The nine-year old Mordecai Macleff, a survivor of the Motza tragedy, was among the witnesses called yesterday in the case against the twelve Arabs charged with the murder of his parents, brothers, sisters and guests, when the trial was resumed after several weeks adjournment owing to the illness of the public prosecutor Sherwell.
Regarding the little orphan as perhaps the youngest witness that ever appeared before him Chief Justice McDonnell enjoined the sobbing child to tell the whole truth. Thus reassured Mordecai described the attack and repeated his mother’s words to the assailants in the dock, “what do you want of us.” The child told of seeing his brother felled by a bullet in the garden and his parents, shot, rolling downstairs from the terrace.
The last witness for the prosecution was Mordecai’s twelve-year old sister Hannah who briefly confirmed her brother’s evidence about the attackers swooping down from the village of Kolonieh on the hillside overlooking Motza.
The defense submitted alibis for three of the prisoners.
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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.
