Prime Minister David Ben Gurion warned today that “Israel might be forced once again to fight for freedom of shipping in the Red Sea. if our neighboring ruler continues to put obstacles in the path of Israel’s navigation.”
Mr. Ben Gurion voiced that declaration at Elath, the Gulf of Akaba port leading through the Straits of Tiran into the Red Sea. He was at Elath to launch a celebration there of the tenth anniversary of the liberation of that Israeli port.
“Our navigation,” said that Prime Minister, “and our freedom in the Red Sea is again being threatened. We might be forced again to fight for it.” He was cheered loudly by the large assemblage at Elath, including many veterans of the fight for the liberation of that city from Arab domination a decade ago.
Mr. Ben Gurion’s warning was related by all in Israel to the latest interference by the United Arab Republic with shipping through the Suez Canal, While he was speaking, a representative of the Foreign Ministry, here underscored the gravity with which the Government views the seizures of the cargoes at Port Said, by announcing that the entire Cabinet would discuss the issue at its forthcoming meeting, next Sunday.
The spokesman described the action of the Cairo government as “a deliberate policy of interference.” He said that all of Israel’s envoys at the capitals of the countries represented on the Security Council, as well as in the capitals of all maritime countries, have been instructed to take up the matter with the governments to which they are accredited.
TWO SHIPS WITH ISRAELI CARGO DETAINED BY EGYPT; THIRD PASSED
The first ship whose cargo was seized, the Liberian flag freighter, S. S. Capetan Manolis, had been chartered by the Traders Shippers Company of Haifa. In that ship’s cargo was a shipment of cement and fruit juices destined to an importer in Geylon who had bought the goods F. O. B. Haifa. It is known here that the Ceylonese legation at Cairo has already protested against this seizure and was told by the U. A. R. that the cargo was confiscated because it carried “enemy goods inside Egyptian territorial waters.”
The second ship, the German freighter, S. S. Leglott, is owned by the Gold Star Line, a form belonging to Hamburg shipowner. Meanwhile, however, a Greek ship has passed through the Suez Canal, carrying an Israeli cargo, and was not molested.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to speculate on the reasons for the Cairo Government’s renewal of the hostile Suez policy, but he pointed out that the Arab League’s boycott committee had decided at a recent session to strengthen the anti-Israeli boycott.
The cargo seizures against which Israel is now protesting are the first instances of that type since the reopening of the Suez Canal to shipping following the Sinai-Suez campaigns of 1956. Other ships have been refused water or other servicing if they carried Israeli cargoes. But these seemed to be a tacit agreement that Israel would not attempt to force passage through the Suez of shipping under its own flag, while the U. A. R., in turn, would not interfere with shipping carrying Israeli trade as long as such vessels did not fly the Israel flag.
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