Police Guard German Palestine Consulates As Hoisting of Swastika Disturbs Palestine Jewry

The hoisting of the Swastika over the German Consulates at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv has greatly disturbed Jewish public feeling here. The Palestine authorities, fearing hostile demonstrations, are guarding the Consulates with British police and detectives.

The hoisting of the Swastika, which is by proclamation of the Nazi Government, raised to equal status with the German National flag, is regarded by Palestine Jewry as a public insult. In Tel Aviv, particularly—100% Jewish city—the public display of this anti-Semitic emblem has aroused the inhabitants of the city. At first, it was rumored that the German Consul at Tel Aviv preferred to resign rather than hoist the Nazi flag. Nevertheless, the Swastika was today raised there together with the Imperial flag, which replaced the Republican emblem.

In a last effort to prevent the raising of the Swastika, and to effect some amelioration in German conditions, a number of prominent Jewish and non-Jewish German citizens in Palestine had cabled to Hindenburg, asking him to take steps for the safety of the Jews, and that he should also intervene to prevent the Swastika, an avowedly anti-Semitic emblem, from being displayed over the German Consulate, an act which was described as a direct insult to Palestine Jewry.

In connection with the protest movement developing throughout the country against the actions of the Hitlerist Government—the boycott of German goods, particularly movies, is mooted.

The effect of the occurrences in Germany is already noticeable here in the increase in the number of German immigrants. Steamers this week landed many Jewish families from Germany, including Oscar Cohn, who was a State Secretary in 1918, and whom the Nazis had threatened.