By April 17, 2008 Read More →

17 Arabs Face Murder Charge, United Press, NY Times, Jan. 25, 1948.

Irgun Zvai LeumiClick here to view the original article.

JERUSALEM, Jan. 24 (UP)—The Palestine Government today charged seventeen Arabs with the murder of forty-two Jews in the Haifa oil refinery riot last Dec. 30. Twenty others were charged with wounding Jews.

The riot broke out after members of Irgun Zvai Leumi rolled a barrel-bomb off a truck and into the Consolidated Refinery, killing six Arabs. Incensed Arab workers turned on Jewish employees. Then both Arab and Jewish workers struck, threatening Palestine with a shortage of oil products.

It was the first severe government action against Arabs since Jewish-Arab clashes flared up after the partition decision in November. Apparently it marks a new government policy—to quell violence in the coming crucial months preceding British withdrawal.

Only two days ago authorities hacked down Arab orange trees at the village of Yazur as a punitive measure for Arab attacks.

No dates or other details on the trial of the thirty-seven Arabs were disclosed. Fifty Jews were wounded in the same riot in which thirty-nine were killed.

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