Jews in Palestine Decree Tax Strike
Decision is Taken in Protest Against New U.K. White Paper
by Joseph M. Levy.
Wireless to The New York Times and The Gazette.Jerusalem, . — Leut. Gen. Robert H. Haining, commander of the British forces in Palestine, invited the heads of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the National Council of Palestine Jewry and the Jewish Communal Council to his headquarters here and warned them that he intended to enforce order and would make no exceptions. General Haining added that, while he appreciated the three years of restraint on the part of Jews, he would suppress violence unflinchingly.
The first move in the Jewish non-co-operation movement against the Government in protest at the new British policy was a decision of the Landlords Association, composed of rural and urban property owners, to refuse to pay taxes, beginning , until the White Paper had been repealed.
Despite all stringent measures taken to prevent illegal immigration into Palestine, 300 Jews succeeded in landing clandestinely near Ashkalon, Southern Palestine, but were apprehended by British troops and taken to Tel Aviv for detention.
In contrast with ’s turbulence in this Holy City, there was quiet today, although considerable tension still exists. As a result of the violence , when a mob of Jews attempted to raid the district commissioner’s office, smashed windows of an English shop and a German restaurant and engaged in fighting in which a British constable was killed and more than 100 Jews were wounded, the military took far greater precautions to prevent further bloodshed.
All Government offices were heavily guarded, various parts of the city were barricaded, and soldiers manned machine guns for action. [The] Only incident was when several Jewish youths penetrated a branch post office in the Jewish quarter of Mahne Yehuda here and broke window panes and furniture.
Three British police sergeants and two constables, who annoyed the Tel Aviv public, it is charged, by wearing helmets marked with the swastika and by shouting “Heil Hitler,” were relieved of duty pending disciplinary proceedings.