Israel Demands Bonn Recall Nuclear Scientists from Egypt

The Israel Government “demanded” today that the West German Government put a stop to the activities of West German scientists working in Egypt on advanced offensive weapons for the Nasser regime. The demand was voiced in Israel Parliament by Foreign Minister Golda Meir in a statement approved in advance by the Cabinet.

“If legislative or other measures are required for that purpose, we demand that such measures be taken at once in order to put an immediate stop to cooperation between German citizens and the Egyptian Government in this field,” she said.

“The West German Government,” Mrs. Meir continued, “cannot remain indifferent to the fact that 18 years after the fall of the Hitlerite regime, we again find members of that people responsible for acts designed to destroy Israel within which survivors of the Nazi holocaust have been gathered.”

Her statement was the first by an Israeli Cabinet Minister in Parliament since the arrest of two men, one an Israeli and the other an Austrian, on March 2, in Basle in connection with alleged attempts to persuade West German scientists to halt their work on various missile and rocket projects in Cairo.

“For a long time,” Mrs. Meir told the Parliament, “the Egyptian ruler” had been striving to build up greater strength to carry out his declared aim of destroying Israel. For years, large quantities of armaments have been flowing in Egypt, she added.

“Recently, a new element was added–a number of German scientists and hundreds of German technicians are helping to develop offensive missiles in Egypt and even armaments banned by international law particularly of that category which serves solely for the destruction of life.”

CRITICIZES SWITZERLAND FOR ARRESTING TWO AS ‘ISRAELI AGENTS’

Mrs. Meir charged that the Egyptian Government was seeking to obtain the kind of weapons-which other powers either could not or did not want to supply–through a group of “conscienceless scientists who are not only prepared to do Egypt’s will but freely make this contribution of their own to the same aim.”

“There is no doubt that the motives of this evil crew are, on the one hand the lust for gain and the other a Nazi inclination toward hatred of Israel and for the destruction of Jews,” she asserted. “This is not a new development–as far back as the days of Hitler the close ties between Cairo and Nazis have been well-known and it is no secret that Cairo serves today as the principal center and asylum for former Nazis.”

Mrs. Meir also commented on the arrests in Basle, declaring that “in spite of the value we placed on the traditionally friendly relations between the peoples and the governments of Switzerland and Israel, we find it difficult to understand some of the steps taken by the Swiss authorities in the matter.” This was a reference to plans of Swiss officials to try Joseph Bengal of Israel and Dr. Otto Jukelik of Austria on charges of “illegal activities on behalf of a foreign state.”

Asserting that Israel could not conceive that the weapons development activities of the West German scientists and technicians were “in keeping with the desires of the Government of the West German Republic, “Mrs. Meir said: “But these scientists and technicians are its citizens. We address ourselves to the Government of Germany and to the masses of the German people who abhor the past of Nazi Germany and who desire a different Germany. We state emphatically that neither we–nor world public opinion–can reconcile to this situation.”