Israel Charges British Helped Fan Arab Exodus Panic

TEl Aviv, (JPS) The panicky mass flight of Arab refugees from Israel in the early days of the Palestine war was encouraged and directly aided by the British who today are crying bitterly for aid to "displaced" Arabs and demand that Israel take over the burden from its enemies by readmitting them, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Office charged here.

The tens of thousands of Arabs who fled from Haifa after a battle in which only 200 Jewish soldiers participated, were practically moved out of the country by the British who provided them with vehicles and other facilities. The flight was an attempt by Ara leaders and British propagandists to "prove" that Jews and Arabs cannot live together.

Those efforts were aided and abetted by the powers interested in the success of Arab aggression in Palestine, he said. Had there been no Arab aggression, the Arabs of Palestine would at this moment be living in their homes at peace with their Jewish neighbors.