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 121

121 is contained in the section on public security, the impression is throughout conveyed that the outbreak was in essence a conflict between two equally aggressive communities, the Arabs having killed a certain number of Jews and the Jews having killed a certain number of Arabs and both sides having provoked each other in equal measure. The Report utterly fails to convey the essential fact that the attacks were throughout directed by the Arabs against the Jews and that the latter abstained from counter-attack. In the presentation of the casualties, Arab and Jewish killed and wounded are placed in juxtaposition without any indication being given as to who was responsible for these deaths and injuries. The reader is inevitably led to conclude that Jews and Arabs had killed each other, when in actual fact the Jews were all murdered by Arab aggressors, while the Arabs were all killed by the Police or the troops, either in meeting Arab attacks or otherwise in the performance of their duty. Para. 14 (a). 4. In para. 14 (a) reference is made to the discovery of a large quantity of smuggled arms and ammunition from Belgium as having served to foment Arab malaise. It is stated that "all Arabs -— in view of the name of the consignee who was never traced — assumed that these armaments were destined for Palestinian Jewry." It is submitted that the assertion that "all Arabs" had assumed that the consignment was destined for Palestinian Jewry because of the name of the consignee, can hardly be maintained in the light of the circumstances of the incident. The name of the consignee was Kattan, a very common Arab name, but an unusual one among Jews. Para. 19. 5. In Para. 19 it is alleged that the Press of the Jewish community had, just as that of the Arab community, been responsible for fostering tension in the period preceding the Jaffa outbreak. In the submission of the Jewish Agency this assertion misrepresents the true facts. The position actually was that the Arabic press carried on a virulent campaign of anti-Jewish incitement calculated to stir up trouble, whilst the Jewish press engaged in no incitement against the Arab community; it did no more than condemn unprovoked attacks upon Jews and criticise the authorities for their failure to prevent such attacks and to check the malicious press agitation. Nor would it appear that a state of excessive tension existed between the two communities as a whole prior to the outbreak of the disturbances,as conveyed in the Report. Para. 20 (sub-para. 2) 6. The accuracy of the account of the statement said to have been made by one of the Arabs who was killed on the road from Kfar Saba to Petach Tikvah is questioned. According to information in the possession of the Jewish Agency the victim of the attack