ISRAEL MAY SEEK DIRECT PEACE TALKS WITH ARABS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22698, 24 July 1948, Page 5

ISRAEL MAY SEEK DIRECT PEACE TALKS WITH ARABS

(N.Z.P.A. —Reuter—Copyright.)

(11.30 a.m.) LONDON, July 23. The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. David Ben-Gurion, said in Tel Aviv that the Jews were preparing to make contact with the Arab States directly, without using the mediator, in order to ban*, about peace in Palestine. The Associated Press correspondent in 'Pel Aviv quotes Mr Ben-Gurion as saying ‘‘only an alliance with the State of Israel will free the Arab peoples from enslavement and exploitation by foreign Powers and only by co-opera-tior. with the Arabs will peace in Israel prevail." An Israel High Command communique cla/ned that Egyptian artillery shelled a Jewish convoy on the road to Negev.

Twenty-thousand Palestine Arab refugees from Nazareth arrived in Lebanon today. They were ordered to remain on the Lebanese frontier and given tents and food.

The Associated Press correspondent in Cairo says the city has been in a state ol emergency since early today. Special police precautions were taken at Alazhar Square, where the Moslems attend prayers at the 1000-year-old mosque.

Dynamiting in Cairo Was Work ef Egyptian 1 srronst

(11.30 a.m.) LONDON, July 3. Egyptian .censorship prevented him disclosing earlier that an Egyptian terrorist planted the explosives which damaged the centre of Cairo on Monday night, says the British United Press correspondent who has just arrived in Cyprus from Cairo.

“Tire Government forced correspondents to accept the official explanation that the explosion was the result of Jewish bombs. What really happened was the Egyptian terrorist parked a ear loaded with dynamite in front of Cairo’s two biggest Jewish-owned deoartment stores.

"The dynamite exploded, killing two people and injuring 17. "Later, there was an intense antiaircraft barrage and the Government claimed that the explosion was the result of a mine dropped from a highflying plane. “This explanation is completely untrue. Correspondents were also forbidden on pain of expulsion to reveal the details of the murder of an American who was killed by an Egyptian mob

JEWS REOPEN HAIFA OIL REFINERY

(10 a.m.) LONDON, July 24. The Israeli Government has reopened the big Haifa oil refinery which is predominantly British-owned, says Reuter’s correspondent in Tel Aviv. . , , Two hundred Jewish workers are reported to have started production from crude oil obtained secretly. Since the pipeline to Haifa is stnl closed, it is presumed that the crude oil came bv ocean tankers. The refinery has been idle since the withdrawal of the British management two months ago. The British Government has protested to the Jewish authorities against ordering the re-opening of the refinery.