An explosive situation developed in Jerusalem today following the rejection by Col. Moshe Dayan, Israeli military commander, of an Egyptian ultimatum that Jewish troops occupying a Jewish girls farm, training school several hundred yards from Arab positions evacuate the building.
In rejecting the ultimatum, Col. Dayan declared that, the area is under Red Cross jurisdiction and, therefore, it is no concern to the Egyptian commander whether or not the Jews entered the school. He expressed readiness to discuss proposals for the evacuation of the entire sector and for placing it under the International Red Cross.
United Nations spokesmen, anxious to avoid the possibility of the Egyptians carrying out their threat to fire at the farm school if their ultimatum, is not complied with, announced that they will make an attempt to “bring representatives of the Jewish and Egyptian forces together for negotiations. At the same time they issued an order warning against the opening of fire in the disputed area.
The Egyptian ultimatum was delivered to Col. Dayan by a Captain Anderson, of the American Army, who is a member of the U.N. truce staff, and was signed by Lt. Col. Mohammed Abdullah Azziz, commanding the Egyptian forces. Col. Dayan, the Israeli Commander, pointed out that the ultimatum was tantamount to an outspoken threat to violate the truce and emphasized that it was the duty of the U.N. truce officials to act on it.
TENSION IN JERUSALEM GROWING; JEWS FEAR ARAL ASSAULT ON CITY
Tension has been growing in Jerusalem for the past few days; particularly in view of continuing and incessant reports that the Arabs are bringing in reinforcements and arms for a final assault on the city, following a call issued by the ex-Mufti to “save Jerusalem from Jewish hands,” The Arabs are also said to “fear” that the Jews will try to cut off their lines of communication, especially between Jerusalem and Jericho and Jerusalem and Ramallah. Although the last 24 hours have been comparatively quiet, there is now a strong possibility that hostilities may break out again.
This city’s present economic plight and future are under constant discussion by leaders of the Jewish community here and representatives of the Israeli Government. A special committee to deal with the economic problems facing the Jews here has been formed, made up of members of the local banking, industrial and cooperative enterprises. The main obstacles in the way of Jerusalem’s economic revival are the lack of water and electricity and communications.
Jerusalem is still cut off from Tel Aviv although postal communications are almost normal again. A letter from Jerusalem to the Israeli metropolis sometimes takes one day to arrive, but the inadequate and difficult “Burma Road” has to be used chiefly for passenger and commercial traffic and, in addition, is expensive and not always reliable. Among the major reasons for Jerusalem’s economic collapse were the removal of the Jewish government office from the city and also the removal of a series of commercial enterprises and private firms closely connected with the government. Economic experts maintain that there cannot be any remedy for Jerusalem’s ills unless the Israeli Government returns to this city.
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