The two major draft resolutions before the special emergency session of the General Assembly, both of which called for Israel’s withdrawal from captured Arab territories but one linking withdrawal to an end to Arab belligerency, failed tonight to receive the two-thirds majority required for passage.
The 21-nation Latin American draft, which tied withdrawal to an end to Arab hostility, won 57 votes, with 42 against and 20 abstentions. The Latin American draft had been backed by the United States. The Yugoslav resolution, which called for unconditional Israeli withdrawal, would have turned over to the Security Council the working out of conditions for peace in the Middle East. The 18-nation Yugoslav resolution received 53 votes for, 46 against and 20 abstaining.
The session did approve by a huge majority a Pakistani resolution calling on Israel, in effect, to cancel its merger of New and Old Jerusalem. It also approved a draft resolution calling for all member nations to give maximum attention to the problems of the latest Arab refugees.
The session also rejected, by a substantial margin, the Soviet resolution, introduced by Soviet Premier Kosygin when the special session opened, which would have condemned Israel as the “aggressor,” required unconditional Israeli withdrawal and required Israel to pay indemnification to the Arab countries for damages in the June war.
During the voting, the United States announced it was withdrawing its resolution which made Israeli withdrawal contingent on Arab agreement on recognition of Israel, freedom of waterways in the region and related issues of vital concern to Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, speaking during the debate before the vote, declared that it was Israel’s policy to “provide and preserve the complete unity and peace of Jerusalem and access to all its holy places.” He declared that consultations were underway “with the interests involved” to work out “a satisfactory arrangement” for the protection of the holy places.
He assailed the Pakistani resolution’s expression of “deep concern” about Jerusalem which he said was not evinced in 1947 when the Arab states violently opposed internationalization, when Jerusalem was shelled and bombarded when, for 20 years, Jordan barred access to the Wailing Wall, but was now being shown when both Jews and Arabs were moving freely in “the united city” all municipal services were available as never before and when access to the holy places was “universal, complete and guaranteed by law.”
He displayed to the Assembly copies of Jordanian military operational documents containing instructions to wipe out border settlements. One of the “top secret” documents, he said, had assigned a Jordanian reserve battalion to destroy Motza, a village north of Jerusalem, and all of its 800 inhabitants.
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