More than 100 members of parliament of 13 European countries and Israel unanimously passed the following resolution: “This meeting of the European Parliamentary Committee for Friendship with Israel, attended by more than 100 members of parliament from thirteen countries, assembled here in Berlin February 1 and 2,1974. Berlin was chosen as the venue to emphasize the truth that Israel’s fight to live as a free democratic nation within secure and guaranteed frontiers symbolizes the will for freedom of all peoples.
“We pay tribute to the courage and determination of Israel in pursuing negotiations with Egypt which have already resulted in the disengagement agreement. We offer to Israel the support and encouragement of her friends, in her pursuit of a permanent and just peace with her neighbors. We draw attention to the fact that this agreement was the outcome of direct negotiations, for which Israel has striven ceaselessly for twenty-five years. We recognize that this agreement was achieved because Mrs. Golda Meir and President Sadat approached these negotiations without fanaticism.
“We now urge Syria to follow Egypt in accepting direct negotiations. We demand that Syria should immediately provide a complete list of names of all Israelis held by her, should allow the Red Cross to visit these prisoners of war, and above all should agree to the exchange of prisoners between Syria and Israel.
“We renew our call to all governments of oil importing countries to stand together against political and economic blackmail. Our essential friendship for the people of Israel, which we here reaffirm, does not imply any hostility towards the Arab peoples. But if Israel were forced into submission as a result of pressure from major industrial powers, this would prove that aggression and blackmail pay. It is the developing nations of the Third World who are the most vulnerable victims of the undignified and counter-productive scramble for oil, and we express the hope that the conferences dealing with these problems will defend the interests of the industrialized nations.”
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.
