Israel’s Arab neighbors are concentrating armed units along the borders of the Jewish state, it was reported here today. However, this development was not interpreted in informed circles here as a sign of impending renewal of hostilities.
Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry issued an order to all male veterans under 49 years of age to enlist in the Army reserve. The same order provides for women veterans under 34 to join the reserve. Lt. Col. Michael Schechter, military commander in Jerusalem, who released the order here, declared that “the entire country must be prepared for a state of emergency.”
Jerusalem will be the first Israel city to register reserve members in the armed forces. Veterans under 30 will receive reserve training for one month while those between 30 and 49 will be trained for two weeks. An additional week of training is scheduled for reserve officers. It is expected that registration for the reserve force will be extended throughout the country before the end of this month.
(Martial law, which has been in effect in Egypt since the beginning of the Palestine war, will be lifted, Premier Mustafa Nahas Pasha, announced in Cairo today. He said that a draft of a law ending martial law will be presented to Parliament immediately.)
A Foreign Office spokesman today discounted reports that Israel is ready to yield certain sections of Jerusalem to Jordan in return for a guarantee of access for Jews to the Wailing Wall in the Arab-held Old City. The reports are unfounded, the spokesman said, adding that too much significance should not be attached to “informal, sporadic contacts” with Jordan.
The last Jordan Arab prisoner of war crossed Israel lines yesterday on the way back to Jordan. A government communique revealed that 150 packages of clothing had been sent by Israel Arabs to Jordan.
Arrangements have been completed for the first official of the Kingdom of Jordan to testify in a court of Israel, it was learned here today. The witness, Shubhi Tukan of Amman, will cross the lines in the Jerusalem area and wil testify in the trial of two Arabs charged with the murder of a Jew named Weiss last year in the village of Rishpon.
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.
