Arabs Lose in U.N. Assembly Their Fight for ‘custodianship’ in Israel

The Arab bloc’s only drive to put through an anti-Israel resolution at this year’s General Assembly failed this weekend. Two clauses of a resolution aimed at establishment of United Nations custodianship over property allegedly left in Israel by the Arab refugees were defeated in the Assembly’s closing day, failing to get the needed two-thirds majority.

One of the clauses was voted down by 44 votes in favor, 38 against with 12 abstentions; the second clause was defeated by a vote of 44 in favor, 35 against and 15 abstentions.

When the tallies were completed, a resolution which simply affirms that the next Assembly, next fall, is to review the UN’s work in aiding the Arab refugees was passed by 37 to 17, with 38 abstentions. The Arab members, which had pushed for the entire resolution, were among the abstainers on their own draft, since it no longer contained the clauses objectionable to Israel.

The United States delegation led the fight for the defeat of the anti-Israel moves, and was supported by other Western powers, Latin Americans and the representatives of those new African states that belong to the French Community; Francis T. P. Plimpton, deputy chairman of the American delegation, told the Assembly that the Arab drive for property custodianship in Israel amounted to “shortsighted political manipulation. “

Throughout the long fight for injection of the refugees’ “property rights” into the anti-Israel drive by the Arabs, the U. S. A. had held with Israel that no resolution at all on the Arab refugee problem was needed at this year’s Assembly.