Israel Denounces Apartheid

Israel sharply denounced today South Africa’s policy of apartheid, saying it was against Jewish tradition and values, and called on the Pretoria government to immediately stop its apartheid system.

Addressing the General Assembly’s debate on apartheid, Binyamin Netanyahuy Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, also charged that the Arabs, who are condemning Israel for its ties with South Africa, have more trade and more dealings with the South African government than Israel.

According to Netanyahu, 95 percent of the oil imported by South Africa comes from Arab sources. He said that Israel’s trade with South Africa is marginal and amounts to only 0.4 percent of that country’s total foreign trade.

ARABS CHARGED WITH DOUBLETALK

Charging the Arabs with hypocrisy and double-talk in their attacks against Israel’s alleged support of the apartheid policies, Netanyahu charged that the Arabs themselves practiced policies of supporting racism. He exhibited the German magazine, Bunte, which published in its issue this week an interview with Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner, who has been living in Damascus for many years under the protection of the Syrian government.

He also recalled that Saudi Arabia only recently abolished slavery by law, and charged that slavery still can be found in practice in that country.

The Arabs consistently tried to link Israel to the apartheid policies of South Africa, charging it with commercial and military collaboration with Pretoria. In recent years, they have passed resolutions in the General Assembly denouncing Israel’s alleged South African ties, singling it out from other nations who have much more trade with South Africa. The Arabs also accuse Israel of nuclear collaboration with South Africa. A resolution containing that accusation will be introduced for a vote at the end of the debate on apartheid later this week.