A general strike of the Arabs was carried out throughout Palestine yesterday. The strike was called by the Arab Executive in order to obtain the reprieve of the three Arabs who are to be executed on Tuesday in Acre. These Arabs were not included in the commutation of sentences which saved twenty-two others from the death penalty for their part in last August’s disturbances.
The stoppage was said by a government official to be widespread. The Arab Executive announced that the stoppage had been successfully carried out in Nablus, Jenin, Haifa and Acre, according to telegrams received from those cities. No incidents occurred in Jersalem or any other part of Palestine.
The strike called for Sunday obtained incidentally the participation of the Christian group which, as always, observed the Sabbath. The correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, who made the rounds of the city, found that the majority of Arab shops were closed, but that all Arab provision shops were open and Arab women vegetable hawkers came as usual to the market place.
Stronger demonstrations will take place on Tuesday if the strike should prove to be of no avail. The
Arab Executive is determined to utilize any legal technicality to cause a stay of execution. The government, which is aware of the plans of the Executive, is taking precautionary measures to maintain order. M. Mavrogordata, Commandant of the Police, has proceeded to Acre where the three Arabs await execution. Special steps are being taken by the authorities to increase the guards around the prison and to prevent the prisoners being rescued by force.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency was informed by a government official that the government does not intend to yield to Arab threats and demonstrations. The determination of the government to carry out the executions on Tuesday is unshaken, according to the statement made by the official.
The boycott against the Jews will be revived by the Arabs on Wednesday should the executions not be stayed. The Arab Executive is completing preparations for the boycott. A last minute effort was made to have the Zionist Executive join in the demand for the reprieve.
Practically all patriarchs have appealed for the reprieve of the condemned. Similar requests have come from the kings of the Hedjaz, Mesopotamia and Transjordania.
“Tuesday will become a day of explosion, not only in Palestine but in all Arab countries,” declares the Arab paper, “Al Hayat,” in an editorial in which it insists on the reprieve lest “the volcano erupt.” “Yarmuk,” another Arab paper, declares that England would be wise to prevent disturbances in view of the many perplexities she faces in the East.
The possibility that the three condemned Arabs may yet be saved from the gallows to which they are scheduled to go on Tuesday is seen in two development, according to a cable to the “New York Times”; first the strenuous efforts being made by the Arab leaders and the report that Attorney-General Bentwich has instructed the courts to furnish him with the trial records of the three Arabs with a view to his examining them and then perhaps making new recommendations to the High Commissioner.
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