Israel Beiects Czech Note; Says Kubovi Remains Envoy

The Israel Cabinet today decided to reject completely the Czechoslovak note demanding the recall of Dr. Arieh Kubovi, Israel Minister to Prague, on charges that he interfered in Czechoslovak affairs and Intervened in a “challenging and inadmissible” fashion in behalf of the emigration of Czechoslovak Jews to Israel. It also emphasized that in its eyes Dr. Kubovi, who is new in Israel, remains Israel’s accredited representative to Prague.

The Israeli note to Czechoslovakia would be handed to the Prague authorities within the next few days, a government spokesman told newsmen. He said the note would refute the charges on which the Czechs based their demand for Dr. Kubovi’s recall. He added the Czechoslovak charges that the Israel legation interfered in Czech internal affairs during the four and one-half years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries are “absolutely without foundation.”

The first and best proof of this fact, the Israeli spokesman continued, is the fact that the Czech Foreign Office never gave any indication that it felt that Israel had interfered in Czechoslovak affairs. Israel always acted in accordance with international diplomatic relations when it intervened in behalf of two Israeli citizens imprisoned in Prague, he stated.

In reference to immigration of Czechoslovak Jews, the Israeli note will stress that at the beginning of diplomatic relations between the two states, the Israel legation had obtained Prague’s permission for those Jews who desired to leave for Israel, and the Czechoslovak Government never questioned the legation’s right to express Israel’s wishes on immigration. On the contrary, the note will say, the legation’s efforts in this matter were successful and Dr. M. Eliashiv, Dr. Kubovi’s predecessor, obtained a promise to permit the emigration of 3,500 Czech Jews on a list submitted previously.

Czechoslovak President Klement Gottwald confirmed, in an interview with Dr. Kubovi July 12, 1951, that the promise was still valid, and also pledging that be would speed its fulfillment. Until the last few weeks before the Prague trial Dr. Kubovi was told by Czech Foreign Office spokesmen that the promise had not been cancelled, and never had a complaint been voiced about the Israel Minister’s right to raise immigration problems, the Israel note will point out.

It will also refute other allegations in the light of know facts, and it will “vigorously” refute “insinuations” about Dr. Kubovi contained in the testimony of Mondecai Oren, one of the two Israeli citizens under arrest in Prague for allegedly plotting against the Czech state. In addition, the Israeli note will express the Israel Government’s reaction to the Prague trial and its anti-Semitic character and the besmirching of the Israel Government and its accredited representatives.