About 160 Jews who were arrested Monday during the British invasion of several Jewish settlements near Tel Aviv will be tried shortly, an official communique announced today.
British troops last night arrested 70 members of the Mayan settlement of the Young Maccabi, and about 100 settlers from the Zikhron Jacob colony. They had attended a rural conference and were unable to return home due to the curfew regulations. After being held all night in barbed-wire enclosures, they were transferred today to the Athlit camp.
The communique announcing the forthcoming trial of the 160 Jews said, “These Jews were traveling in trucks and buses and were returning from the area of Givat Haim, whither they had gone with the apparent intention of offering organized obstruction to the police.”
Authoritative Jewish circles, meanwhile, challenged the accuracy of an official communique on the disturbances at the colony of Hogla, where six Jews were killed, which stated that the settlers had opened fire on the troops, using automatic weapons and rifles.
A careful inquiry on the spot, these sources said, disclosed no evidence of the Jews having fired upon the troops. They cited the fact that the communique makes no mention of any casualties suffered by the soldiers, and that no firearms were found on any of the hundreds of Jews detained for questioning.
Students attending a memorial meeting today for the victims, at the Hebrew University, sent word to the colonies of Shefayim, Givath Haim and Rishpon, which were demaged during the invasion by units of the Sixth Airborne Division, that they were ready to come to the colonies to help make necessary repairs.
Gen. John C. Darcy, British commander in Palestine, announced today that he has reduced most of the sentences meted out by a military court in Haifa to 20 young Jews-including two girls-accused of illegal possession of arms. The original sentences ranged from 3 to 7 years imprisonment.
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