The Egyptian press and radio have launched a violent attack on Secretary of State Christian A. Herter because of the Secretary’s appeal at the United Nations for freedom of transit in the Suez Canal.
The important newspaper Al Ahram of Cairo declared that “Israel will never pass through the canal.” It said: “The ban is not connected with freedom of navigation through the canal, but with the Palestine issue. Egypt banned Israeli navigation even when British occupation forces were camping on the canal’s banks. Egypt also exercised this right even when the old Suez Canal company was responsible for navigation through the canal.
A radio broadcast from Cairo challenged “Herter. British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd, and all Zionist agents” to prove that the United Arab Republic restricted navigation to any nation other than Israel. The newspaper Ash Shab said;
“To allow Israel to pass through the canal would amount to a recognition of the so-called state of Israel. Once this is accomplished the entire question of usurped Palestine will no longer exist, and the issue will become only one of refugees–a thing longed for by Zionism, imperialism, and the Arabs’ enemies.” The broadcast said Secretary Herter “exposed” his true aims before the General Assembly.
The newspaper Al-Akhbar, of Cairo, called Mr. Herter “unjust” and said what he sought for Israel was not “a right of navigation but a right of aggression.” Mr. Herter was charged by the paper with portraying Israel “as a poor and gentle lamb deprived of the right of passage.”
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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.
