Delegates to the International Labor Organization (ILO) conference here, who charged Israel with violating the human rights of Arabs in the occupied territories, were told today that those territories are open to inspection by visitors and that any fair-minded person could see for himself that the charges were pure fabrication. The speaker, Aharon Becker, secretary-general of Histadrut, Israel’s labor federation, added that the federation stood ready “in the spirit of labor solidarity to extend any assistance and encouragement which the ILO may request” in connection with an inspection of the territories.
Mr. Becker addressed his remarks to the Arab delegates and, specifically to the delegate from Poland who he accused of repeating “trumped-up charges” against Israel “wholly in line with the hate propaganda in Poland where a handful of Jews who remained after the Nazi massacre is now being vilified, condemned and hounded from their jobs.” Mr. Becker also spoke of the plight of Jews in the Arab countries. He said that while many speakers dwelt eloquently on the subject of Arab refugees, none of them had a word to say about Israel’s appeals to the Arabs for peace, which so far have fallen on “deaf ears.” He reminded the gathering that the ILO is not a political platform but a forum for the discussion of human problems. “Surely peace must be a basic tenet for the very existence of the ILO,” he said.
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