“davar’s” Editor Says Paper Standing for Social Justice Fined, Inciters Go Unscathed

A charge that it is not a coincidence that “while the newspapers engaged in inciting to bloodshed and spreading hatred between peoples can continue their work practically unhindered and escaping with a mere warning” that a “paper which stands for social justice and peace between peoples is given the most drastic punishment” was made here today by Berl Katzenelson, editor of the “Davar,” which has been fined $400 for contempt of court in a case arising from the paper’s accusations against the Palestine courts in connection with the Macleff and Hinkis cases.

Mr. Katzenelson said that the $400 fine levied on his paper “is a very heavy one for a Palestine paper. The ‘Davar’ dared to stress the fact known throughout the country first, of a complete failure of the police to trace murderers and looters and secondly, the way in which witnesses are prepared and examined create conditions which in themselves must result in a perverse verdict. The ‘Davar’ dared to point out that on every occation when a British official had been affected the police knew how to take energetic measures the very same day and the guilty ones were immediately found and sentenced with the utmost severity. Yet when whole Jewish families, including women and children, are murdered, the murderers are never found and when herds of cattle belonging to Jewish farmers are looted the loot is never traced.”

Mr. Katzenelson also indicated that the “Davar,” being the only labor paper in the Near East, was being subjected to legal and administrative repression. “The more moral the influence and political weight of the paper the more powerful have become the attacks on it. The ‘Davar’ had to fight not only for the protection of the worker, Jew or Arab, but also for law and order in the country. It was necessary to point out disorder, police negligence, the corruption in the feudal municipalities and the reactionary aims in certain official circles. As a result the number of the paper’s enemies increased.”