Jerusalem Under Israel: Starvation and Looting

The Times of JUNE 24 had a despatch, it said: A Lebanese doctor, who has just returned from Jerusalem, said today that the people in the Holy City would begin to starve unless something was done for them immediately, Dr. Usama Khalidi, an associate professor of biochemistry, told a press conference here that the situation was most desperate inside the walled city, but the entire Jordan side was affected. "The people have no work there is no transport in and out of the city, there is no food in : Jerusalem", he said, "Prices are up 50 per cent. People who had 10 dinars are down to two," The doctor said looting was still going on when he and a colleague, Dr. Najib Abu Haydar, left Jerusalem for ‘Amman two days ago. They were telling ordinary people whom they found begging in the streets that there was plenty of food in Amman and were providing five, six or seven buses a pn ic take these people to the River Jordan, from where they crossed into ° ° He estimated that between 3,000 and 3,500 people had been evicted from their homes in the old city. Some 200 families were given three hours to leave their homes in the Moroccan quarter near the Wailing Wall, after which bulldozers moved in and flattened everything. Those living in the Jewish quarter, which he emphasized was not owned by Jews, were given a little longer - 12 hours - to leave, The doctors said they did not know of a single shop which Israel troops had not tried to loot, or a single car they had not tried to drive away. He thought about 70 per cent of shops had been looted, some more completely than others.