Examination of the fourteen members of the Revisionist Party (extreme right-wing Zionists) who are accused of seditious offenses against the Palestine Government, began here today in the British magistrate’s court. The defendants have been under arrest since July 23, when the Palestine police undertook a wide series of searches and arrests in the effort to break up an alleged secret terroristic society.
All the defendants are free on bail with the exception of five and Public Prosecutor Shitrit today agreed to bail for four of the five. The fifth, Aba Achimeier, who is known for his extremist views, will be held in connection with the murder in Tel Aviv in June of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, one of the leaders of the Zionist labor movement. Achimeier formerly shared living quarters with Abraham Stavsky, another Revisionist who is being held in connection with the murder.
VIOLENCE, TERROR CHARGED
The charges against the defendants are that “during 1931, 1932 and 1933, they conspired to act with seditious intentions, by violence and terror to interfere with the local administration of the Palestine Government, to raise discontent and disturbance among the inhabitants and also for publishing articles in an illegal periodical called Habiryonim, also with documents and orally encouraging unlawful acts.”
One of the accused men, Milavsky, was exempted from the charges but another defendant was added in the person of Josef Kaznelson of Jerusalem.
Officer Tenenbaum of the criminal investigation department, testifying regarding the arrests, said that in a search of Achimeier’s desk he had found sixteen letters of appeal proving the existence of an illegal association known as the Zionim Ma’apchanim, or as the Brith Biryonim. The appeals blamed the French Report on the development of Palestine for cutting the “aliyah” (Jewish return to Palestine) and called on Jewish youth to fight for the liberty of Zion. They attacked the proposals for a round-table conference with the Arabs as “of Jewish traitors” with the Palestine Government.
CODED LETTERS FOUND
The investigator also testified to the finding of a code and several coded letters in which it was insisted that the Brith Biryonim must be a secret movement and that its members should only be persons of strong character.
An interesting fact was revealed by a letter of one of the defendants, Yeivin, stating that Vladimir Jabotinsky, head of the Revisionist movement, intended to demand the expulsion of the Palestine extremists from the Rveisionist Party if they did not change their tactics.
Police Inspector Goffer took the stand to testify regarding the arrest of Achimeier. He found, in the defendant’s diary and other documents proof that the Brith Biryonim had organized action against the Palestine census in 1931, he said, and had also attempted to obstruct the inaugural lecture of Norman Bentwich, former Palestine Attorney General, at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Dr. Cohen, attorney for the defense, announced his intention of calling Jabotinsky as a witness. The hearing will be resumed Sept. 1.
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