The Israel Cabinet met in extraordinary session again today to consider security measures in view of the growing threat of Arab hostility in connection with the situation along the Israel-Jordan frontier.
The latest sore spot exists in “no-man’s land” in the Jerusalem area where some 50 immigrants, tired with life in a nearby temporary immigrant village, have moved into an abandoned building which formerly housed an Arab college. The immigrants are reported to have refused to leave the building.
The Jordan authorities protested the move to the United Nations truce staff. According to some reports the Arabs gave the U.N. an ultimatum that if the Israelis were not moved out by this afternoon they would take the matter into their own hands. While this is denied by Henri Vigier, acting head of the U.N. staff, he refuses to disclose just what the Jordan authorities did say about the situation. Israeli sources bear out M. Vigier’s statement that he received no ultimatum from the Jordan authorities.
In connection with the ploughing of land in the demilitarized area by Israelis from a nearby. kibbutz, it was reported that Israeli officials had told the U.N. that as long as various groups of Arabs continue to farm large sections of “no-man’s land” there can be no question of barring Israelis from working the land. It was learned that the members of the kibbutz began ploughing it on their own initiative.
JORDAN, SYRIA SOUND BELLIGERENT NOTES IN RADIO BROADCASTS
Meanwhile, the radios in the nearby Arab countries have been beating the war drums over the squatters. Both the Jordan-controlled Ramallah radio and the Syrian radio term the immigrants’ move an “invasion” and speak belligerently of the Jordan “ultimatum” to the United Nations. The Syrian radio reported that the Syrian authorities have offered Jordan military assistance to beat off the “Israel military intervention.”
In the Lake Kinneret area, the Syrians have done a little trespassing on their own, starting to plough up land in a disputed section. The Israelis have protested to the United Nations.
A strong band of Arab infiltrees penetrated Israel territory in the Jerusalem corridor area last night, a military spokesman revealed. They were headed off by an Israeli patrol and in the ensuing battle two of the marauders were killed before the band turned tail and fled across the Jordan border.
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