21 Killed in Palestine; Ship Arrives, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 29,1947

JERUSALEM, Dec. 28 (AP)-, ending a day in which the Holy Land’s war of hate and bloody reprisals took 21 lives-13 Arabs, seven Jews and a British soldier.

The death toll since the November 29 decision by the United Nations to partition Palestine mounted to 405 in Palestine and 526 for the entire Middle East.

The Jews who arrived tonight aboard the refugee ship will be taken to detention camps on Cyprus. Haganah sources said the ship was named “29th of November” in honor of the day on which the United Nations voted for partition.

APPEAL TO ARABS

At the height of the day’s violence, the Arab local committee in Haifa appealed to Arabs there to cease shooting, but not for pacific reasons. Arabs should conserve their ammunition, the committee said, for use in the outright war, which might begin at any moment, to prevent partition of the Holy Land.

There was no indication that Arabs heeded the appeal for bloodshed and violence raged unchecked.

Three Arabs were killed by Jews who threw grenades into a house on the Jerusalem-Jaffa road. Haganah, the Jewish defense army, said the house had been headquarters for Arab raids on Jewish convoys. The body of an Egyptian Arab was found in a sack in Jerusalem and police said he had been shot through the head.

Haganah sources said the Jewish defense army planned one reprisal attack each day against the Arabs. Today grenade and tommy-gun squads from Haganah attacked Arabs in the Jerusalem suburb of Romema, and eight Arabs and two Jews died in the resultant battle.

The Haganah squads lashed out as thousands of Jews attended funeral services for Hans Beith, Jewish agency youth leader, and seven other Jews killed by Arab snipers.

Sounds of gunfire and explosions punctuated the graveside services for Beith and the other Jewish dead on the Mount of Olives. While thousands of Jews lined the streets for the funeral procession only a handful was permitted to attend the graveside rites.

JEWISH SPLIT

Amidst the violence a split inside the Jewish Agency, the political representative of Palestine Jewry, was brought to a head with the resignation of Dr. Moshe Sneh, former Haganah chief.

Sneh said he resigned from the agency executive because he opposed an agency order to 15,000 Jewish refugees to remain in Black sea ports rather than sail for Palestine. He complained also that the agency was orienting itself with a Western bloc and neglecting the Eastern countries. He said he would lead a new “popular opposition” group.

The Holy Land disorders reached into ancient Acre Prison in Northern Palestine, where a British sergeant was kicked to death by Arab prisoners infuriated over their failure to effect a mass prison break. One Arab was wounded by guards’ gunfire and all but one was recaptured.

In Jerusalem one Jew was stabbed to death near Damascus Gate and inside the Old City a Jewish woman was slain by gunfire. Southwest of Jerusalem a Jewish doctor was shot and killed a short distance from the Beit Safafa Hospital.

Two Jews and one Arab were wounded fatally in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa “no man’s land.”