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Police and Troops Raid Arab Quarters in Jerusalem in Search for Arms; Arrests Made

September 18, 1946
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Police and troops, for the first time in many years, today raided Arab sections of the city, including the Old City which is predominantly Arab.

The raids followed a threat made yesterday by Jamal Husseini, leader of the Arab Higher Committee, in the course of an interview with the Palestine High Commissioner, when he declared that the Arabs in Palestine intend to take “direct action” against Jewish extremists.

Husseini demanded the dissolution of the Jewish Agency and other Jewish political organizations, charging them with directing the “Jewish terrorist activities.” He also urged the impounding of Jewish Agency funds, the imposition of collective fines upon the Palestine Jewish community in case of attacks by the Jewish resistance movement, and “the blowing up of Jewish quarters and houses where terrorist activities occur.” Husseini told the High Commissioner that the British were not suppressing terrorism in Palestine “for political reasons of their own.”

Today’s raid and extensive searches in the Arab sections of Jerusalem yielded no firearms, but some daggers were found. A number of Arabs were reported to have been arrested.

The British Army spent $560,000,000 in Palestine between 1939 and 1945, it was reported here today in date released by the statistical department of the Palestine Government.

Eliezer Kaplan, treasurer of the Agency, was today refused permission to visit Moshe Shertok, political chief of the Agency, who is interned at the Latrun camp.

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