Fifty thousand Jewish residents of Tel Aviv formed a funeral cortege today for the two Jewish nurses killed by Arab rebels yesterday as they were reporting for duty at the Government hospital in the Arab city of Jaffa.
High Commissioner Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope expressed his “deepest sorrow and abhorrence of the recent brutal murders and attacks on perfectly innocent people.”
Referring to the two slain nurses, Nechama Zedek and Natia Fink, who had ministered in a hospital almost totally given over to Arabs, the statement continued:
“I am confident that the whole public, except a few murderers and individuals, share my detestation of these horrible crimes culminating in the murder of two nurses who devotedly healed the sick regardless of faith and race.”
The authorities clamped a curfew on Jaffa that practically confines the entire population to its home for all but three hours of the day.
The curfew, to be in effect until further notice, extends from eight in the morning until five the next morning. All persons found on the streets during the 21-hour intervening period are subject to imprisonment on sight.
Train service between the neighboring cities of Jaffa and Tel Aviv has been suspended.
Both measures climaxed forty-eight hours of renewed violence during which a third Jewish woman, Chaya Freund, 23, was slain in an Arab attack on Ramat Kovesh.
The Jewish death toll in the four month-old disorders now stands at 72. Arab deaths are estimated at about 300.
An attack on the Kiriat Anavim settlement, in which three Jews were wounded, was beaten off with the assistance of troops. The Jewish Red Cross was despatched to the scene to give medical aid. The wounded, who were removed to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem, are Isaac Landberg, Nahum Gershonowitz and Gershon Masheyov.
Four Jews were critically injured by Arabs’ stones in Tiberias, where recent disturbances yesterday led the Government to impose curfew.
Indignation at the murder of the nurses was expressed at the closing session of an extraordinary meeting of the Jewish National Assembly. In a unanimous resolution, the assembly sent “a most bitter outcry” to Jews abroad to “help raise the voice of all people” for stoppage of bloodshed and against suspension of Jewish immigration into Palestine.
The Assembly called for strengthening of the Zionist movement and decided to send a delegation representing the Jewish community to the High Commissioner as the first move in a fight against Government officials’ alleged antagonism to the Zionist experiment.
Speakers declared the Jews were losing confidence in the Government as a result of inadequate measures taken to end disturbances. It was charged the authorities were not applying laws promulgated to halt bloodshed.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
