Arab strikes against the proposed partition of Palestine spread today as Britain’s Partition Commission continued its tour of the country.
Despite Government counter-measures, Jerusalem and Hebron were affected by the strikes, with half of the shops in Jerusalem’s Old City quarter and nearby streets shuttered. Others closed because of picketing and reopened when police arrived. Armenian shopkeepers, fearing violence, closed their establishments.
In Tel Aviv, a 70-year-old Jewish shopkeeper, J. Pevsner, was seriously injured by an Arab who attacked him with an iron bar as he was opening his store on Herzl Street. Jews who were passing captured the attacker. A large band of Arabs attacked the Kadoorie School on Mount Tabor, setting fire to hay fields. A Jewish bus driver named Schachter and Hands Lazar, secretary of the Naharia local council, Arrested Saturday for firing in self-defense during a stoning attack on the bus, were released on $2,250 bail each.
Reports from Baghdad said that customs officials had discovered a large quantity of arms and more than 50,000 rounds of ammunition, reportedly destined for Arab bands in Palestine. Simultaneously, a large transport for the Palestine Arabs was seized by Lebanese gendarmerie.
An Arab source reported that engineers of the Iraq Petroleum Company had gone to Beirut, Syria, to divert to Tripoli the oil from the Mosul fields passing through Palestine pipelines to Haifa in view of incessant sabotage.
The Partition Commission visited the municipal offices in Jaffa and the District Commissioner, who presented a memorandum on the southern district. This afternoon the commission visited the Tel Aviv port, city hall and various institutions. In visiting City Hall, the commissioners asked about Tel Aviv’s development since 1920, and the number of Arab residents. They displayed particular interest in relations with Jaffa, and also the suburbs and problems of transfer of goods from Jaffa harbor to Tel Aviv and vice versa.
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