PALESTINE UNREST

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 198, 19 May 1936, Page 9

PALESTINE UNREST

Wave of Lawlessness Sweeps Country ARABS DEFY LEADERS Strike Directed Against Britain JEWS SHOWING RESTRAINT (Received May 19, 1.5 a.m.) London, May 18. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Jerusalem correspondent says that a wave of lawlessness is sweeping over Palestine. Arab leaders who encouraged the masses to defy authority have now lost control of the situation, and the rank and file are defying both their leaders’ appeal for peaceful resistance anfl the High Commissioner’s stern wanting against violence. The disturbances are the gravest since the war, and special prayers are being offered in Anglican churches. The Jews have so far showed the greatest restraint, despite constant provocation. Arson, bombings, shootings and other outrages are a daily occurrence, and the question of whether Jewish immigration is excessive is now superseded by the more serious problem of maintaining order. It is learned that the Government does not intend to yield to the demand for a reduction in Jewish immigration and the High Commissioner is expected to approve a figure of 4000 a month. Mayor Joins Agitation. The affairs of Jerusalem are paralysed owing to the Mayor’s participation in the agitation, but attempts to call out Government servants have been unsuccessful Nevertheless, ths streets are so dangerous that they have to be escorted by armed transport officers. Prominent citizens and officials prefer not to keep engagements outside the city. The “Morning Post’s” Jerusalem correspondent reports that the road from Jerusalem to Haifa is unsafe. It is strewn with nails and glass and is subject to daily stoning and shooting. Strikers are waylaying peasant women bringing eggs and other produce to the towns and destroying their goods. The peasants are resentful and are sending men armed with bludgeons to protect their womenfolk. A strike of dustmen is a grave menace to health, especially in the old city of Jerusalem, which is most insanitary. The commendable restraint of the Jewish population cannot be too highly praised. An additional battalion of Seaforth Highlanders Is reported to be arriving from Egypt. Hassan Sldky Dejani, the Arab strike leader, emphatically declared that the strike is directed solely against Britain as a mandatory Power working under the League. He added: “Had the Arabs been as strong as Japan, Italy and Germany, they would have wrested their rights from the League. However, their consolation is that the League is collapsing.” Treaty of Equality Wanted. Dejani suggested the conclusion of an Anglo-Arabian treaty of equality. He asserted that the strike would persist until the full Arab demands were met. A Jerusalem cable states that the tenseness of the situation has not decreased. The Cameron Highlanders, headed by pipes and drums playing alternately with a brass band, paraded the city. Troops are widely patrolling streets following last night’s murders of Jews, when an unknown man fired into the audience as he was leaving a cinema in the Jewish quarter after seeing a film entitled “Happy is the Day.” Three persons were killed and two wounded. The funeral of those killed attracted 6000 spectators and was protected by British police wearing steel helmets. Jewish speakers blamed the Government for the bloodshed and declared that the day’s victims were the last they would give. “We shall no longer permit them to kill us,” they declared. The Hebrew Press accuses the Administration of laxity in arresting Arab terrorists.