Government officials reacted bitterly to the United Nations Security Council’s vote. Official ire was directed at Lord Caradon who had been expected to abstain. An official protest was lodged today when the British Ambassador, Ernest John Ward Barnes, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry by its director-general, Gideon Rafael. It was reported that the British envoy was told that Lord Caradon’s vote was contrary to public opinion in Britain as reported in the press and from other sources.
( A protest against the British vote was lodged in London today by Eitan Ruppin, Minister of the Israeli Embassy, with William Tripp, head of the Foreign Office’s Middle East department. )
The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement denouncing the nations which voted for the resolution. While no country was mentioned specifically, the text made it clear that Britain was the main target. It referred to the shelling of Jewish Jerusalem in 1948 and the subsequent systematic destruction of Jewish Holy Places by the Arabs. At the time, the occupying army was the Jordanian Arab Legion under the command of British officers.
Deputy Premier Yigal Allon said today that the resolution “will not in the slightest degree change the situation in Jerusalem or its status.” Mr. Allon spoke at cornerstone-laying ceremonies for a new East Jerusalem housing project for Arabs. He charged that the Council’s action had “kindled new flames” by seconding, by implication, “the irresponsible incitement of the Arab states.” He said the resolution raised “new and even stronger doubts about the Council’s morality.”
Mr. Allon said the new housing project was intended for Arabs in East Jerusalem who cannot find quarters in existing buildings or who have been evacuated from their homes “in the course of the city’s rebuilding.” Michael Denis William Rohen will go on trial in Jerusalem district court on Oct. 6 on charges of setting the El Aksa fire. Rohen, who has confessed to setting the blaze, is charged with arson and desecration of a Holy Place.
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