Political report of the Executive of the Jewish Agency submitted to the ... Zionist Congress and the ... session of the Council of the Jewish Agency · 1937-08-01 · 8.1937 · p. Seite 107

107 about 2%. In as much as sections of the Transjordan Frontier Force are stationed permanently in Palestine, the regulation requiring candidates for enlistment into the Transjordan Frontier Force to know Arabic cannot but be regarded as a measure of discrimination against the Jews and as an infringement of Article 22 of the Mandate which guarantees the equality of Hebrew and Arabic as official languages. 5. The Jewish Agency considers that there is need for a separate Palestine Frontier Force to assume control of the frontiers of Palestine which have hitherto remained unguarded. Such a Force should, in its submission, consist of 50% British Police, 25% Jews and 25% Arabs. A section of the British personnel of the Force might be stationed inside the country and serve as striking units in aid of the Palestine Police Force. 6. The Jewish Agency further considers necessary the retention on a permanent basis of an adequate Jewish auxiliary Police Force for the protection of Jewish settlements and town quarters. 7. The Jewish Agency desires to call special attention to the violent incitement carried on by the Arab press and vO the inadequacy of the Government measures in dealing with it. It considers necessary the introduction of the punishment of imprisonment for press incitement and would urge that racial slander and abuse in the press and in print generally should be made punishable. XI. THE DISTURBANCES OF 1936 1. A lamentable lack of preparedness on the part of Government was evident when the riots broke out in April last. Although there had been indications that trouble might be expected, no preventive or preparatory measures were taken. The number of police available to handle the situation which developed in Jaffa on the morning of April 19th was insufficient; they were moreover unarmed or inadequately armed. The police failed to take sufficiently energetic steps at the outset to put down the disorders, with the result that they developed and spread. The impression was allowed to arise that Government, would not use firearms to suppress the disorders. Had the situation in Jaffa on the morning Of April 19th been handled as firmly as the Jaffa riots of 1933, the disturbances might have ended there and then. 2. When the Arab strike was proclaimed Government took no measures to suppress it or declare it illegal. Although the strike was used as a political weapon for the purpose of forcing the hands of Government by paralysing the economic life and the administration of the country, Government treated it as a lawful matter. This attitude of Government which, according to reports, was voiced by high officials when touring the country, served to