A warning that Jerusalem “will become the scene of discontent and disorder to the peril both of its religious and its secular peace,” if the United Nations were to remove the full authority of the Israel Government from the Jewish part of the city, was voiced here today by Aubrey S. Eban, Israel’s permanent delegate to the U.N.
Speaking before the U.N. Special Political Committee, which is now discussing the Jerusalem issue, Mr. Eban added that “a hundred thousand embittered and disenfranchised people, stripped of their political freedom and their vital defense, will be plunged into confusion, resentment and fear.” Their deeply-cherished allegiance, he said, will be inevitably “driven underground.”
Reiterating the criticism voiced by Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett against the resolutions on internationalization of Jerusalem, Mr. Eban emphasized that the solution of the Jerusalem problem “lies along the line of demarcation dividing the realm of secular government from the domain of religious interests.” He declared that the Israel Government was convinced that “if the United Nations at this session can take adequate and agreed measures for the protection of the Holy Places, it will have secured the main objectives of the international interests.”
The resolution proposed by Israel for an agreement on protection of the religious sites between the United Nations and the Israel Government adequately accomplished this purpose, Mr. Eban pointed out. “It is not the adoption of resolutions but their implementation which preserves their real validity,” he said. He warned the delegates that in the subcommittee which will draft a single resolution on Jerusalem from the six proposals now before the Special Political Committee, “we shall unceasingly confront the authors of all proposals with the overriding issue of implementation.”
DESCRIBES RESCUE OF BESIEGED JERUSALEM BY ISRAEL
Emphasizing that “never in history has an international status for the Holy City been regarded as an attribute to its holiness,” Mr. Eban stated: “It is a higher and purer act of reverence to save Jerusalem from death and famine than to pronounce eloquent speeches about Jerusalem’s sanctity, while Jerusalem falls into anarchy and chaos.” He stressed the fact that the legal and moral validity of Israel’s existing authority in Jerusalem is “the crux of the besieged and broken city in the battles of 1948.
Replying to accusations made in the Committee that this defense comprised “aggression,” “conquest” and “faits accomplish,” Mr. Eban said: “It is astonishing to hear branded in such incisions terms a process of valiant defense which in the nick of time averted for the people of Jerusalem the worse consequences of international failure. Sublime and illustrious above every other deed that Israel has accomplished in its earliest years is this thoroughly legitimate, patriotic, democratic and deeply-reverent process which has raised the Holy City from dust and ashes and once again established its life upon secure foundations.”
The Israel delegate insisted that the United Nations owed a duty not merely to religious aspirations, but also to legitimate political realities. The United Nations should seek to harmonize the two, and not subject one to the other, he said, adding that the link between Israel and Jewish Jerusalem was now “a firm and indissoluble union.” None of the other proposals now before the Committee could compete with Israel’s proposal in terms of “realism, harmony and undeniable capacity of immediate implementation,” he declared.
SOVIET WANTS PARTITION PLAN IMPLEMENTED; 17-MEMBER BODY ON RESOLUTIONS CHOSEN
Soviet delegate Semyon Tsarapkin, speaking at the Special Political Committee, charged that the Conciliation Commission plan was simply the latest in the two-year-old effort of the “Anglo-American imperialist” powers to prevent the full implementation of the partition plan, which recommended creation of an Arab state and corpus separatum for Jerusalem. Claiming that Britain provoked the aggression of the Arab Legion, which resulted in the division of Jerusalem, the Russian delegate said: “We are now asked to legitimate this seizure.”
The Canadian delegate stated that his country “recognizes the genuine and legitimate desire of the two main groups inhabiting the city to administer their own affairs in the closest possible relation with their respective states.” It also recognized that “if their legitimate aspirations are met, protection of the Holy Places will rest on a firmer and more enduring foundation.” However, he declared that the Commission plan, with possible modifications, contains the formula which best meets such desires without endangering international religious interests.
At its afternoon session, the Special Political Committee formed a subcommittee to consider the various draft proposals that had been presented on Jerusalem. The subcommittee immediately went into session. The 17 members chosen for the subcommittee were: Australia, El Salvador, Ukraine, Israel, Cuba, Lebanon, Netherlands, Canada, Iraq, Uruguay, Egypt, U.S.S.R., Mexico, Peru, Greece, Sweden and India, The subcommittee members were chosen on the basis of geography, the various religious interests and those who had submitted proposals.
The full Committee will meet simultaneously, beginning tomorrow, with the subcommittee and will take up the subject of the Arab refugees. The representative of El Salvador was chosen chairman of the subcommittee, which is scheduled to report back to the parent body in three days.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
