Military authorities in Palestine were today engaged in attempting to discover in what manner news from Palestine is being transmitted to German and Italian radio stations in time for the information to be put on the air by Axis Arabic broadcasters several hours before the Palestine censor has approved the news for transmission abroad.
The Axis broadcasts have provoked the interest of the British Intelligence Service here inasmuch as they prove that German and Italian spies in Palestine are not only well informed, but also have excellent facilities for communicating their information to the enemy.
The news on which the Axis radio stations had their “scoop” concerned an official announcement issued yesterday by the Palestine police offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of suspects believed responsible for the attempts on the lives of the Inspector General of the Palestine police force and of his assistant. One thousand Palestine pounds were offered by the police for the detection of each of four Palestine Jews described in the police announcement as “members of an organization which is responsible for the criminal attempts.”
An investigation by the Post Office authorities today established that the announcement of the police was relayed back to Palestine in Arabic over the Berlin and Rome radio stations three hours before the first dispatches sent by British correspondents here reached London. Utilizing the fact that they were first with the news, the Axis radio stations, in relaying the information to the Arab world, twisted the facts to suit their purposes and exploited it for anti-British propaganda in the Near East.
The Berlin radio reported that the rewards by the Palestine police “were posted against four Arab terrorists who are continuing to fight against British and Jewish domination in Palestine.” The Nazi radio station presented the facts so as to make it appear that the attempts on the lives of the two highest police officials in Palestine were the beginning of an Arab revolt. The attempt on the life of the Inspector General was made on April 28, when a huge bomb was found in front of his house. The bomb, it was established, contained seventy sticks of gelignite and six pounds of steel rivets attached to a long detonating wire.
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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.
