Foreign Minister Abba Eban advised Secretary General U Thant today that Israel’s May 2 Independence Day parade In Jerusalem “need not and will not have the adverse effects which have been predicted in some quarters.” Mr. Eban gave this assurance in a letter that was delivered to the Secretary General this morning by Ambassador Yosef Tekoah, permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations.
The Israeli Foreign Minister said that he had given “careful attention” to Mr. Thant’s cable to the Israel Government last Saturday night which formally notified Israel of the Security Council’s unanimous resolution urging cancellation of the parade on the grounds that it wouth further aggravate Middle East tensions and have an adverse effect on a peaceful solution of the Arab-Israel conflict. Israel’s intention “to hold a ceremonial parade in Jerusalem on the anniversary of Israel’s independence has been a matter of public knowledge for several months,” Mr. Eban wrote. “The plan evoked no spontaneous concern throughout the world. But for Jordan’s recent representations to you and to the Security Council, this brief and moving ceremony would have taken its tranquil course without arousing any international anxiety.”
Mr. Eban accused Jordan of raising the parade issue out of “implacable hostility” rather than for any “disinterested concern for regional peace and international harmony.” The parade, he pointed out, will be held at a considerable distance from the cease-fire line. “Such a ceremony creates no new situation. It leaves the position in the area unchanged. It endangers no lives. It threatens no civic interest. And it has no remote relation to the duty of the Middle Eastern states to negotiate agreements on the establishment of a just and lasting peace.” Mr. Eban noted that only today he had conferred with the Secretary General’s special envoy to the Middle East, Ambassador Gunnar Jarring “in an effort to promote a peaceful and accepted settlement which is the Security Council’s declared and cherished aim.”
The Foreign Minister cited terrorist raids against Israel, many of them from Jordanian soil. The “tensions in this area spring not from peaceful ceremonies within the cease-fire lines but from terrorist acts across them,” Mr. Eban declared. He re-assured the United Nations of Israel’s deep concern for full freedom for all religions in Jerusalem. He requested that the Secretary General circulate his letter to all members of the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.
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