Jews Throughout Palestine Aroused at British Destruction of Tel Aviv Synagogue

Jews throughout Palestine were today aroused and angered at the-destruction of a synagogue in the Manshieh quarter, on the Tel Aviv-Jaffa border, by British troops. A spokesman for the army asserted that shots had been fired at a nearby station from the synagogue.

The demolition was bitterly protested by a Jewish security officer heading small detachment of settlement police assigned to guard it. He pointed out that the building had never been used as a strong point and categorically denied that any shots had ever been fired from its windows or roof.

Rabbi Iser Judah Unterman, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, declared that the deed ? might be compared with Nazi actions.” He also pointed out that while the British ?lew up the synagogue they made no attempt to molest snipers operating from mosques ?on the edge of Jaffa. The Palestine Chief Rabbinate has addressed messages of protest to all Jewish religious centers throughout the world.

BRITISH HALT DELIVERY OF PLANES SOLD TO JEWISH AGENCY

The British Army in Palestine has stopped the sale to Jews of surplus stocks of barbed wire and other defensive equipment, the Jewish Agency disclosed today. The British are also withholding the delivery of the last of 21 Auster training-planes sold to Jews recently, although the crafts have been paid for, the Jewish Agency stated.

In line with this new restrictive policy affecting the Jewish defense in the Mandate was the British Army’s refusal last week of an escort, as previously agreed, for a supply convoy to the Kfar Etzion settlement. Part of the convoy–the first since the big Arab attack on Kfar Etzion last month–did not go because the trucks contained barbed wire, corrugated iron and cement. These items, the British Army ruled, were “military stores” and accordingly could not be permitted to go to the settlement.

In the meantime, it is reported here that the Arabs, under the leadership of Abu Ali, said to be a former German officer, are preparing a new and large-scale attack, possibly including the use of artillery, on the Kfar Etzion bloc of four settlements near Hebron.

In the pre-dawn hours this morning the Sternists blew up a three-story building in the center of Jerusalem which was owned by Dr. Izzat Tannous, an Arab leader, end which had been used as the headquarters of an Arab gang. Many Arabs are believed buried in the debris. Several Sternists were injured in an exchange of shots with British troops whom they met as they left the scene of the blast. Four Jews were wounded in Jerusalem during the day and several Arabs were reported killed and wounded country.