The Moscow radio today broadcast the full details of the circumstances under which Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinsky announced the breaking off of diplomatic relations with Israel early this morning to Shmuel Eliashev. Israel Minister to the Soviet Union.
The broadcast relates that at 1 A.M. Mr. Vishinsky summoned Mr. Eliashev to his office where the Soviet Foreign Minister handed him the note informing him of the decision of the Soviet Government to withdraw its diplomatic representatives from Tel Aviv and requesting that the Israel legation staff in Moscow leave Soviet territory “without delay.”
The note rejected the Israel Government’s apologies for the bombing, asserting that such apologies were intended “to cover up the traces of crimes committed against the Soviet Union and to escape the responsibility of the Israeli Government for this evil deed.” The note charged that public statements of the “ruling parties in Israel” were hostile to the U.S.S.R. and “bear provocational character.”
It further asserted that the bombing of the Soviet Legation in Tel Aviv was carried out by “criminals with the obvious connivance of police.” The note declared that it was “universally known” and an “indisputable fact” that the Israel Government had participated in “a systematic fanning of hatred and enmity toward the Soviet Union and an incitement to hostile actions against the Soviet Union.”
Moscow singled out the statement of Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett in the Knesset last month as “openly” inciting anti-Soviet actions. The bombing of the legation “proves the lack of elementary conditions in Israel for normal diplomatic activities of representatives of the Soviet Union,” the note claimed.
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.
