Echoes

World Jewry has long worried about what might happen to the 700,000 Jews who live in Arab lands in North Africa and the Middle East, when open warfare broke out in Palestine. Last week a grisly reminder of the danger came out of French Morocco. There, for the first time since the proclamation of Israel,* Arabs massacred Jews outside of Palestine.

Angry Wind. At the little frontier town of Oudjda, on the edge of the eastern Moroccan desert, anti-Jewish rumors had been sweeping through the bazaars as angrily as wind-whipped sand from the desert. Young Jews, whispered the Moslems, were slipping across the frontier at night to Israeli recruiting bureaus. Another rumor: a Jewish football club from Casablanca was collecting money in Oudjda for Israel's army. Jews spread counter-alarms about the Arabs, and tension rose.

One morning last week, a Moslem Arab and a Jewish cobbler fell into violent argument in Oudjda's main street. The Jew stabbed the Arab with a pair of scissors. The Arab fell to the ground yelling for vengeance. At once mobs of Arab men & women, armed with clubs and knives, flung themselves on Jews and Jewish shops. In half an hour five were killed (including a Frenchman), 30 wounded; 150 houses and shops were sacked or destroyed.

That night, in the mining town of Djerada to the south, another quarrel between an Arab and a Jewish candy vendor grew into an even bloodier riot. Arabs chased a Jew down a blind alley and hacked him to pieces. Others were clubbed or kicked to death. Then Arabs set fire to the Jewish quarters. Forty Jews, including ten children, were killed; more than 60 were wounded.

Anxious Greeting. Back in Oudjda the local Pasha, 4O-year-old Si Mohamed el Hadjoui, publicly rebuked the Arab extremists for their "irresponsible acts." Later, as the Pasha entered a mosque for evening prayers, a fanatic Moslem stabbed him three times. Arabs joined Jews in stoning his assassin to death. Meanwhile the spark of racial hatred flared in Tripoli, where Arabs killed twelve Jews in another riot.

In fear of such outbreaks or oppressive government measures, Jewish colonies in Egypt have been donating money to the government as anxious proof of their opposition to Zionism. Last week the Egyptian government announced that Alexandria's Jews had contributed $80,000, Cairo's $160,000, to the Egyptian "Soldiers' Welfare Fund." With the bundle of checks came a message: "Greetings to Egypt and her army, and an expression of loyalty to King Farouk."

* After the U.N. partition vote last November, Arabs attacked Jews in the British Protectorate of Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea. Deaths: 75 Jews, 34 Arabs.

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