Golda Meir Returns to U.N. to Defend Israel’s Stand on Arab Refugees

Israel’s Foreign Minister Golda Meir is due to arrive Sunday in New York from Jerusalem to lead the Israeli delegation at the United Nations in the battle on the Arab refugee issue which delegations from II Arab countries are determined to raise with unprecedented fury.

Mrs. Meir will arrive a day before the UN Palestine Conciliation Commission is expected to file a report dealing with the refugee problem. On Monday, the PCC report is scheduled to be handed to the General Assembly. By the end of next week, or by Monday of the following week, the Assembly’s Special Political Committee will open debate on the PCC’s report as well as on the annual report of John H. David, director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

From that point on, it was foreseen here today, Israel will face the fiercest barrage of Arab attacks it has had to endure in many years. The Arab delegations will make an all-out effort this year to convince the Assembly that all of the Arab refugees must be “repatriated” to Israel; and that the United Nations must establish some sort of custodianship over property which the refugees claim they have left in Israel, amounting, according to their inflated figures, to many billions of dollars. Additionally, the Arab delegations may insist on establishment of a UN Commission to probe claims that Israel is “oppressing” the Arab minority living in Israel.

Part of the PCC report is expected to be a separate report by Dr. Joseph E. Johnson, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has been acting for the last four months as the Commission’s special emissary to the Middle East. The PCC is expected to request that it be given the opportunity to probe the entire issue further for another year, thus postponing definitive action on any final solution of the refugee problem. It is expected that such a move will be backed by the leading Western Powers, especially the United States and Britain. If the Commission is thus given a year’s grace, Dr. Johnson will be asked to continue in his post for another 12 months.