Today, the first anniversary of the Arab attacks on the Jews of Palestine last August, must pass unobserved in accordance with an order issued by Keith Roach, district commissioner for the Southern district today, to representatives of the various Jewish organizations, among them the Agudath Israel.
Processions to the graves where the victims of the riots are buried are forbidden, but individual mourners will be permitted to visit the cemeteries. Memorial services in the synagogues will also be allowed but notices for the services must state specifically the purpose of the assembly.
The Hebrew daily, the “Doar Hayom,” protesting against the order, says, “Now we know that the Jewish National Home is a place where Jews are not allowed to mourn their martyrs because the government forbade the Arabs to demonstrate over the graves of the executed beasts.” This is a reference to the government’s ruling forbidding the Arabs to demonstrate at the graves of the Arabs who were executed for the murder of Jews in the riots of last Summer. “The Jews are forbidden,” the paper continues, “to mourn the saints of Hebron and Safed.”
In the meantime the Arab press is a unit in condemning the reprieve granted last week to Joseph Mizrachi Urphali, only Jew who had remained under the death sentence as a result of the events growing out of the riots. His sentence had been commuted to ten years in prison, and this act by the Executive Council of Palestine is criticized by the Arab press as “demonstrating favoritism toward the Jews.”
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