UN Palestine Commission – Tirat Zvi settlement – Communication from the Jewish Agency for Palestine

UNITED NATIONS PALESTINE COMMISSION

COMMUNICATION RECEIVED FROM THE JEWISH AGENCY

FOR PALESTINE CONCERNING THE TIRAT ZVI SETTLEMENT, PALESTINE

The following communication, concerning an alleged attack by the Arabs on the Tirat Zvi Settlement on February 16, has been received from the Jewish Agency for Palestine.

THE JEWISH AGENCY FOR PALEST1NE
16 East 66th Street
New York, N.Y.

4 March 1948

Hon. Karel Lisicky

Chairman, United Nations Palestine Commission United Nations

Lake Success, New York

Dear Mr. Lisicky:

I beg to bring to the notice of the Commission the following facts which may be found of interest:

1) After the successful repulse of the attack on Tirat Zvi and its sister settlements on February 16th, the Haganah carried out a thorough search of the bodies of the Arab dead which were left on the field of battle. Full identification papers were found on 29 of them, the list of which is now in the possession of the Jewish Agency in New York. Of the 29, 14 were Syrians, 3 were from Iraq, 7 were former members of the Transjordan Arab Legion, one, a former member of the Transjordan Frontier Force and one of the Saudi Arabian Army. Only 3 out of the 29 were ordinary civilian Palestinian Arabs who had volunteered for fighting. One of the Syrians had on him a driver’s license of the Syrian Army and an innoculation certificate dated January 6, 1948, issued by the medical office of the Syrian Army in Damascus. Photostat copies of these documents are in our possession.

2) With reference to my letter of March 2nd, concerning the disarming on February 29th of the Haganah post at Hayotzek Factory and the subsequent murder of eight members of the post by armed Arabs, we are in receipt of a further report from Palestine to the effect that the Hayotzek Factory and another neighbouring Haganah outpost have now been occupied by armed Arabs under cover of British army armoured cars. Both outposts command the approach to the large Jewish suburb of Holon.

Faithfully yours,

/s/ M. Shertok

Moshe Shertok