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Arab Raiders Kill 2 Jews; One Victim Was Doctor Who Waived Fees from Arabs

July 17, 1939
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Arab raiders killed two Jews, one of them a physician who had gained wide popularity for his free treatment of Arab peasants, in an attack on the colony of Batelem, near Tiberias. The raiders, who ambushed the Jews while they were working in the colony’s fields, were routed by reinforcements early this morning.

The victims were Dr. Joseph Rotfield, 27, and Ephraim Hornstein, 26, a settler. Hornstein came here two months ago from Vienna, where he had been leader of a Zionist pioneer training camp.

A British policeman, Arthur Collinge, died here today of wounds suffered when he attempted to arrest an Arab near Jaffa last Wednesday. Saboteurs cut down a mile and a half of telephone wires between Jaffa and Jerusalem last night. The authorities freed 180 Arab political prisoners in northern Palestine. Two hundred others are expected to be released shortly.

Establishment of a new Jewish colony near Mikve Israel, to be named for Karl Netter, founder of Mikve Israel, has been postponed. The colony, which is to be settled by graduates of the Boys’ Agricultural School at Mikve Israel, was to have been launched today.

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