An attempt inspired by the Amman radio to organize a strike of Arab merchants in East Jerusalem and the West Bank area to coincide with the opening of the United Nations General Assembly today was only partially successful. The strike had been urged by the Jordanian propaganda services as a protest against the reunification of Jerusalem.
Nablus was the only town in which a majority of the Arab shops remained shuttered. In other towns, Arab stores and places of business slowly opened and, by 11 A.M., more than two-thirds of the Arab businesses in the West Bank area were open. The East Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce played an important role in dissuading Arab shopkeepers from heeding the Amman incitement.
Police and Army units patrolled the streets of East Jerusalem. One youth was arrested on a shopkeeper’s complaint that he had threatened him. A quantity of leaflets urging the merchants to strike was found by the police.
Six of East Jerusalem’s seven Arab, public elementary schools opened yesterday for threw academic season, despite efforts to organize a strike of pupils and teachers. About 80 percent of the pupils and about half of the teachers showed up for classes, Classes scheduled for teachers who had absented themselves were conducted by Arabs who had previously taught in Arab countries but had decided to stay here after the end of the Six-Day War. More public schools for the Arab children are scheduled to open next week.
The study programs in the schools that were opened today were the same as those given in other Arabic schools in Israel, including the teaching of Hebrew. In the schools in the West Bank area, the curricula used during the Jordanian regime were retained.
(London reports said today that the heads of the Moslem and Christian churches in Jordan, aiding the Government’s anti-Israel drive, sent cables to world religious leaders, Secretary-General U Thant and the heads of states, alleging that Israel had violated holy places in Jerusalem. The cables demanded that Christian and Moslem shrines in Jerusalem be “liberated” from “Zionist aggression.”)
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