Arizona Daily Star · Tucson, Arizona · 9 May 1948
CP-1948-106
Jaffa Plum for Jews as Soon As Britain’s Troops Pull Out
Largest Arab City in Palestine Now Completely Surrounded by Jewish Forces; Royal Irish Fusilier Guard Will Leave Saturday
By Daniel De Luce, Jaffa, Palestine
Transcribed from the clipping
“JAFFA, Palestine, May 8.—(AP)—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 British 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 gunposts are deserted.
Less 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… Six warehouses protected by the fusiliers are jammed with everything from Australian butter and English chocolate to American electric refrigerators and German symphonic records.
Where looters have broken in cases of food lay spilled in insane waste, their contents trampled into the dirty pavement. Jaffa’s remaining inhabitants, who now scarcely exceed 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.”
Context added by this archive
The fourth headline for the same dispatch, and the only one that calls a city of ninety thousand people a plum. The subheadings are “Great Arab Exodus,” “Riches in Warehouses” and “Pawn in Negotiations.”
Cite this clipping
"Jaffa Plum for Jews as Soon As Britain’s Troops Pull Out," Arizona Daily Star, 9 May 1948, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1948-106. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1948-106
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More from the 1940s
- Jewish Reprisal Raids On Two Arab Villages Take Toll of 8 LivesThe News Journal · 1 January 1948
- Palestine Blasts Rip Arab OfficesThe New York Times · 5 January 1948
- Jews Blow Up Military Post Of Jaffa ArabsMorning Advocate · 5 January 1948
- Ninety Wounded In Truck Blast At HeadquartersThe Beaumont Enterprise · 5 January 1948
- Jews Dynamite HQ of Arabs’ High CommandDaily News · 5 January 1948
- 15 Arabs Die In Jaffa BlastTerre Haute Tribune · 5 January 1948
- All 334 clippings from the 1940s →
In these collections
Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the news agency that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. A city here is where the newspaper was published, not where the story came from, and on most records it was taken from the masthead.
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