Day 69 of 599 of מלחמת העצמאות MILḤEMET HAʾAẒMAʾUT (War of Independence)

Isa Nakhleh's signed statement challenged the UN's authority, alleged coercion of delegations and declared resistance to establishing the proposed state. The full study, The Arab Higher Committee reaffirmed its rejection of a state for יהודים YEHUDIM., quotes its own English text and distinguishes its legal argument, political program and allegations about the vote.¹

Its paragraph about wiping out men, women and children refers to Arabs whom it says would resist partition. Reversing that pronoun into a call to exterminate יהודים YEHUDIM would falsify the source. The statement's actual antizionist rejection of a state for עם ישראל AM YISRAʾEL is explicit and requires no invented quotation.

Arthur Lourie signed the Agency's 6 February covering letter transmitting a memorandum of הוועד הלאומי HAʾVAʾAD HAʾLEUMI. The memorandum described danger to medical staff, students and ordinary travelers, disrupted services and difficulty supplying the Old City. It also reported obstruction of access to sacred places and burial, showing that physical safety, communal continuity and sacred obligations were inseparable concerns.²

These are contemporary communal allegations and a formal appeal, not an independently audited incident register. The memorandum's cumulative casualties and estimates of people at risk should not become a new daily count.

The appeal sought action within the international arrangements contemplated for the city, including preparation for special policing. It did not demand that the whole city immediately enter the proposed state for יהודים YEHUDIM. The institutions were asking the international bodies responsible for the plan to help protect residents during the transition, rather than treating promised future administration as present security.³

JTA's bulletin also reported the commission's receipt of information on earlier organized armed incursions and an appeal from the community council in חיפה HAIFA concerning the bus shooting. That appeal belongs with Arab Legion troops fired on buses carrying יהודים YEHUDIM.. The reported three incursions cover a wider period; they are not three new crossings on 6 February.⁴

This is Day 69 of the 599-day civil-date series: 1948-02-06. Its public Ivrit route is 5708-11-26; after local sunset the adjacent Hebrew route is 5708-11-27.⁵

Nakhleh's statement and Lourie's covering letter are both explicitly dated 6 February. The former's 16 February issue date is later circulation. The attached city memorandum includes earlier incidents and cumulative claims through January, so forwarding it does not redate those events. The JTA bulletin anchors further reportage about previous crossings and the bus shooting. Exact local sunset boundaries are not supplied.^{6 7}

• Why must accurate interpretation preserve whom a hostile text’s pronouns describe?
• What did the security appeal reveal about the connection between bodily safety and communal obligations?