Secretary-General U Thant reported here today that his personal representative, who gathered factual information regarding Israel’s unification of Jerusalem, has found the outward conditions fairly normal in East Jerusalem, the section Israel captured from Jordan during the Six-Day War.
Mr. Thant made his report to the emergency special session of the General Assembly, which recessed in July and is scheduled to reconvene next Monday for its final meeting. The special body, which is comprised of all members of the United Nations, is expected to pass on the report, after Monday’s debate, to the regular Assembly to open the following day.
Mr. Thant’s report – a 78-page document – was based entirely, except for a formal introduction on a report filed by his personal representative for Jerusalem fact-finding, Ambassador Ernesto Thalmann, a Swiss diplomat, who spent two weeks in Jerusalem.
While observing that the outward appearance of Jerusalem was calm and appeared normal, Mr. Thalmann also reported that many Arab personalities had given him petitions, memoranda and statements indicating serious opposition to Israel’s civil rule over East Jerusalem. He also reported that there was-wide acceptance of Israel’s principles, granting free access to all holy places in Jerusalem to all religious persons. However, he found Moslem religious leaders totally dissatisfied, and he reported that, on the whole, the Catholic Church, as embodied in the Vatican, still insisted that Jerusalem must constitute a “corpus separatum.”
Mr. Thalmann reported that most of the Arabs who presented him with grievances were either former members of the Jordanian administration or former leaders in the Palestine Liberation Organization, the anti-Israeli fighting arm of the hostile Arabs.
THALMANN SEES JEWS, ARABS MINGLING; EBAN STRESSES FREE ACCESS TO SHRINES
Regarding Jerusalem’s appearance, Mr. Thalmann said he was struck by the great activity in the streets of the city.” “The uniforms,” he stated, “were few and the weapons fewer. The military policemen went about their duties in a matter-of-fact way. They appeared to be mostly concerned with directing the traffic, which was quite heavy. The picture of the crowd in the Old City was dominated by the tourists. Arabs and Jews were mingling. To the destruction of the war new destruction had been added. Bulldozers had cleared the walls which separated the firing lines, as well as many houses in the area of the former no man’s land. Also in the walled city one could see the debris of leveled houses.
“There was direct access to the Old City through many newly made roads and through the reopened gates. Outside the walled city the scars of battle were more noticeable. Also a number of shops were closed. Most of the hotels had reopened. Before dawn and during the day the muezzin could be heard as well as the church bells.”
Since Mr. Thant had appointed his personal representative on Jerusalem by authorization by the Special Assembly, he included also a letter from Israel’s Foreign Minister Abba Eban, dealing with Israel’s views regarding Jerusalem unification. The Special Assembly declared Israel’s unification of Jerusalem “invalid.” In his letter to Mr. Thant, Mr. Eban stated:
“A salient fact of Jerusalem’s life today is the intrinsic necessity of ensuring equal rights and opportunities to all the city’s residents by extending to them the same public services and facilities. No international or other interest would be served by the institution of divisions and barriers which would only sharpen tension and generate discrimination. This does not foreclose the final settlement of certain important aspects of the Jerusalem situation which lie at the origin of the international interest in the city.
“I refer to the need to secure appropriate expression of the special interest of the three great religions in Jerusalem. It is our urgent desire to promote this objective in cooperation with the universal interests concerned. I am confident that, in an atmosphere of international tranquility, substantial progress could be made towards this aim, which has hitherto had no concrete fulfillment. We are now concentrating on this task. It is our policy to ensure that the Moslem, as well as the Christian and Jewish holy places-should be scrupulously respected and revered, and placed under the responsibility of p. recognized Moslem authority.”
ISRAEL AUTHORITIES COOPERATIVE; CHARGES MADE BY ARAB LEADERS
The Israeli authorities, whom he found very cooperative, reported Ambassador Thalmann, “stated unequivocally that the process of integration (of the unified city) was irreversible and not negotiable.” The Israeli authorities – including Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, Mr. Eban, and Israeli Cabinet members responsible for economics, social welfare and religious affairs, “made it very clear,” stated Mr. Thalmann, “that Israel was taking every step to place under its sovereignty those parts of the city which were not controlled by Israel before June 1967.”
The Ambassador reported that Israel had already started to apply Israeli laws to East Jerusalem. although implementation of some laws had been delayed by the Israelis until Arab texts of those measures are ready for distribution to the Arab residents. He stated also that Israel had assured him that all attention was being paid to make sure that the Arab residents “would have the opportunity to bring their standard of living up to the level prevailing in Israel.”
In general, said Mr. Thalmann, “the Israeli authorities stated that unification had meant that the ‘underdeveloped’ economy of the eastern sector had come into contact with the more developed economy of the western sector.”
The report included copies of the various complaints given to Mr. Thalmann by Arab leaders, lay and religious, and were almost entirely opposed to Israel’s civilian rule over East Jerusalem. On the other hand, Mr. Thalmann stated, some Arabs did accept Israel’s authority and are trying to live with and under it.
The Arab notables accused Israel of violating both Moslem and Christian holy places — but no Christian complaints of that nature were included in the Thalmann report. The Arab leaders said that many of Israel’s laws are contrary not only to their laws as instituted by Jordan but are also against the precepts of Koranic law. Israel denied the charges.
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.
