Access to Wailing Wall Demanded by U.S. Orthodox Conference

A resolution asking the United States to seek through the United Nations free access for religious Jews to the Wailing Wall in the Jordanian-held part of Jerusalem, was adopted today by the First National Conference of Religious Jews for Israel.

The conference, which was addressed by Moshe Shapiro, Israel Minister of Religions and Social Welfare, urged the United States to place before the Security Council a plea for the provision of arrangements to present “Jewish worshippers the same access to the Wailing Wall in Old Jerusalem, now held under the guns of the Arab Legion, which the Israel Government freely permits the Christians and Moslems in relation to their Holy Places in Israel.”

The more than 1,000 delegates also called upon the United States to extend “new and vigorous efforts” as a leader of the free would and in the United Nations “to persuade the Arab states to take the only step which will assure the stable development of the whole region–sitting down to negotiate a durable peace with Israel.”

Mr. Shapiro emphasized in his address that Big Power efforts to “appease the Arabs in order to win them for the west” constituted “a dangerous error” of global strategy. “There can be no assurance that commitments made by one set of Arab leaders that arms provided them will be used only in self-defense against totalitarian aggression will necessarily be honored by another sect of Arab leaders replacing the arms beneficiaries in the next round of political earthquakes certain to come in one or another of the Arab nations,” he asserted.

Declaring that the State of Israel “insists on freedom of religion and conscience for all and grants every opportunity to all religious sects to manage their religious life and forms without interference,” Minister Shapiro said, in a reference to charges from certain elements of religious Jews concerning the National Service Law for Women in Israel, that “it is preposterous nonsense for anyone to say that there is oppression of individual religious opinion in Israel.” The Israel Minister called the demonstrations which have occurred in the United States and other countries in protest against the National Service Law the product of a “tragic misunderstanding.”