Hailing the vindication of Abraham Stavsky by the Palestine Court of Appeals and the clearing of all three defendants originally accused of the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, Jacob de Haas, veteran Zionist leader, biographer of Herzl and Brandeis, and head of the American Stavsky defense committee yesterday announced that he would shortly sponsor the creation of a committee to deal with the issues arising out of the case.
Mr. de Haas declared it was essential to change the extraordinary and dangerous methods employed by the Palestine police and courts in handling the case; find the real murderer of Dr. Arlosoroff, and end factional feeling in Palestine by “pursuing the truth to the very end.”
While he disclaimed speaking in the name of the Stavsky defense committee, Mr. de Haas declared: “For myself I shall at an early date invite those who are willing to join me in the creation of a new committee to deal as far as possible with the matter arising out of this case.
“The first and foremost of these considerations is the revision of the procedure in the investigation and magistrates courts in Palestine. If those who were interested in proving that Stavsky et al were guilty of committing a political crime had contented themselves with supporting Mrs. Arlosoroff’s first explanation that it was a vulgar and banal sexual crime our attention would never have been directed to the extraordinary and dangerous methods employed in this court.
“As a layman it appeals to me that unless this procedure is wholesomely revised any one in Palestine can be detained in prison, mentally tortured for months on a nightmarish collection of suspicions supported by #o-called trackers’ reports which even the hardened author of a ten-cent detective story would blush to use.
“It is essential that life in Palestine become normal, and that differences in the Zionist organization assume their natural ideological or practical character. The only way to bring this about is to pursue the truth to the bitter end.”
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.
