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Chief Rabbis Plead for Restraint As Violence Continues; Bomb Wounds 11 Arabs

July 2, 1939
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Chief Rabbis Isaac Herzog and Ben-Zion Uziel issued a manifesto to the Palestine Jewish Community today pleading "in the names of God, the Torah and Jewish traditions of justice and humanity" not to avenge Arab terrorism by the shedding innocent blood. The manifesto said violence was "defiling the Jewish work of reconstruction and national regeneration."

The appeal came as eleven Arabs were wounded in the bombing of an Arab cafe near Spinney’s, British provisioners, and another Arab was shot dead in the Mea Shearim quarter of the city.

The Jerusalem military commander immediately imposed retaliatory measures, ordering all Jewish cafes in the city closed at eight o’clock nightly until further notice and banned Jewish traffic to and from Jerusalem until six o’clock Sunday evening. The road curfew blocked the transportation of milk and perishable foods from Jewish colonies.

Police continued to round up extremist Zionist-Revisionists in connection with the violence aimed against Arabs. The entire Betar (militant Revisionist body) division at Hashon -le-Zion, numbering 46 men and seven girls, was rounded up and committed to the Government concentration camp at Sarafand. Military and police searches in the vicinity of Rehovoth resulted in the arrest of 74 Jewish immigrants charged with entering the country illegally.

A district court, meanwhile, meted out a six-month prison term to Max Seligman, Tel Aviv lawyer, after he had been found guilty of conspiracy to smuggle Jews into Palestine-Seligman was freed on $2,500 bail pending appeal to the Supreme Court. He was convicted on three counts charging conspiracy and acquitted of 18 counts charging bribery and corruption. In his defense, Seligman charged that the prosecution had unfairly brought political issues into the trial. A co-defendant, British Police Inspector Harry Goddard, was earlier sentenced to two years on probation under a $1,000 bond.

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