Eye for an Eye for an Eye
At the traditional time (4 a.m.) on the traditional day for executions (Tuesday), the British hanged three Jewish terrorists in the Acre prison. The three had been captured at the same prison twelve weeks before when they had released other terrorists in a costly raid.
Scarcely were the terrorists' bodies buried than British troops began patrolling Zion Square in Jerusalem. The British had heard that the Irgun Zvai Leumi would try to hang, from the square's lone tree, two 20-year-old British sergeants it had captured as hostages.
But the Irgun terrorists had chosen a forest preserve south of the seaside, town of Natanya for their revenge. There, a voice informed Tel Aviv newspapers by telephone, Sergeants Mervyn Paice and Clifford Martin could be found. And there, in a clearing heavy with the stench of death, the searchers found them. Their bloodied, blackened bodies swung to & fro from eucalyptus trees. Their shirts were wrapped around their heads. Through their clothes and flesh were pinned Irgun "communiqués" accusing the sergeants of "anti-Jewish crimes." They had died slowly, by clumsy strangulation.
The terrorists had added a distinctive touch; they had booby-trapped one of their victims. When searchers cut down Martin's body, it touched off a contact mine set by the Irgun. His body was blasted to nothingness, Paice's was mutilated, a British officer was wounded.
The grisly news of the eucalyptus grove quickly spread through a land which had learned to expect an eye for an eye. Panicky Jews prepared to flee from Natanya. British troops grew sullen, angry, dangerous. That night, in Tel Aviv, British soldiers on foot and in armored cars lashed out in an unsoldierly demonstration. They smashed windows, beat Jews, fired Sten guns into a crowded bus. Five Jews were killed, 15 wounded. Next day, at the funeral for the five dead, mourners and police clashed again. The toll: 33 Jews injured. Said one resident of Natanya: "This cancels out the two sergeants."
But no one supposed Palestine's violence would be ended by such mortal arithmetic. Yesterday's hopes and anger were forgotten in today's new fears. Forgotten was the United Nations' inquiry commission. And forgotten, for the moment, were the 4,500 Jews defiantly refusing to leave their ship, Exodus, 1947, in France's sweltering Port-de-Bouc.
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