Eleven Slain, Hundreds Hurt in Palestine Anti-jewish Rioting

Authorities would countenance no demonstration and that the police had been instructed to thwart any attempt at an illegal demonstration or assembly.

The Arab leaders were told to send a delegation to the commissioner, who would accept their protest and forward it to the high commissioner. In statements earlier this week, Arab leaders associated with the Arab Executive, declared they would proceed with their plans for a demonstration despite its prohibition by the authorities.

WERE TO DECLARE STRIKE

The riot today was the outcome of a meeting of the Arab Executive, leaders of the Arab anti-Jewish movement in Palestine, in Jerusalem on October 8, which was attended by 21 out of the 48 members of the Executive.

The Arab leaders determined to declare a general strike all over Palestine on October 13, as a protest against the continued immigration of Jews into Palestine and the sale of land to Jewish buyers.

The Arabs also decided to carry out a mass demonstration in Jerusalem on the same day, starting from the Mosque of Omar.

The demonstration was to have been headed by the president, the secretary and all the members of the Arab Executive and was to proceed to the government offices and then to the offices of the executive in the Palace building, where a meeting was to have been held to decide on further demonstration.

ABSENT ONES TRAITORS

The meeting of the Arab Executive began at 9 in the morning and ended at 2 in the afternoon. The meeting decided that every member of the Executive who failed to take part in the demonstration was to be considered a traitor to the Arab cause and it decided to publish the names of all who did not come out for the demonstration.

However, when the Arab demonstrators emerged from the Mosque of Omar, on October 13, headed by the members of the Arab Executive and a number of Moslem women, whom they placed at the head of the procession in the hope that the police would not use force against them, they were surrounded by heavy police detachments and ordered to disperse. When they attempted to march, the police broke up the demonstration in short order.

Despite the attempts made by the Arabs to achieve unity for the demonstration, important groups of the Arabs, headed by the Mayor of Jerusalem, Ragheb Bey Nasashibi, took no part in the demonstration and sent agents all over Palestine to warn the Arabs not to participate in the demonstration and not to come to Jerusalem.

Earlier, the government had forbidden the march, but the Arabs defied its orders and announced that they would carry through their plans as scheduled.

5 ARABS, 5 POLICE HURT

The final total of the injured in the abortive demonstration was twenty-two, including five members of the Arab Executive, and five policemen. The government communique issued after peace had been restored in Jerusalem stressed the fact that the demonstration had been forbidden and declared that the police had acted with the “greater forebearance and restraint.”

Later, the Arab leaders decided to carry out another demonstration, this time in Jaffa, on October 27. When the leaders visited Commissioner Crosbie, in charge of the Southern district, which includes Jaffa, they were warned not to demonstrate and told that any attempts to do so would be broken up. They retorted that they were merely carrying out the decision of the Arab Executive and declared that the demonstration would proceed. The Arab leader then visited the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, who advised them against the contemplated march and told them instead, to send a delegation to Commissioner Crosbie, with a protest, which would be transmitted to him.

ARABS IGNORE WARNING

After the meeting with the high commissioner, Moghannam, secretary of the Arab Executive, informed the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the high commissioner was determined to ban the demonstration, and had warned the Arabs that the march was punishable. None the less, Moghannam declared that the Arabs were proceeding with the demonstration.

The police in Jaffa began to make their preparation by calling in reinforcements. Roy G. B. Spicer, commanding officer of the Palestine police, arrived in Jaffa to take charge of the situation. Commissioner Crosbie again warned the Arabs against their march, particularly warning the turbulent boatmen of the port against participating.

The Arab Executive met in Jaffa on Thursday and decided not to surrender. They declared that the Jaffa demonstration would be a greater success than the one in Jerusalem and boasted that “40,000 Arabs will march in the demonstration.”