Arab Delegates Attack Israel at U.n.; Minimize Red Anti-semitism

Bitter attacks against Israel were voiced today at the United Nations Political Committee by the delegates of Lebanon and Syria in the course of the general debate on the Polish item on measures to avert the threat of a new world war.

Edward A. Rizk of Lebanon, said that “the Zionists had worked themselves into a frenzy” spreading “wild and extravagant rumors” about anti-Jewish persecutions in the countries behind the Iron Curtain. He added that they had “some measure of success” in arousing world public opinion “through their control of the press, radio and television, and because of the tendency of world public opinion to accept rumors at face value, without checking them.”

Declaring that his government, as well as the government of all other Arab states, are against anti-Semitism because the Arabs, too, were of the Semitic race, the Lebanese representative said that one of the reasons why this delegation condemns anti-Semitic prejudice is because the Arab states had paid a very dear price for the wave of anti-Semitic persecution which swept over Europe in the loss of Palestine and the consequent forcible uprooting of 1,000,000 of its rightful Arab inhabitants.”

LEBANESE OPPOSES EMIGRATION OF JEWS FROM RUSSIA TO ISRAEL

A resurgence of anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, he went on, would mean a further exodus of millions of Jews to Israel, greatly increasing Israel’s military power and tempting Israel “to expand beyond its present illegally-held frontiers.” He took exception to “the often repeated demand of Israeli spokesmen and Zionist sympathizers that the Jewish citizens of the East European countries and the Soviet Union be permitted to immigrate to Israel.”

“This agitation,” he said, “could not be overlooked by anyone interested in peace and stability in the Middle East. It was a cause of anxiety and concern for the Arab governments. New waves of mass immigration to Israel would endanger them all.”

Until a “serious effort” was made to enforce the United Nations on Palestine, there could be no hope of lessening in world tension, the Lebanese delegate stated. He claimed that of the 8,000 Jews residing in Lebanon, “only 80 had chosen to emigrate from the country, since 1948, and not all of them had gone to Israel.” He also cited the fact that Premier Mohammed Naguib of Egypt has made “a courtesy call to the Egyptian citizens of Jewish faith” by paying a visit to the synagogue in Cairo.

The Arab representative said that “Israel’s claim to represent and speak for world Jewry constitutes another factor laden with grave dangers for peace. This, he declared, was “ludicrous from the point of view of international law” and had “very dangerous and far-reaching implications,” to maintain that anti-Zionism was tantamount to anti-Semitism and to racial and religious prejudice and persecution was “false, wicked and shameful,” he stated.

SYRIAN DELEGATE JUSTIFY SOVIET ACTION AGAINST ISRAEL

Dr. Farid Zeineddine, Syrian delegate, told the U.N. Political Committee that the stand on Zionism lately taken by the Soviet Union and the severance of relations with Israel were not a question of religion or religious minorities, but a political question.

The Soviet Union, he said, was “being prompted by the urge to deal with Zionism and Israeli policy on their own merits” and indicated “a good understanding of the realities of the situation in the Middle East.” He emphasized that the Arab countries “see nothing strange in the Soviet attitude except that it was delayed. The group of countries of the Middle East also entertain no relations with a state founded on a Zionist ideology which seeks to expand through immigration and other means. We hope that some other countries are also on their way to see the realities and implications of this situation.”

Soviet delegate Andrei Vishinsky, referring to the criticisms voiced in the debate over the Soviet anti-Jewish policy, denounced “certain slanderers” of the Soviet Union. He said they had attacked the Soviet Union over the arrest of 15 doctors in Moscow and now that these doctors had been released, they still attack the Soviet Union.