A British correspondent whose articles in the Manchester Guardian accusing Israel of “repression” and ‘coercion” of Arabs in occupied territories have been widely quoted by Arab propagandists in recent weeks, called today for the creation of an “independent commission” to bear out his charges.
The correspondent, Michael Adams, has claimed that Israeli authorities are pressuring Arabs to leave their homes. Israel has vehemently denied this, he said in an article in the Guardian today, but “my two weeks of careful investigation in Jerusalem and on the West Bank found no impartial observer who did not support it.” The only way to reconcile the matter, Adams said, “would seem to be the dispatch of an independent commission of inquiry to form its own conclusions on the state of affairs in Israel-occupied Palestine.”
Israel’s policy toward her Arab minority was defended in a letter from the Rev. William Simpson, general secretary of the Council of Christians and Jews, published in The Times of London. Rev. Simpson declared that “Israel follows no policy of discrimination or apartheid. Arabs enjoy full citizenship rights. Membership in political parties, trade unions and other organizations is open to Arabs and Jews alike without discrimination on ethnic or racial grounds.”
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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.
