Two Revisionists tried 22 years ago for the murder of Chaim Arlosoroff, head of the political department of the Jewish Agency and prominent Labor Zionist leader, were innocent, Shlomo Arazi, senior Jewish police officer under the Palestine Mandatory Government and later a highranking Haganah leader, stated here today.
This is the first such statement by the police officer who conducted the investigation of the murder. The crime and the subsequent round-up of Revisionists and the trial of two of them for the murder, split the Jewish community of Palestine. Even at this time Mr. Arazi opposes a public investigation of the crime because of the possibilities of arousing new political schisms.
Mr. Arazi stated today that the murder was actually committed by two Arabs who confessed this crime and several others to the British police. British intelligence, he charged, ordered the Arabs to withdraw their confession of the Arlosoroff assassination because the British police had already arrested Zevi Rosenblatt and Abraham Stavsky, Revisionists, for the crime. For “prestige reasons,” Mr. Arazi said, the British were unwilling to reveal their mistake.
The assassination occurred July 16, 1933 in Tel Aviv and the Revisionists were brought to trial before the District Court of Tel Aviv on April 23, 1934. The court acquitted Mr. Rosenblatt for lack of evidence and Mr. Stavsky was condemned to death on June 8, By July 20, 1934, the Court of Appeal, to which Mr. Stavsky had taken his case, acquitted him too, also on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
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.
