The Egyptian demand that Israel should remove its agricultural settlement from the El Auja area in the demilitarized zone was rejected by the U. N. Mixed Armistice Commission headed by Col. Hinkel, an American, However, the Commission ruled that no police would be allowed to remain in the settlement.
Satisfied with the fact that the Commission had acknowledged that the establishment of the settlement in the Israel-Egyptian demilitarized zone did not constitute a breach of the Israel-Egyptian armistice agreement, an Israel spokesman expressed surprise that no police should be allowed to guard the settlement which is located in a dangerous area. The Israel Government immediately appealed to Major General Vagn Bennike, chief of the U. N. truce commission, to reconsider the ban.
The decision by the Israel-Egyptian Mixed Armistice Commission was reached after Israel asked the American chairman of the Commission to visit the El Auja area in the demilitarized zone and to see for himself that Egypt’s charges against Israel were baseless. The agricultural settlement to which the Egyptians took exception was set up in the area recently and was visited ten days ago by U. N. representatives who raised no objection to the establishment of the new group inside the demilitarized zone.
(The Egyptian delegation at the United Nations submitted a formal complaint against Israel to the U. N. Security Council during the week-end. However, the delegation did not ask the Security Council for any action or debate but said that Cairo reserved the right to take up the problem later.)
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.
