A Jewish laborer and an Arab guard were killed and four other Jews wounded today in a new outbreak of disorders which followed announcement of the terms of reference of the new Palestine commission, already beset by threats of an Arab boycott.
The laborer, Chaim David Katz, 29, a member of the Agudath Israel from Hungary, was shot by an Arab sniper perched on an electric pole while working in the quarries at the Giveat Shaul settlement. The guard, Wafik Hussein, was fatally shot while on duty at the Ramleh military airdrome.
Three Jews were injured when a bus from Beit Vegan was fired upon near Beth Hakerem.
A Tel Aviv Jewish policeman, Jacob Klinger, 35, was seriously injured, and another passenger slightly injured when an Egged Company (Jewish) bus was ambushed at Bab al Wad, midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Shots smashed the bus’s carburetor, halting the vehicle. A Jewish passenger seized Klinger’s revolver and staved off an attack by the terrorists. A passing taxicab took the wounded to a hospital in Tel Aviv.
The Jerusalem military court sentenced a Trans Jordanian Arab named Suleiman to death for violation of emergency regulations. Nineteen Arabs carrying ammunition were captured by British forces. Several Jews were arrested in Haifa for refusing to pay their portion of a collective fine imposed on the Jarina quarter, where an Arab notable was murdered last month by Arabs.
An Arab leader indicated Arab groups would boycott the new commission which Britain will send to Palestine to work out a detailed partition scheme.
Moghannem el Moghannam, secretary of the National Defence Party, said the commission’s terms of reference were “vague and indefinite, a clumsy attempt to bluff both Arabs and Jews” and added that a commission whose terms included partition “must inevitably be boycotted by the Arabs.”
Dr. Judah L. Magnes, president of the Hebrew University, who has been active in seeking a solution of Arab-Jewish difficulties not involving partition, said: “I don’t know, but I hope the terms mean the commission is authorized to find a way for an Arab-Jewish understanding.”
While the White Paper was being broadcast over the Government-owned Palestine Broadcasting Service station, the Jewish settlement of Giveat Shaul was heavily fired upon and a Mills bomb exploded in the Jewish Ruchama quarter of Jerusalem. No casualties were reported.
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.
