Confusion Marks Inauguration of Arab Boycott, Arabs Continuing to Buy in Jewish Shops

Although the boycott of Jewish-made goods from Palestine proclaimed by the Arab League went into effect yesterday, there was little indication of it here. Arabs are continuing to patronize Jewish shops, and reports from Cairo say that the situation is the same there.

There appears to be a great deal of confusion in Arab circles concerning the boycott, while the Jewish community is, for the time being, ignoring it. A break in the Arab front has already been indicated by the Jaffa chamber of commerce, which decided that if the Palestine Government does not grant them licenses within a week to import from neighboring countries goods which they have been buying from Jews, they will continue to make purchases from Jewish enterprises. Even if the licenses are granted, the Jaffa merchants said, they will observe the boycott only if the imports arrive within a fortnight.

The president of the Jewish Industrialists Association, Arich Shenkar, said today that his group plans to take no anti-boycott measures, because they feel the ban on Jewish goods is primarily a political, rather than an economic, move. The Jewish press, however, publishes editorials today reiterating its criticism of the Palestine Government for failing to act against the boycott.

One of the first victims of the boycott was the Palestine Telegraphic Agency, local subsidiary of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The editors of the Arab newspapers Palestine and Adiffaa called the Tel Aviv offices of the PTA today to ask that service to them be discontinued immediately. The Arab papers have been taking the PTA service for many years.

A report from Damascus said that the Syrian Department of Supply has ruled that merchants desiring to import goods from Palestine must obtain a certificate from the Palestine Arab Chamber of Commerce stating that the imports are of Arab origin.