Arab Riots in Israel Provoke Requests for Parliamentary Investigation

Demands for a parliamentary investigation into the circumstances of the death last week of five young Arabs attempting to cross the frontier into the Egyptian-held Gaza Strip were made today in the aftermath of two days of rioting in Nazareth and incidents in Haifa, Acre and other caters.

Both the Mapam and Communist parties called on the Knesset presidium to put demands for a parliamentary probe of the whole affair on the Knesset agenda. The Herut Party asked that a special session be convened of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee. An Arab deputy, Yussef Khamis, a member of Mapam, filed a parliamentary question to be answered by the Government when the Knesset reconvenes on October 4;

The Cabinet, at its weekly meeting yesterday, heard a detailed report by Minister of Police Behor Shitreet and was to hear from the Chief of Staff on action taken by the Army in the situation.

The northern areas, where the rioting occurred last week, were quiet over the weekend, although tension remained high. Strong police patrols in the outskirts of Haifa and in the nearby Arab communities, which headed off potential demonstrators, prevented a recurrence of the rioting which started in Nazareth and continued for two days. The mayors of Haifa and Acre made strong efforts to pacify the population and to enlist Arab notables in this task as Communist agitators and other disaffected elements sought to incite the Arabs to further demonstrations.

Charges that the five young Arabs, killed in two different border incidents when they attempted to cross the frontier illegally from Israel to the Egyptian-held Gaza Strip, had been mutilated, were used by the agitators to whip up Arab ire. Police gave distribution to the report of the official post Morten on the five bodies which established that the five had been shot from long-range and that there were no signs of mutilation on their bodies.