(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Palestine is the only country where imprisonment is still used to enforce payment of debts, Jacob Shapiro, Jewish colonist, writes in a letter to the “Palestine Bulletin” here.
“During this period of financial stress in Palestine,” he proceeds, “we all meet people who were unfortunate enough to lose heavily. Often they sleep out for fear of being arrested and cast into prison through failure to pay a few pounds, even a few piastres.
“Palestine, the land of morals and religion, should be the last country in which poverty is regarded as a disgrace and where human beings are dragged to prison because the times are against them.
“I appeal to the Palestinian press to put forward a strong plea against the obsolete and barbarous customs which Palestine’s former masters have bequeathed to the country. The question is a burning one because every day justice is acting here in the name of a law which all civilized countries have long abandoned. Every day honorable men and families are being imprisoned in Palestine for debt.”
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