Israel’s Representative at U.N. Warns Security Council on Gravity at Syrian Border

Ambassador Gideon Rafael, Israel’s Chief Delagate to the United Nations, warned the Security Council today of the “very grave situation on the northern borders of Israel” as the direct consequence “of the ever increasing number and intensity of the acts of sabotage, violence and armed intervention” by the El Fatah terrorists “at the instigation and with the operational planning and participation of the Syrian authorities.”

In a letter to the Security Council, Ambassador Rafael warned the Council that as long as the Syrian Government persists in its “aggressive policy” and “its adventurous course of action which is provoking serious tension in the area,” Israel “must hold it responsible for all the consequences; and in the face of continuous Syrian provocation and threats, regards itself as fully entitled to act in self-defense as circumstances warrant.”

Ambassador Rafael included in the letter a detailed list of seven “grave incidents” perpetrated by the El Fatah terrorists in the last four weeks. These included “sabotage, mining of roads, armed infiltration, mortar shelling of a village, which culminated in the last few days in attacks on traffic along main roads.”

The Israeli envoy stressed that batteries used to detonate explosives “carried inscriptions in Arabic to the effect that they were of Syrian make, manufactured by the Syrian Defense Ministry.” and that footprints of the perpetrators of the terrorism were found leading to Syrian territory. He also noted that notes carrying the name of El Fatah found near the sites of the incidents stated “that the so called organization will not hesitate to strike at vehicles even if they carry women and children.”