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 125

125 the utterly unsubstantiated report of cars passing to Jaffa having been systematically stoned from a Jewish lorry -— is carefully recorded. As a result, the impression is created of Jewish complicity in the outbreak which thus appears as a "clash" between two warring parties and not as a one-sided attack such as it actually was. The effect of this manner of presentation must inevitably be to exonerate in some measure the real culprits of the outbreak. In the submission of the Jewish Agency this paragraph of the Report must be described as a complete misrepresentation of the course of the events on that fatal day. Para. 22 (sub-paras. 5—6). 11. The paragraph records that by 2 p.m. on April 19th the situation was in hand, that the police and military re-inforcements were in control, that curfew was imposed and that the Palestine (Defence) Order in Council and the Emergency Regulations made thereunder were immediately brought into force. No feature in the subsequent course of events has given rise to so much criticism against the authorities as the fact that they v/ere unable to prevent the continuance and spread of the outbreak which had occurred on the 19th, and it is noted with regret that the Report fails to explain how, in spite of the measures recorded in this sub-section, the outbreak continued with unabated force on the subsequent three days. Para. 23. 12. The events of these ensuing days are described in the Report as "further serious rioting on the borders between Jaffa and Tel Aviv". This description again is entirely misleading. What in fact occurred was that there were further cases of large crowds of Arabs attacking Jews. It is to be regretted that in the last sentence of para. 23 the bare statement is made that two Arabs and two Jews were killed, allowing it to be inferred that the Jews killed two Arabs and the Arabs killed two Jews. In actual fact the two Jews were killed by Arabs, while the two Arabs were shot by the police whilst they were engaged in the act of murderously attacking the Jews. Similarly, the Jews injured were attacked by Arabs, whilst the Arabs injured suffered as a result of police action. Para. 25. 13. The Emergency Regulations published in thej course of the disturbances are set out in great detail. It is to be regretted, however, that no similar details are given of the very limited use which the authorities saw fit to make of the wide powers which they took in respect of offences other than that of being in possession of firearms. Similarly, while reference is made to the decision to inflict the death penalty or imprisonment for life for shooting at the troops or police, bomb throwing etc., no mention is made of the fact that even in the very few cases where Arabs were brought to trial, for such offences and were found guilty, the authorities