Holy Land Clashes, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 8, 1947

Seven Jews Die, Many Injured In New Rioting

By the Associated Press

JERUSALEM. Dec. 7—Intermittent knife and gun clashes cost the lives of seven more Jews in Palestine tonight, but an ominous Sunday quiet hung over the rest of the Middle East while the Arab world awaited the decision of its chiefs whether to wage an all-out fight against partition of the Holy Land.

The Arab-Jewish strife raged through its eighth consecutive night in Palestine and, in addition to the fatalities, two dozen other Jews and Arabs were wounded during the disorders. An unofficial count showed that 80 persons have been killed in the past eight days.

As the leaders of the Arab League made plans tonight for convening their session in Cairo tomorrow to make a decision which may set a “D-Day” for a general uprising against the partition decision. British sources here said their intelligence operatives believed the Moslem Brotherhood was responsible for violence against the Jews throughout the Arab world since the United Nations voted partition November 29.

300,000 MEMBERS

The brotherhood, born in Egypt two years ago as the brainchild of 1000-year-old El Azhar University’s faculty, virtual hierarchy of Islam now has spread to a membership estimated at 300,000. According to some official estimates, there are 25,000 members in Palestine, 80,000 in Syria and Lebanon, and the remainder in Egypt.

Arab leaders here and elsewhere in the Middle East, however, discounted the British belief, saying the disorders were “spontaneous expressions of the whole Arab people.”

Meanwhile, Arab leaders in Trans-Jordan telegraphed the Arab higher executive in Jerusalem that Bedouin raiders had ransacked two oil pipeline camps in an outbreak of anti-American terrorism.

Eight American employees of the Iraq Petroleum Company and seven members of the Trans-Jordan pipeline crew were forced to flee from Trans-Jordan, leaving thousands of dollars worth of equipment behind.

A higher executive spokesman said the main raids were in the Mafrac area, north of Amman, Trans-Jordan’s capital, and that it was believed the Americans were flown to Beirut, Syria and Haifa in rescue planes. U. S. consular officials in Jerusalem said they had made a full report to the State Department and were investigating further.

Arab youth organizations opened “enlistment offices” and the Arab secret radio urged them to go to Damascus, Syria, for military training. The Jews said registration of men between 17 and 25 for “security and other essential services” was set for Tuesday.

THE NEW VIOLENCE

New violence included-

One Jew was killed and three wounded by bullets which raked a Jewish bus en route to Tel Aviv from the settlements in the Negeb.

Jews and Arabs exchanged gunfire in the strife-torn area between Jewish Tel Aviv and Arab Jaffa. One Jew was killed and two others wounded. An Arab constable suffered serious gunfire wounds.

Three Jews—including one woman—were killed in Arab attacks on Jewish buses in Ramle and suburban Jerusalem.

A Jewish merchant was killed in the Hacarmel market and for the second day the body of a stabbed Jew was found near the Jaffa mosque.

BOMB IN HAIFA

A bomb tossed in Kamara Square in Haifa injured four Arabs. Elsewhere in the port city one Arab and one Jew were stabbed.

Jewish mobs set fire to Arab houses in Tel Aviv and small fires broke out in neighboring Jaffa.

Amid all this violence Sir Alan Cunningham, the British High Commissioner, conferred with David Ben-Gurion and Hussein Khalidi Jewish and Arab leaders.