Israeli Foreign Minister Yigal Allon expressed the Israel government’s “most emphatic protest” to the President of the General Assembly today over the speech by Uganda’s President Idi Amin to the Assembly yesterday calling for the expulsion of Israel from the United Nations and “the extinction of Israel as a state.” Allon, who is also Deputy Premier of Israel, met this morning with Gaston Thorn, of Luxembourg, President of the Assembly. In a letter to Thorn following the meeting, the Israeli leader declared:
“I wish to record the Government of Israel’s most emphatic protest at this call for the extinction of a member state in violation of the Charter of the United Nations and that such a flagrant suggestion was made at a meeting of the General Assembly. That such shameful expressions can be heard at the General Assembly of the United Nations surely redounds to the discredit of the world organization which was created to maintain international peace and security and to be a ‘center for harmonizing the actions of nations.'” Allon requested that his letter be circulated as an official document of the General Assembly.
Earlier, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Chaim Herzog, denounced Amin’s speech as a “disgraceful exhibition and a sad commentary on what has happened to the UN.”
A HATE-FILLED ADDRESS
Most observers here could not recall a more abrasive and hate-filled address to the General Assembly than that delivered by the erratic ruler
He claimed that the U.S. had been colonized by Zionists who hold all the tools of power and development, who allegedly control all banking institutions, communications and other key structures of American society and infiltrated the CIA to convert it into a “murder squad” to eliminate any form of resistance in the world.
Amin, who deigned to speak in any language but Luganda, the native tongue of his country, left it to his UN delegate, Khalid Younis Kinene, to read his 90-minute “message” to the Assembly.
In an ironic footnote to yesterday’s events, both Allon and Herzog were invited to attend a reception this evening honoring Amin, by its host, UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim.
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.
