The fifth biennial convention of the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations went on record today in favor of the withholding by the United States of all foreign aid to Middle East countries which would decline to join a three-year moratorium “on all border strife and transgressions.”
The convention, in a resolution proposed such a period, during which there would be an exploration of “the possibilities of settling through negotiation all outstanding issues and differences” between Israel and the Arab countries, and for “developing a program of joint action by all Middle East nations” against “illiteracy, illness and poverty.”
The convention also urged that the United States “desist from rendering further help to any government which violates the principle of freedom of navigation in the Suez Canal against any nation.” The delegates also noted that “the Nasser dictatorship” in Egypt “has stepped up its building of an arsenal with a massive array of offensive weapons,”
In another resolution, the convention appealed to West German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard to act “to have effective legal brakes placed on the continued activities of German scientists and technicians in the production of missiles and other weapons of mass Destruction for the Nasser Government, which only seeks to employ them for the conquest and domination of the other Arab peoples and the annihilation of Israel.”
The delegates expressed the hope that the Arab governments would “respond favorably” to the “realistic peace offer” made recently by Israeli Premier Levi Eshkol.
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.
