New demonstrations broke out in Egypt today and violence was reported in at least one city as Arabs in the major centers of the Middle East joined the Palestine Arabs in a protest strike against the U.N. decision in favor of the partitioning of Palestine.
At Zagazig, a town about 40 miles north of Cairo, the British Institute was wrecked and gutted by fire after being attacked by 1,000 demonstrators. Earlier, the institute’s library was ransacked and burned and an Egyptian employee was manhandled. In Alexandria students and several thousand factory workers demonstrated for several ##rs.In Cairo, Premier Mahmoud Nokrashy Pasha told the Parliament that Egypt would “ignore” partition. Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha, secretary-general of the Arab League, told demonstrating students in Cairo that it was their duty to go to Palestine and fight. Later, the students marched past the United States Embassy shouting anti-American slogans.
In Baghdad, 30,000 demonstrators were kept in line by mounted policemen. Recruiting offices were reportedly opened in Beirut for Arabs desiring to fight in Palessine.
According to another report some 20-odd Syrian deputies volunteered for combatant service after the Syrian parliament had voted some $880,000 to raise a “striking force.”
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