One Arab was killed and five others wounded when-a bomb exploded in Jerusalem’s old city early this morning as the authorities acted to prevent the terrorism in Haifa from spreading here. Curfew, in effect since Monday, was increased to ten and a half hours, starting at seven p.m. Arabs in the Old City launched a protest strike, resulting in the closing of all bazaars in that section.
Two prominent Jews were arrested on undisclosed charges and the Zionist revisionist weekly, Hayarden, was suspended for three months. Those arrested are E. Steimatzky, prominent bookseller whose firm issues Steimatzky’s guide, a Palestine hand-book well-known to tourists, and Dr. Ephraim Washitz, Jerusalem Revisionist leader.
Troops searched the cooperative restaurant operated by the Histadruth, Palestine Jewish Labor federation, but without result. Jewish passersby in the center of the city were stopped and searched for arms.
The Jewish National Council held an emergency meeting to discuss ways of increasing the Jewish community’s internal discipline. Appealing for Jewish self-restraint, the council warned of the danger of “bloody warfare and civil war.” this, the council declared in a statement, would jeopardize Palestine Jewry’s existence, which was the aim of its enemies.
Deploring the killings and wounding in recent days of scores of innocent Arabs and Jews, the statement asserted that “outbreaks of revenge against the Arabs,” even if carried out by irresponsible individuals, placed a heavy responsibility on Palestine Jewry, which condemned and repudiated them.
Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog also issued a proclamation, pleading in the name of God, the Torah and everything sacred to the Jews, not to “stain your hands in blood.”
A military court yesterday sentenced three Arab brothers and the son of the youngest to death for setting fire to an Arab flour mill near Migdal Zedek, near Petach Tikva, on March 30. Jewish special policemen, it was recalled, saved the Arab miller and his family from the flames.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
