Mrs. Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister, said last night that the World Bank loan made to the United Arab Republic for widening the Suez Canal–while the waterway remained barred to Israel shipping–amounted to giving a reward to a “violator of international practices.”
Reporting to the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, on the latest developments in the Suez Canal, for which a World Bank loan of $56,500,000 was formally signed yesterday, Mrs. Meir said UAR President Nasser, “who behaves like a sea pirate,” would regard the loan as encouragement for future acts of blockade against Israel shipping. She was referring to the detention last Friday of the Greek freighter, the Astypalea, bound from Haifa for Djibuti, French Somaliland, with a cargo of Israel cement carried FOB Haifa, and the detention since last May 21 of the Danish ship, the Inge Toft, with an Israel cargo.
She said Israel would not end efforts to expand trade with all countries and to demand the right of free passage through the Suez Canal without discrimination. She added Israel was confident that it would not stand alone “in this fight,” since the UAR’s handling of the waterway was of interest to all maritime nations and violation by the UAR of one nation’s rights was likely to bring about UAR violation of the rights of other nations.
Mrs. Meir expressed herself as being in agreement with the contention of United States State Department officials that World Bank grants should be based on economic and not political considerations. However, she contended, granting a loan to the UAR under existing conditions was in fact a political act.
President Nasser’s detention of the Astypalea, she asserted, was a “direct result” of the “tolerant attitude” of the United Nations toward the UAR leader’s activities. Emphasizing that she had no doubt of the sincerity of United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold’s arrangements for passage of Israel’s cargoes through the Suez Canal if shipped FOB, Mrs. Meir said that Mr. Hammarskjold “now stands like a poor petitioner at Nasser’s door.”
She hinted that both Mr. Hammarskjold and President Nasser had been informed in advance about the Astypalea’s departure for the Suez Canal under the FOB arrangements, which meant that the cement cargo was owned by the purchaser and not by Israel.
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