After ten days of vicious badgering by the Arab delegations in the debates here on the Arab refugee problem, leavened only once a week ago when a tolerant position was taken by the United States, Israel heard today some friendly words from the representative of the Netherlands.
J. de Kadt, speaking for the delegation from The Hague in the General Assembly’s special political committee, where this debate is under way, went all out for the Israel position on the refugee problem, firmly criticized the Arab position, and rejected outright the proposal by Syria to create a UN commission to study the Palestine problem anew.
Among the addresses in the committee this morning was one by Dr. Sudjarwo Tjondronegoro of Indonesia who proposed that the Bandung conference’s anti-Israel resolution be adopted as a guide to the Arab refugee problem. Another of the speakers was P. M. Crosthwaite, representing the British Government, who referred in passing to the Arab-Israel mediation plan, based on territorial “compromise,” offered recently by British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden.
Mr. de Kadt who gave Israel the greatest comfort and the Arabs harshest blows, pointed out that the United Nations was “responsible for the creation of the State of Israel,” and is “not responsible for the war waged against Israel by the Arab states, a war from which the refugee problem has sprung.”
Accusing Syria and Jordan of using “political polemics” in the UN debate on the refugee problem, the Netherlands statesman said that those governments which work against implementation of constructive development projects, such as the Jordan and Sinai plans, “have no right to pose as the two friends of the refugees.” He appealed to all to cast aside “sterile hatred and war” which, he said, created the refugee problem.
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.
