Palestine Jewish Leaders Condemn Violence; “only Aids Our Enemies,” Ben Gurion Warns

Jewish leaders here and in Haifa, scene of yesterday’s bombing which took the lives of 18 Arabs, were on record today with statements strongly condemning violence.

At a session of the Jewish National Council this morning, President Isaac Ben Zvi declared that political aims would not be attained by spilling the blood of innocents. Moshe Shertok, head of the Jewish Agency’s political department, reported on political activities in London and urged that the fight against British policy in Palestine be carried on with measures assuring the sympathy of friends and strengthening the justice of the Jewish stand.

David Ben Gurion, chairman of the Palestine Executive of the Jewish Agency, warned in a statement published in the Hebrew press that the “killing of innocent Arabs and Jews only aide our enemies.”

“We must not defile our struggle,” he said, “by unspeakable aberrations such as demented miscreants have been guilty of at Biraddas, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa. The killing of innocent Arabs and Jews only aids our enemies. It is no accident that all the despicable, foul acts undermining the resistance to the White Paper has been carried out by a small, barren handful which has never been able to share in Zionist activities.”

Summoned by the military commander of the Haifa district following yesterday’s blast, Haifa Jewish leaders voiced the Jewish community’s disgust with terrorism which they said was at “complete variance with Jewish policy.” They emphasized, however, that there was no proof that Jews had been guilty of the bombing.

Eight Arab terrorists were killed and another captured late yesterday in an engagement with British troops atop Mt. Temptation, near Jericho. Havas News Agency reported that British troops seized 22 rifles, one revolver and a quantity of ammunition, while another cache of guns and bullets was discovered with an unfinished subterranean mine in the Jewish colony at Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv.