Jewish groups here today condemned the British execution of Dov Gruner and three other Jews in Palestine and declared that they were ## “deliberate provocation” by the British on the eve of the opening of the special session of the United Nations on the Palestine issue.
A spokesman for the Jewish Agency headquarters here said: “The killing of two Jewish refugees seeking entry into Palestine on the ship Theodore Herzl and the execution of Dov Gruner and three others today are new acts of cruelty which seem calculated to aggravate the already intolerable situation in Palestine. They furnish fresh evidence to the United Nations of the disastrous results which flow inevitably from the Mandatory’s illegal policy in Palestine.”
An impromptu protest meeting was held at the national headquarters of the Zionist Organization of America at which Dr. Sidney Nerks, executive director, said that it is clear that the executions were intended to provoke outbreaks, with the aim of prejudicing the case of Jewish Palestine in the eyes of the membership of the United Nations.” He added that “these illegal executions will have the very reverse effect upon public opinion of the world from that which was intended. They will arouse the revulsion of the civilized nations and unmask the ugly fact of British military rule in Palestine.”
A week of mourning in memory of Gruner and his comrades was proclaimed by the Political Action Committee for Palestine. Joseph Clark Baldwin, administrative chairman, issued a call to Jews and non-Jews in the United States to observe the mourning week “in honor of these Jewish patriots who last night made the supreme sacrifice in the cause of liberty.”
The American League for a Free Palestine issued a statement signed by its president, Guy M. Gillette, saying that “the British have destroyed any hope of United Nations settlement by spilling blood.” The statement called upon the American public to “write finis to British terror and to British imperialism in Palestine.”
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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.
