By April 23, 2008 Read More →

Ultimatum by British in Jaffa Fight, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, May 1, 1948.

General Sir Alan Gordon CunninghamClick here to view the original article.

JERUSALEM, April 30 (AP)-Talks between the British and the Jews for a truce in the Jaffa-Tel Aviv Area broke down suddenly tonight when the British presented a five-point ultimatum from the Palestine High Commissioner, General Sir Alan Gordon Cunningham, it was learned authoritatively.

The Ultimatum, timed to expire at noon tomorrow, demands that Irgun Zvai Leumi fighters withdraw from the ground they have seized in Jaffa and that all firing cease on a front from Jaffa south to Beit Dejan. Irgun had said it was determined to keep the positions it has gained.

(United Press reported both Haganah and Irgun rejected Cunning-ham’s ultimatum. British District Commissioner W. V. Fuller then delivered a “final” ultimatum saying that, unless the Jews gave up their advanced positions, the British would bomb them.

HAGANAH STATEMENT

(Late Friday night, the Haganah command said Jewish leaders would try to settle the Jaffa question without fighting British forces. Irgun continued to oppose any concessions to the British.

(Fuller demanded that Irgun abandon a finger-shaped strip of territory pointing into the heart of Jaffa, withdraw from the abandoned police station it captured, and withdraw from a 400-yard-wide strip of no man’s land in the Manshieh section. The British, he said would occupy this strip and fire on either Jews or Arabs who tried to attack.

(He said Irgun could keep the rest of Manshieh.)

British troops will deploy tomorrow along the border between Arab Jaffa and Tel Aviv, an all-Jewish city.

KEY POSITION

Jewish troops moved into Salama, key Arab position in the Jaffa perimeter, without firing a shot after maneuvering the Arabs into a position where they had no choice but to withdraw.

Streets and houses in Salama were deserted when the Jews arrived.

The Arab troops and the 12,000 civilians there had fled down a narrow escape corridor which the Jews purposely had kept open.

So favorable was the Jewish position in the Jaffa area that there were rumors the Arab port city of 95,000 might be virtually surrendered to the Jews under truce conditions.

Fourteen Irgun warriors were killed batting with the British yesterday before a cease-fire was agreed upon. They were buried with military honors today on the last Jewish Passover day.

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