About six hundred athletic Jewish youths have enrolled in a volunteer corps to prevent Arabs from Houran, Syria, from coming across the borders into Palestine to work. This is a counter-move against the Arab groups formed recently to trap Jewish illegal immigrants.
The intention is to have some eight hundred young Jews encamped in four sections of two hundred each along certain key-point places on the north eastern frontiers. The task of these young men will be to watch for “illegal” Arab immigrants in their sectors, and to hand over suspects to the police.
Most of the young men are trained to the highest point of physical resistance, and say they are not afraid of consequences of their mission, although they realize it will result in personal encounters with the would-be Arab immigrants.
Most of the volunteers belong to the Maccabee, Socialist or Revisionist youth – training organizations.
Meanwhile, the labor dearth continues in Jerusalem, and two large new government buildings, the general post office and the government printing works, are being erected without Jewish labor. Many of the laborers are, however, the cheaply-paid Hauranese Arabs. So great has their migration into Palestine become that Damascus Arab newspapermen write that whole villages in the Hauran province of Syria are being emptied of their male adults and only the women and children remain.
In Palestine, the man-hunt for illegal immigrants continues unabated, and many are sentenced to imprisonment and recommended for deportation. But the majority of these are Jews, and the authorities seem to be taking few measures against the thousands of Hauranese, Transjordanians, and Egyptians who are working here.
While bail, even in large amounts, is being refused the unfortunate Jewish newcomers, the Hauranese tribesmen when caught are allowed to go out on minor amounts, ten and fifteen pounds, and many of them skip bail and forfeit the bonds, which they consider a premium for the high wages they earn here.
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.
