Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion denied once again last night, in a speech in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, that Israel is producing atomic weapons. Any reports to that effect, he asserted, are “fabrications — deliberate or unconscious.”
The Prime Minister spoke to Parliament about atomic developments, Israel’s years-long insistence on peace talks with the hostile Arab states, and regional disarmament, as he attacked a motion proposed by the left-wing Mapam Party and the Communists. The two parties demanded that Parliament engage in full-scale debate on those issues. After he had spoken, the Knesset rejected the motions overwhelmingly.
Israel’s atomic reactor in the Negev, now under construction, the Prime Minister said, as well as the nuclear reactor completed in 1960 with United States assistance, were both designed for peaceful purposes. He reiterated Israel’s standing offer for complete disarmament in the Middle East, and expressed regret over the fact that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union was willing to support a 16-nation resolution proposed in the United Nations General Assembly last year, calling for direct Arab-Israeli peace talks.
The Government leader pointed out that, only last week, the Knesset’s own committee on security and external affairs heard reports about Egypt’s new rocketry program and the latest threats by Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser to destroy Israel. That committee, he said, was scheduled to hold another session today, and the debate on these matters should be left to the committee. The vast majority of the Knesset members supported Mr. Ben-Gurion, and voted down the Mapam-Communist motion.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
