Evening star., 1947-03-17
BY The Associated Press


Palestine government lifted
martial law today after Is days
of British Army rule. officially
reported imposed to check vio-
lence by the Jewish underground
over sections of the Holy Land
About $4,000 OF Jerusalem's Jews
welcomed the end at noon in a
virtual holiday spirit. They thronged
to the edges of the wire-guarded
military zone an hour beforehand
to await release. Police had combed
their homes for terrorist suspects
during the martial law period.
Martial law had cut OF some
250,000 Jews from the rest of Pales-
tine. The government proclaimed
some success in the hunt for armed
Jewish opponents Of Britains man
date policies, but violence continued
last night.
Joy prevailed also in Tel Aviv.
Thousands Jam Streets.
Thousands of relatives and friends
of the Jews who had been segrega-
ted in Jerusalem jammed the streets
leading to the formerly restricted
area. Before the time for lifting
martial law arrived, troops who had
guarded the area had to stand
shoulder to shoulder to prevent a
premature breakthrough.
Joyous shouting rose to a high
pitch as martial law rules expired
and grinning troops stood aside.
Many soldiers exchanged banter
with the Jews as they climbed
atop the gun carriers and watched
the Jews themselves roll away the
barbed wire that had penned them
in.
Shortly before martial law was
lifted, a Jerusalem military court
sentenced to death Moshe Bara-
sani, 21-year-old Jew, for carry
ing a hand grenade. He had been
arrested March 9 near the Jeru-
salem martial law area.
Barasani told the court that "as
a soldier of the Jewish Army" he
refused to recognize its jurisdic-
ton, demanding that he be treated
as prisoner of war. He read the
Bible while prosecution witnesses
spoke.
He was the fifth Jew condemned
in recent months and was presumed
from his description of himself as
a soldier" to be a member of the
underground Irgun zvai Leumi.
In a communique made public
here and in London, the Palestine
government announced yesterday
that military rule would be lifted
from Jerusalem's Mea Shearin Jew
ish district and from 40 square miles
of coastal plain running inland from
Tel Aviv. 1t asked Jews to "inten-
sify" cooperation with authorities
against underground extremists.
Last night, as if in reply, bomb
damaged the news-conference room
of the Jewish agency here in what
police termed the first recorded
underground attack on that insti-
tuition, official Jewish advisor to the
British. The blast shook up persons
living upstairs, damaged the agency's
travel Office and nearby newspaper
plants and broke windows in the
neighborhood. No casualties were
reported.
Unofficial informants said Irgun
zvai Leumi had perpretrated the
bombing, possibly in answer to "ru-
mors that moderate Jewry now is
tending to cooperate with the Pal
estine government in the fight
against the terrorists."
Three Police Hurt.
Other explosions yesterday were
reported to have injured three mill
tary policemen in a jeep at Tiberias
on the Sea of Galilee and to have
broken the Iraq Petroleum Co.'s
Palestine pipeline at three points.
The Jerusalem section and the
coastal area to the northwest were
put under martial law March 2-the
day after violence that cost 81 lives
at a Jerusalem British officers club
and elsewhere. Since then. several
other killings and gun and bomb at
tacks on British Army installations,
jeeps, trains and pipelines have been
reported.
Though the British had said ear
lier they were holding 78 "terorists,"
a government spokesman told re-
porters 10 known underground lead
ers still were at large and pictures of
the wanted men would be posted.