JEWISH ARMY EMERGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26635, 4 December 1947, Page 5

JEWISH ARMY EMERGES

Racial Ferment in Palestine

ARAB ASSAULTS CONTINUE

Rec. 11 p.m. JERUSALEM, Dec. 3. The Haganah announced that by to-night it will have mobilised 10,000 men and women volunteers throughout Palestine to line up with the British troops and police to meet renewed Arab assaults. Reuter’s Jerusalem correspondent says that two companies of the Haganah Army, which emerged to-day from the underground for the first time, were to-night watching over the Jewish Montefiore quarter in Jerusalem. Their arms were sticks and their average age 16 years. British troops and police were accused of deliberate neglect of duty during the rioting in Jerusalem yesterday in a statement by the Haganah. It claimed that the Haganah was principally responsible for dispersing Arab mobs who were attacking Jewish shops. The statement also attacked the Palestine Government’s policy of arresting members of the Haganah during the day “in the execution of their duty.” It said the Administration must either maintain order or hand over the task to those who were willing and able to perform it.

The Jerusalem correspondent of the Associated Press says Arab mobs were reported at dawn to be storming the Jewish quarters inside the old city of Jerusalem. Arab youths, armed with sticks and stones, were attacking Jewish houses. Thousands of Arabs and Jews were reported to be fleeing from the troubled areas. Reuter’s Jerusalem corresponded says Arabs attacked a Jewish cafe in Haifa’s new business centre. A bomb was thrown into the mob and dispersed them. One Arab is believed to have been injured. Arabs attacked Jews riding in a lorry on the Jaffa-Jerusalem road, killed two and seriously wounded another. The Arabs set fire to the lorry and fled when British troops fired shots over their heads. Forty Arabs attacked a party of Jews in another lorry near Safed, in Northern Palestine, and wounded three. A Jewish watchman at a nearby settlement fired on Arabs attacking him and killed one.

Six Jews and two Arabs* were reported killed and 38 Jews and five Arabs wounded during the rioting throughout Palestine.

Arabs attacked the border areas of a Jewish town near Tel-Aviv to-night, reports the Jerusalem correspondent of the Associated Press. Three houses and one business block were set ablaze, and machine-gun fire and explosions were heard. Reuter’s correspondent reports that British police made two baton charges against Arabs stoning Jewish shops in Jaffa. One Jew at Ramleh, who was among Jews who ran the gauntlet of Arab stoning, was killed. Arabs in Lydda stormed the Jewish medical clinic and also the dental clinic. The equipment of the clinics was thrown into the street and the furniture burned..

Haganah fire squads stood by in Zion Square, Jerusalem, to-night in case the Arabs broke out of the curfew which the British authorities clamped down on the Arab quarter after a day of rioting, says Reuter’s Jerusalem correspondent. British troops barricaded British Civil and Military Headquarters at the King David Hotel.

More than 50 Jewish shops were burning at one time during the day. The Jews, in retaliation, fired the biggest Arab-owned cinema, The Rex, but the British and Haganah combined to keep hysterical crowds of Arabs and Jews apart and prevent the Jewish desire for revenge turning the bedlam in Jerusalem into a serious race battle. The correspondent of the Associated Press describes watching the

“ cauldron of mass hysteria ” as both Arabs and Jews gave vent to passionate hatreds and lust for blood. The correspondent says both sides tasted blood, and their thirst is not yet quenched. * The British United Press correspondent, describing the day’s events, says that practically every Jewish shop in the Damascus Gate and Mamillah Road areas was set on fire, or had the windows broken.

The task of the police and troops became complicated early in the afternoon, when a Jewish mob, seeking revenge, tried to reach Zion Square, forcing Haganah for the first time into open operation with the British authorities. When more than 1000 Arabs tried to move on the old walled city the police and troops, with armoured cars, formed a line which the Arabs repeatedly charged. • The British armoured cars charged back at the Arabs. The correspondent es-. timates the damage to Jewish property in rioting at £250.000. Eye witnesses praised the conduct of the British police. They said the police prevented one, of the most serious race riots in Palestine’s' history. ’ A Government spokesman said the police con- ' centrated on keeping the Jews and Arabs apart, thus saving lives. Arabs cursed and taunted British troops who moved Jewish families out of the danger areas. All traffic between Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, and Jaffa has been interrupted. Meanwhile, in Cairo, at least five different groups marched through the streets in anti-partition demonstrations. One crowd, estimated at 10,000, gathered outside King Farouk s Palace shouting: “We want arms. King Farouk, lead us to Palestine.’. Thousands of demonstrators massed around the British Institute Building at Zagazig. hurled lighted torches into it, and fire completed gutted the building. . „ T , , The Egyptian Premier, Nokrashy Pasha, announced that the Government had decided to ban demonstrations against Palestine -partition following to-day’s disorders. Abdul Azza'm Pasha, secretarygeneral of the Arab League, told demonstrators massed outside the league building: “It is the duty of young Arab men to go to Palestine and fight. The Arabs conquered the Tartars and Crusaders. They are r.ow ready to defeat the new enemy. We know our enemies. We will go to them and fight them in a regular armed struggle. You will get an abundance of arms.

The council of A 1 Azliar University which is the world’s largest Moslem university, proclaimed “a world-wide holy war in defence of Arab Palestine.” says the Daily Telegraph’s Cairo correspondent. The council, although not officially attached with the Arab League, is highly respected by all Moslems. The couficil declared a Jehad (holy war) was the unconditional obligation on all Moslems throughout the world. The Baghdad cox-respondent of the Associated Press says mass demonstrations are reported in many parts of 11 The Syrian Parliament voted £220.000 to raise a “striking force ’ to help the Palestine Arabs. Twentyeight deputies immediately volunteered to fight. The Parliament decided not to recognise the United Nations decision. The three-day Syrian sympathy sti-ike has been called off. A committee to work out plans for government of Jerusalem as an international city was announced by Mr Francis B. Sayre, president of the United Nations Trusteeship Council. The members are Australia, Britain, the -United States, France. China, and Mexico. • The omission of the Soviet was noted, but Mr Sayre offered no explanation. It is assumed that Russia was not appointed because she is boycotting the Trusteeship Council.