The Palestine Struggle: Arabs Declare Jews Retreating at Jerusalem; Lebanon Seizes American Citizens Aboard Ship, San Francisco Chronicle, May 21, 1948.

Jewish reports said Arab Legion artillery shelled the Hadassah Hospital and the Hebrew University, strong points held by Jewish troops on Mt. Scopus, on the northeast side of Jerusalem.

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By the United Press
HAIFA, Israel, May 20-Lebanon has seized 4 Americans, three Canadians and 25 other male passengers from the American steamship Marine Carp as “Zionists of military age,” it was disclosed today. All 69 were sent to a concentration camp.

The men were seized in the harbor of Beirut, Lebanon, at pistol point yesterday when the Marine Carp touched there on its way to Haifa, members of the Marine Carp said today on arriving at this chief port of Israel.

The Jewish government announced at Tel Aviv it would protest strongly against “the blatant infringement of international law” by Arab Lebanon.

(In Washington, State Department officials disclosed the United States tried in advance to prevent the Lebanese government from removing U. S. citizens from the vessel.

ENVOY INTERVIEWED

(Officials said they had no knowledge of the seizure yet. But they said that, before the incident, the American Minister in Lebanon intervened with the Lebanese government on behalf of Americans.

(U. S. Minister Lowell C. Pinkerton informed the State Department he advised the Lebanese Foreign Office against any action which “might be taken” against American citizens aboard the ship.

(He told the department there was a possibility that Lebanese authorities would remove Jews of military age en route to Palestine, irrespective of their nationality.

(Pinkerton said he sent a U. S. official aboard the ship yesterday while it was being searched by Lebanese authorities.)

In addition to the Americans and Canadians, those seized by gun wielding Lebanese were 23 Palestinians, one Mexican and one Pole. Fifty-one other passengers, mostly women and children, were allowed to continue to Haifa.

Crew members said the Lebanese went aboard in the early afternoon, when the ship first arrived, to examine passports and personal baggage. They found two or three pistols.

BAGGAGE SEARCHED

The Lebanese then left and went back in greater numbers a few hours later, informants said. Moving through the entire ship, they ordered passengers to open their baggage “within two or three minutes,” it was said.

Those who failed to do so had their baggage smashed open with axes, it was asserted.

Informants said the Lebanese then used the ship’s loud speaker to summon all passengers. Young men whose passports showed their destination to be Palestine were ordered to one side and told to collect their belongings and go ashore.

Crew members said police ignored the vigorous protests of Captain H. E. Snow, New York city, the Marine Carp’s master, and other officers.

Some of those ordered ashore tried to resist, informants said, but were confronted with pointed pistols.

They said the men seized were mostly young and that the Lebanese suspected they were all going to fight in the Jewish cause.

LEBANESE COMMUNIQUE

The Lebanese government issued the following communique-

“The Marine Carp arrived at Beirut yesterday carrying 69 Zionists of military age of different nationalities and who were joining Zionist groups in Palestine to disturb the peace of the Holy Land.

“As these endanger the security of the armies that intervened in Palestine to restore peace and order, the Lebanese military brought them ashore, finding arms and radio transmitting sets in their possession and they were consequently put in concentration.”

(The Marine Carp is operated by the American Export Lines as agents for the U. S. Maritime Commission.

(It is State Department policy not to issue passports to American citizens if it is known they are going to Palestine to fight. A few passports for Palestine have been issued. Officials in Washington emphasized they did not know how many American citizens were aboard the ship or whether they had valid passports.

(In New York, the Americans for Haganah said the only Jews they knew aboard the steamer Marine Carp were Palestinian students returning to their homes after periods of study in the United States.)

 

Arab Legion Still Pounding Jews With Shells; Planes Of Israel in First Attack

By the United Press

TEL AVIV, Israel, May 20-The Jewish air force in its first offensive operation bombed Arab troop positions near the Sea of Galilee today.

While this air attack was being made in the north, Jewish forces in Jerusalem were being forced to retreat, according to an Arab Legion communique.

The Israel Army’s air force attacked the Arabs near Samakh, on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee, which had fallen to Irag and Lebanese troops.

“We attacked military targets and all planes returned to their bases safely,” an army communique said.

The communique noted briefly that fighting continued in Jerusalem after the entry of reinforcements of King Abdullah’s Trans-Jordan Arab Legion.

SEVERE FIGHTING

It was reported late today that the Legionnaires were pressing their attack in the old city area from the Armenian and Muslem quarters and that severe fighting was in progress.

(A Trans-Jordan war communique said Jewish forces were retreating in Jerusalem before the Arab Legion.

(In the Jewish quarter of the old walled city area, remaining Jewish resistance posts are being mopped up, the communique said.

(It was asserted the Jews are losing heavily “in their retreat before the advance of the Arab Legion.”

(Legion artillery continued its heavy shelling of Jewish-held quarters of Jerusalem and made a direct hit on an arms and explosives dump in a police depot, it was asserted. Heavy explosions were heard after the hit, the communique said.

(The Arab artillery also continued shelling of a Jewish concentration in the Sanhedriya quarter of Jerusalem, at the northwest corner of the city, to head off a Jewish counterattack. Heavy losses were inflicted on Jewish troops, the communique said, and the concentration was dispersed.

(Artillery also shelled a Jewish convoy approaching Jerusalem from the west along the highway to Tel Aviv. it was said.)

HOSPITAL SHELLED

Jewish reports said Arab Legion artillery shelled the Hadassah Hospital and the Hebrew University, strong points held by Jewish troops on Mt. Scopus, on the northeast side of Jerusalem.

The bombardment kept up all night, these advice’s said. The ferocity of the Arab attack was emphasized.

Fighting was reported still in progress also in the northern part of Jerusalem, with the Arabs attacking. In this sector the Arabs had taken the Sheikh Jarrah suburb.

There were unconfirmed reports that about 40,000 Arab irregular and regular troops faced about 4000 Jews in the Jerusalem fighting, with both sides pouring in reinforcements. It was said the Jews were getting in through the Zion Gate on the south side of the walled city area, while the Arabs came in from the east and north sides.

There has been no previous indication, however, that the Arabs have anywhere near that number of men.

(The entire first-line strength of the Trans-Jordan Arab Legion, whose men are fighting for Jerusalem, is about 8000. Many Legionnaires are north of Jerusalem and some are south.)

POSSIBLE EVACUATION

The unconfirmed reports said also that the Jews might evacuate the old city area and concentrate on the western and northern sides.

It was admitted the Arabs now had the initiative in the Mt. Scopus sector and that if they got the Hadassah Hospital on top of it they would dominate the old city.

However, the Jews claim control of virtually all the new city part of Jerusalem.

Tel Aviv’s antiaircraft guns fought off two air raids today with the most effective barrage to date. Three persons were wounded in the raids and some damage was done in the eastern outskirts.

Today’s communique said that in far southern Palestine Arab tanks, armored cars and planes bombarded two Jordan river valley settlements named Degania A and Degania.

Jewish forces occupied the village of Safiria, three miles north of the previously captured Sarafand army camp in the Ramle area southeast of Tel Aviv.

Troops of the Irgun Zvai Leumi organization continued to attack Ramleh, a key town on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road, and opened an operation against Wilhelma, to the north.

NIGHT RAID

Reports from Haifa said Jewish troops made a night raid on a big Syrian camp near Lake Hule.

It was indicated that in this raid, in the northeast corner of Palestine, the Jewish troops penetrated Syrian territory. The Jewish troops set off explosions and fires, reports said, and several tanks and other vehicles were wrecked.

Jewish troops have entered both Syria and Lebanon several times in recent days in lightning raids, usually to destroy bridges.

(Associated Press reported Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion has decreed a state of emergency in Israel, empowering each government minister to issue regulations necessary for the security of the new Jewish state.

(Ben-Gurion read the decree at Wednesday night’s session of the provisional Parliament. Parliament approved legislation authorizing the government to organize land, sea and air forces. The law created a legal basis for transforming Haganah, the Jewish militia, into the official regular army.)