Israel has been admitted as a full member of the European bloc of the International Labor Organization with the support of the Arab members and the abstention of the Communist countries.
According to Moshe Katzav, Minister of Labor and Welfare, no country voted against the proposal for Israeli admittance into the European bloc of the ILO. He reported initially that the Europeans did not want to give Israel voting rights, but that after pressure from the United States, they consented.
Katzav, who was reporting on the ILO convention in Geneva, said the Arab states supported Israel’s admittance to the European bloc because they wanted to get Israel out of the Asian bloc.
Katzav also reported that the convention, which just ended, did not discuss any anti-Israeli proposals, neither were any raised by the Arabs. He said he refuted allegations raised at the convention that the situation in the occupied territories had worsened, saying that the situation had improved. He cited the decrease in unemployment from 10 percent in 1967 to the current rate of 3.5 percent.
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.
