Leaders of Pro-nasser Arabs in Israel Detained; Journal Suspended

Several leaders of a small ultra-nationalist group of Israel Arabs whose slogan was reported to be “Nasser is our Ben-Gurion” were detained and their periodical suspended after extensive agitation against Israel authorities, it was disclosed today.

The group, which has its headquarters in Nazareth, split off recently from an earlier Arab group formed several years ago under the name “Popular Front” which called for bettering the conditions of Israel’s Arab minority.

The smaller extremists group began publishing an unlicensed periodical in which they attacked Israel authorities and slandered Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and other officials, including the governors who direct military rule of the Arab-populated border areas, officials said.

They reported also that cells of Arab youth, principally intellectuals, were organized in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Some of the Arab members openly announced their support of the regime of President Nasser of the United Arab Republic.

When authorities decided that the incitement had become dangerous, they closed down the periodical and detained several leaders, including a medical student and a law student at the Hebrew University, for investigation. All were released on bail.

Among those detained in Jerusalem and Haifa were editors and contributors to the banned periodical. They were charged with publishing a newspaper without a license. Police said the defendants used a subterfuge to conform to the regulation that a single issue of a publication does not require a license. The subterfuge was to publish the periodical with a slightly different name for each issue. The name always included the word “Earth” in Arabic so that its readers would know that it was the same journal.