BRITISH MOVE TO END PALESTINE DISORDERS

Chronicle (Levin), 1 July 1946, Page 8

BRITISH MOVE TO END PALESTINE DISORDERS

. Press Assn

S By Tei&graph

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r Received Monday, 10.40 a.m. JERUSALEM, June 30. A Government statement says that 2000 Jews were rounded up in country-wide operations yesterday^ and have been held for investigation. The first phase of the operations to "restore law and order" is pow virtually complete. Seaches are still progressing* and all is quiet at present. The.censorship on outgoing cables has noW ceased.

Rabbi Jehuda Fishman, acting chairman of the Jewish Agency executive, who was arrested yesterday, is hunger striking. Rabbi Fishman and other Jewish Agency'chiefs are at Latrun Detention Camp. The Mayor of Tel Aviv, Lsrael Rockach, and a number of unarrested Jewish eommunity leaders, to-day attended a conference under the chairmanship of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, at his country house. Later these Jewish leaders issued a statement urging the Jewish community to await the decisions of the Jewish National Council meeting in Jerusalem to-morrow. The Jewish resistance movement's underground radio, "Voice of lsrael," said to-night. "Britain has declared war on the Jewish community, and we will return it." Jamming had drowned the majority of today's broadcasts by the secret radio, but apparently to-night's snap broadcast. caught the authorities napping. Cables are reported to have been sent by unarrested Jewish leaders to the Jewish Agency executive abroad, urging them to come to Palestine immedf ately.

Groups of about fifty gathered in Tel Aviv, near the buildings searched by the British yesterday, listening to informal projest speeches. A sign put up opposite the Jewish Agenpy building says in Hebrew, "Victory of the British Nazis." The eliief secretary of the Palestiue Government, Sir Jolm Shaw, said ihe large scale operations vci e authorised in an effort to end Ihe state of anarchy existing m Palestine and aimed at enahling law abiding citizens to pursue their normal avoeations without Tear of kidnapping, murder or hiowing up.

A eom]>lete hlack out covering 1 all commimications from Palestine • to the outside world, was main-i tained l)etween 4 a.m. and 10 a.m.! today. The censorship was reimposed on outgoing messages. j Reuter's eorrespondent at Jerusalem reports tliat those arrestcd induded the actiug chairman of Ihe Jewish Agency ' executive, Rabbi Jehuda Fishmanj a nieniber of the executive, Isaac Greenbauin; the head of the Jewish Agency s political department, Mosne Hhertok; and the Agency 's Canadian born legal adviser, Dr. Bernhard .Toseph. The arrests at Hoifa included the deputy chairman of the Jewish community, Djivifl Barrayhai.

•The Kxchange- Telegraph's cor.v.es pondont at Jerusalem states scouting aircraft were still flying over Jerusalieni seven hours after the curfew was imposed at 4 a.m. More and more streets in Jerusalem are cordoned oll as the search goes on. Strong forces surrounded Jewish Agency offices and it is difiicult in Jerusalem to pass aloug the streets whieh are guarded by Britisli military police at every small intersection. Ilaifa streets are guarded by troops and barbed wire has been thrown across some streets. Jewish otlices and the homes of oiiicials in Tel Aviv were also searched. Tt is oHiciallv announcod that 10!)() persons are so far detained. An oflicial statement issued soon after niidday said operations were proc.eeding aceonl ing to plan. British sappers forced an. entry into Hapoal Bank and the Women 's Zionist Organisation buildings with explosives but the damage was not serious.

At the Noar Oved settlement south of Tel Aviv, three Jewish settlers who attempted to brcak the eordon were seriously wounded. Forty Jewish settlers were detained after British troops searched Mishmar Hasharon settlement on the coastal plain between Tel Aviv and Haifa. Jewish youth s erected road bloclcs in the Rehovoth area and when troops removed the blocks the Jews threw up more.

The Exchange Telegraph's correspondeht reports that police and Government officials were called from their heds at 3.30 a.m. to participate in the raid on the Jewish Agency. Breti carriers and barbed wire hlocked all roads while the Agency was surrounded. Only the caretaker was on the premises when the troops and police hroke ih. The troops quickly took up positions inside the fort-like huilding while the police opened all desks, drawers, cuphoards and safes and tapped the walls for secret rooms. The eorrespondent adds that ap prehefisioh rhas gripped the Holyland. Precautions are heing taken and all troops confined to harracks except the heavily armed Uliits oii dtity.