Windows Smashed, Bottles Thrown Israeli Anti-communists Demonstrate at Opening of Pro-moscow Convent

Several hundred anti-Communists demonstrated violently at the opening of the convention of the pro-Moscow Rakah Communist Party in Jaffa last night. Strong detachments of police kept them from breaking into the hall but window panes were smashed and doors were torn from their hinges. No arrests were reported.

The demonstrators were identified as members of the Jewish Defense League and “Dov,” an extremist group which fights “traitors.” They were joined by groups of recent immigrants from the Soviet Union and other anti-Communist elements. They carried huge posters reading “Freedom for Jews,” “Let My People Go” and “Rakah are Nazis.” They hurled bottles and invectives at delegates and guests arriving at the hall. The latter included representatives of the Communist parties of Russia, East Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

Rakah party secretary Meir Wilner addressed the opening of the convention to the sound of shouts and breaking glass outside. He reiterated his party’s demands that Israel return all of the Arab territories captured in the Six-Day War which, according to Wilner, was initiated by “American imperialism.” He chastized the Israel government for exerting pressure on Lebanon to oust terrorists from its territory.

The guests from abroad received loud applause. Greetings were read from the Palestinian Communist Party and the Communist parties of Jordan, Iraq and Algeria. The three-man Russian delegation includes a Jew, Alexander Slomoniwitz Gringhause, deputy editor of Moscovskaya Pravda. Asked later by newsmen how he felt as a Jew to be visiting Israel, Gringhause replied that nationality was secondary to him. He claimed there was no Jewish problem in the Soviet Union and accused the Western press of lying when they wrote about one.