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Zionist Actions Committee Parley Postponed; Palestine Jewish Abroad to Register for Service

April 5, 1948
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The Zionist Actions Committee’s emergency session which was slated to open in Tel Aviv today was postponed until Tuesday when it is ex?ted that all the members of the body will have reached the city.

The session’s agenda includes comprehensive reports on the political situation ? the United Nations, in the United States and Britain and the military and political picture in Palestine. The Committee will also consider several major problems ?ing out of the formation of a Provisional Jewish Government. It will have to make final decision on the participation of the Revisionists and the Agudas Israel in ? Provisional Cabinet and Government Council. The session is expected to end ?ter April 16, the date on which the U.N. special session on reconsidering partition will open at Lake Success.

The Jewish National Council today disclosed that it has ordered all Palestinian ?ws of military age who are living abroad to register at local Jewish Agency offices ? military service. It was estimated that there are some 6,000 men in this cate?ry, most of whom are in the United States. It is not known when they will be called ? Palestine to take up arm.

The Jewish Agency met for six hours today, but issued no statement at the confusion of the meetings. It was expected in Jewish circles that the meeting would ply to High Commissioner Sir Alan G. Cunningham who last night appealed to both ?e Arab and Jewish peoples to declare a truce. Pointing out that the British were ? due to remain in the country much longer, Cunningham said that nonetheless he ?shed to see peace for at least that short time, and offered his services to the ?vil and military leaders of both sides to negotiate an armistice.

ARABS REJECT TRUCE APPEAL; JEWS SEEN COOL TO PROPOSAL

While the Agency made no official reply, it is expected that the Jews will not

The Haganah was today still holding the Arab village of Castel, astride the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem main road, west of Jerusalem, which it seized yesterday in an Operation aimed at reclaiming control of the highway from the Arabs, Four hundred Arabs were said to be counterattacking the Jewish, positions in Castel which were taken with the loss of the Jewish lives.

Other engagements, aimed at breaking the Arab stranglehold on the road, are taking place in the vicinity of Hulda where for four days a large convoy bringing food supplies from Tel Aviv has been unsuccessfully attempting to break through a score of roadblocks and nine fields manned by some 3.000 Arabs.

The Jewish Agency denied reports that it was offered assistance by the British to bring supplies to Jerusalem, but had refused them in order to establish the Jews’ ability to protect their oven convoys. An Agency spokesman declared that only after repeated appeals for assistance were disregarded did the Jews throw all their forces into the read battles.

Arab guerrillas completely looted and destroyed installations at the Shimshon Cement Company, near Hartuv. The damage is estimated at $600,000.

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