A crisis was created in the municipality of this city today when the newly-appointed Arab mayor, Dr. Hussein Khaldi, bluntly refused to permit Daniel Auster, Jewish vice-mayor, to share in the work of the municipal government. He went so far as to refuse to assign an office to the Jewish vice-mayor in the municipal building.
The six Jewish councillors immediately adopted a strongly-worded protest which was presented to Dr. Khaldi. Jewish bodies in Jerusalem met and decided to take steps to safeguard the rights of the elected Jewish councillors.
Moshe Shertok, Laborite member of the Jewish Agency Executive, also paid a hurried visit to Dr. Khaldi and attempted to straighten matters out.
ATTITUDE IS SHOCK
Dr. Khaldi’s attitude came as a great shock to the Jewish organizations in Jerusalem. Under the administration of Ragheb Bey Nashashibi, the Jewish councillors were refused the right to participate in communal work and the entire Jewish membership of the municipal council resigned in disgust. Even the Arab members of the council protested that the Nashashibi administration was corrupt.
But Dr. Khaldi came out as an opponent of Nashashibi and defeated him in his own ward in the recent elections. Many Jewish voters, it was said, cast their ballots for Dr. Khaldi, believing he was a progressive and would work with the Jews.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
