The United States was asked today to call upon the United Nations to dispatch Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold to Egypt “to ascertain the full extent of the Egyptian Government’s violation of human rights and the mistreatment of the Jewish population.”
The request was made by Irving M. Engel, president of the American Jewish Committee, in the course of a meeting with William M. Rountree, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.
Mr. Engel also proposed an American emergency “mercy airlift” to transport Egyptian Jewish escapees now stranded in Europe. He recommended the airlift however only for those victims who have been expelled from Egypt. For Jews still in Egypt he said, “the full restoration of their rights must be sought.”
Rep. Sidney R. Yates, of Illinois, said today that he had urged Secretary of State Dulles “to protest as strongly as possible the violation of human rights currently being exhibited by the Government of Egypt against its citizens of the Jewish faith.” The Congressman noted that American representatives in the United Nations have condemned Soviet atrocities against the Hungarian people but, he added, no “strong protest” has been voiced by the United States Government against the comparable cruelty practiced by the Egyptian Government against the Jews. He warned that this would give the world the belief that “the people of the United States condone what is now going on in Egypt.”
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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.
