The offices of the Jewish Agency in Marseilles were severely damaged by fire last night and local police authorities said they were “certain the fire had been purposely set.”
It was the second time in six months that a Jewish Agency office in France had been damaged by arsonists. The previous effort, six months ago, was made at the Agency offices in this city, but gasoline-soaked newspapers had, for some reason, failed to catch fire.
(In Jerusalem, an Israeli radio commentator, expressed the belief that the Marseilles blaze, like the one attempted earlier in Paris, was the work of Algerian rebels, members of the Algerian National Liberation Front.)
Reports from Marseilles received here this afternoon indicated that the Jewish Agency offices there were still being used, despite the damage. Files, other furniture, and typewriters were destroyed by the flames on the second floor of the Agency office. Marseilles police believed that the culprits had entered the offices during the night with passkeys.
Anti-Israel propaganda, emanating from Cafru has been circulated frequently of late, chiefly among Moslems, in this country. The propaganda materials have singled out the Jewish Agency as the organization which directs the immigration of Jews to Israel, charging that the Agency uses the Port of Marseilles as the point of departure.
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