The Jewish population here has been stirred to indignation at the severe sentences meted out today to fifty-two persons arrested for picketing activities carried on in front of the building being erected by the Jewish contractor Borovsky. Forty-six of the picketers were sentenced to one month terms, while the other six were given sentences of three months each.
On an additional charge of obstructing police in their efforts to break up the picketing, twenty-five others were arrested today and held for trial.
The picketing is a result of charges that Borovsky is employing on the building project large numbers of Hauranese Arabs, many of whom it is reported have entered the country illegally, and who are displacing legitimate Jewish labor.
Labor representatives today interviewed District Commissioner Morris Bailey and pointed out to him that Haifa is harboring 3,700 Hauranese who entered Palestine from Syria without legal permits. Of this number, the representatives declared, 1,800 are employed by Jews and are thus depriving Jews of jobs to which they are rightfully entitled.
The committee also protested to Commissioner Bailey against alleged harshness on the part of police in dealing with the arrested picketers. In answer to the complaints, the Commissioner replied that it was the duty of the authorities to uphold the law without reference to private issues between Jewish contractors and laborers.
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