Ambassador Ernest Thalmann, the Swiss diplomat who is here as the personal envoy of United Nations Secretary-General U Thant for a fact-finding survey of the situation regarding Jerusalem, conferred today with Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. Present at the meeting were also Dr. Yaacov Herzog, director-general of the Premier’s office; and Yosef Tekoah, deputy director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry. Mr. Thalmann will return to the U.N. headquarters at the end of this week.
A group of Arab leaders, including the former Mayor of Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem and the president of the Arab Chamber of Commerce in the former “old city,” presented complaints against Israel to Dr. Ernest Thalmann, the special emissary on fact-finding regarding Jerusalem.
The complaints objected to Israel’s “physical annexation” of the capital, insisting that it was in contradiction to General Assembly resolutions; protested against customs duties allegedly imposed on Arab merchants for goods already on the shelves when the Jordanian-Israeli war erupted in June; and charged that Israel had not respected the sanctity of Moslem and Christian religious shrines.
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