A resolution urging direct talks as the “one road to peace in the Middle East” was approved by delegates to the 22nd convention here of the United Automobile Workers. The union represents almost 2 million auto workers. The resolution noted its long friendship toward Israel as “a democratic oasis in a troubled and turbulent area of the world” as well as its continued “generally cordial contacts with the various labor movements in the Arab world.” The resolution warned that the “tragedy” of the area could explode in a “direct confrontation” of “the great powers.” The resolution urged the Big Four to “use their separate and combined influence to bring all parties to the Middle East conflict to the conference table to settle the political issues first. It must be made perfectly clear to Arab leaders that guerrilla warfare cannot and will not contribute to a just and peaceful solution.”
Declaring that Israel had a right to “peaceful existence and recognition of its place in the family of nations,” the resolution also expressed concern for the plight of the Palestinian refugees and urged that a solution be found to that plight. The resolution denounced “the terror tactics of El Fatah” which it said led to “vengeance on the innocent.” The resolution also called upon Arab governments “now sheltering and arming” guerrillas to prevent the reoccurrence of such acts of piracy by organized guerrilla groups; the Secretary General of the United Nations to convene the U.N. Security Council to consider means of halting such attacks; the world’s airlines operating flights in the Middle East “to cancel all flights to airports in any nation implicitly or explicitly sanctioning…such acts of international piracy and terrorism” and to the International Airline Pilots Association “to urge their members to…boycott all flights to these same nations.” The resolution added: “While the major powers may be helpful in finding a solution to the Middle East dilemma, they cannot legitimately impose such a solution on the nations directly involved…This is thus far the missing ingredient in the Middle East.”
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.
