Scotland Yard is giving serious consideration to the possibility that not Arabs but their local sympathizers were responsible for the bomb blast at the Zim Lines office here last week and a recent rash of fire-bombings at department stores, shops and other premises owned by Jews or Israelis.
Proponents of that theory say it was not likely that Arabs could enter a Jewish office without being identified. It was learned yesterday that detectives have questioned 48 young Britons who visited an El Fatah training camp in Jordan last month and declared their solidarity with the Arab cause. The visit was arranged by a student organization known as the “Friends of Palestine” whose members include lapsed Conservatives and Maoist Communists. The youngsters were met by detectives on their arrival at London Airport a week ago.
Earlier, Daily Telegraph correspondent John Bulloch had reported from Amman that some Europeans and Britons underwent guerrilla training in the El Fatah camp and said they would aid the Arab cause at home by various methods ranging from organizing boycotts of Jewish businesses to sabotage.
A Scotland Yard spokesman told JTA today that the Zim office explosion was under intensive investigation but so far there were no new developments to report. Detectives were also investigating a fire that damaged a kosher restaurant in Whitechapel in London’s East End but are not certain whether it was arson or just one of hundreds of accidental fires that occur daily in the city. Meanwhile, the chairman of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Alderman Michael Fidler, ridiculed press reports here and abroad that British Jewry was alarmed by the incidents.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
