Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Chaim Herzog denounced as “one-sided, false, biased and utterly unworthy of any consideration” a report by a three-nation committee of the General Assembly that charged Israel with abuses in the occupied Arab territories. The committee, created in 1968 to “investigate Israeli practices” in the territories, consists of Senegal, Sri Lanka and Yugoslavia, none of which has diplomatic relations with Israel.
The fact was noted in Herzog’s statement released here last night. He charged that the report “is based on hearsay unsubstantiated evidence and reports to the total exclusion of Israel’s side of the case.” He said “Israel does not collaborate with this committee because, as will be recalled, when it was established in 1968, Israel requested that it also investigate the plight of Jewish communities in Arab countries. This request was denied,” the Israeli envoy said, adding that the committee is “no more than a tool in the hands of Arab propagandists” in their war against the Jewish State. The committee did not visit Israel or the occupied territories.
In Washington today, the State Department declined to comment on the committee’s report which, it said, it had not studied yet. The Department noted that the report would be debated over the next two weeks in the General Assembly’s Special Political Committee and a variety of draft resolutions will stem from it. “The U.S. will address them on their individual merits,” a State Department spokesman said.
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