Jaffa Is Caught in Jewish Vise; Political Disputes Plague Arabs

100 Left of 90,000 Who Inhabited Port Until 2 Weeks Ago

By Daniel De Luce, Associated Press Foreign Correspondent, Jaffa

Jaffa Is Caught in Jewish Vise; Political Disputes Plague Arabs — Evening Star, 9 May 1948 — Evening Star · Washington, District of Columbia · 9 May 1948

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Transcribed from the clipping

“JAFFA, Palestine, May 8.—Jaffa, the largest Arab city in Palestine a few days ago, now is a forsaken hostage of the Jewish State. If it were not for Jewish tanks and artillery—all due to leave next Saturday—a corporal’s guard of Jews could march through Jaffa today without firing a shot. Sandbagged Arab quarters are deserted.

Fewer than 100 Arab civilians are to be seen dazedly wandering in the streets. They are the hungry, impoverished remnants of a population which numbered 90,000 until two weeks ago. The Jews control the territory around Jaffa to a depth of 10 miles. No Arab vehicles can enter or leave the city without passing within close range of Jewish machineguns and mortars.

A few score Arab refugees are boarding two small coastal sailing vessels in the ancient harbors, the last of an Arab exodus unequalled in the modern history of the Holy Land. Along docks, where once Lebanese cedar was brought to build Solomon’s Temple, $10,000,000 worth of foreign imports are under guard of Royal Irish Fusiliers.

They have shot 22 Arab looters in the past two nights… Jaffa’s remaining inhabitants, who now scarcely number 2,000, are on the verge of starvation. At the French hospital on Jaffa Hill Catholic sisters are caring for the sick, wounded and orphans. Nowhere else in the city is there any public relief for victims of the undeclared war.

‘The French nuns have been the only people with guts enough to stay and carry on,’ the Fusiliers’ officer declared. ‘We’ve sent them some food from the warehouses without bothering about paper formalities.’… Jaffa, even more than Haifa, typifies Arab military weakness, unpreparedness and disunity.

British military observers say the battle of Jaffa pitted 2,000 commando-trained Jews of Irgun Zvai Leumi against 250 Iraq volunteers. An internal Arab quarrel developed with Jaffa’s mayor demanding the removal of the Iraq commander. Fawzi Bey al Kaukji, Syrian chieftain of Arab volunteer forces outside Jaffa, ordered the commander to leave.

He did, but his men went with him… The air center itself has been looted. Idling Tommies watched from the control tower, but the field, too, will be an easy prize for the Jews when the British march off next week.”

Context added by this archive

An Associated Press correspondent standing in Jaffa on 8 May 1948, a week before the state was declared and before any Arab army entered. Ninety thousand to a few thousand in two weeks, written down at the time.

The page disagrees with itself and is transcribed as it stands: the line under it says a hundred are left of ninety thousand, the first paragraph says fewer than a hundred are to be seen, and the eighth says the remaining inhabitants scarcely number two thousand.

The subheadings are “Arab Looters Shot,” “Typifies Arab Weakness” and “Easy Prize for Jews.”

Cite this clipping

"Jaffa Is Caught in Jewish Vise; Political Disputes Plague Arabs," Evening Star, 9 May 1948, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1948-084. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1948-084