ABRAHAM QUARTER OF JERUSALEM.
GANGS OF ARMED ARABS, NUMBERING 200, TRIED TO SLIP ACROSS THE SYRIAN BORDER INTO PALESTINE BUT WERE STOPPED BY THE FRONTIER FORCE.
OTHER INCIDENTS INCLUDED BOMBING OF THE ANGLO-PALESTINE BANK BRANCH IN JAFFA, DYNAMITING OF A BRIDGE ON THE JERUSALEM-TEL AVIV ROAD, SNIPING ON JEWISH COLONIES AND THE TOWNS OF KALANDIA, ATAROTH, NEVE YACOB AND MT. CANAAN.
GOVERNMENT ACTS TO CRUSH DISORDERS
THE GOVERNMENT RETALIATED WITH RIGOROUS MEASURES TO SUPPRESS THE SPREADING DISORDERS. MAJOR-GENERAL A.P. WAVELL, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF BRITISH MILITARY FORCES IN PALESTINE, ORDERED DESTRUCTION OF SEVERAL ARAB HOUSES IN LYDDA, SCENE OF THE AIRPORT FIRE, AND IMPOSED A 23-HOUR CURFEW ON THE VILLAGE. THE AUTHORITIES DECIDED ALSO TO COLLECT A $25,000 COLLECTIVE FINE ASSESSED AGAINST THE VILLAGE DURING THE 1936 DISORDERS, BUT WHICH HAD BEEN DROPPED AFTER COLLECTION OF ONLY $1,250.
CURFEW WAS CONTINUED IN JERUSALEM, POSTED PLACARDS ANNOUNCING ALSO PROHIBITION OF STREET GATHERINGS AND CARRYING OF KNIVES, STICKS, STONES OR OTHER SUSPICIOUS OBJECTS.
SHEIKH AMIN EFFENDI OF THE SUPREME SHARIA COURT AND MANY OTHER ARAB NOTABLES, SHEIKHS AND MOSLEM LEADERS IN HEBRON WERE REMOVED TO ACRE.
THE MUFTI WAS REPORTED TO HAVE SLIPPED OUT OF HIS REFUGE IN THE MOSQUE OF OMAR UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS AND ESCAPED TO SYRIA, WHERE, THE REPORT SAID, HE PRESENTED HIMSELF UNDER THE NAME AHMED JAFFARI TO THE BEIRUT POLICE AND THEN LEFT FOR DAMASCUS.
THE FIRST INTIMATION THAT HE HAD FLED CAME WHEN IT WAS NOTED THE MUFTI FAILED TO DELIVER HIS USUAL SABBATH SERMON IN THE MOSQUE YESTERDAY MORNING. ONE REPORT HAD IT THAT THE OUTBREAK OF DISORDERS WAS ARRANGED TO DRAW ATTENTION FROM HIS DEPARTURE.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE WAQF (MOSLEM RELIGIOUS ESTATES), WHICH HAD BEEN UNDER THE MUFTI’S CONTROL, WAS PLACED BY THE PALESTINE GOVERNMENT UNDER THE CONTROL OF A THREE-MAN COMMISSION INCLUDING A JUDICIAL OFFICER, IT WAS OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED.
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.
