The subject of the Middle East will cone back into focus here tomorrow when the General Assembly hears major addresses by the region’s two most important Foreign Ministers–Mrs. Golda Meir of Israel and Dr. Mahmoud Fawzi of the United Arab Republic.
So far during this session of the Assembly, which is almost three weeks old, the crisis in the Far East has held first place in the Assembly debate. The Middle East in general, with Israel only a peripheral reference without being named, came up last week when Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold reported to the Assembly about his plans for facilitating withdrawal of American and British troops from Lebanon and Jordan.
Later in the week, Andrei A. Gromyko, Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, brought Israel into the debate by attacking the Jewish State as an alleged pawn of Anglo-American imperialism. On and off since the Hammarskjold report last week some of the pro-Nasser Arab delegations, as well as members of the Soviet bloc, have been insisting that the Hammarskjold report be made a special agenda item so that a full dress debate might be held in the Assembly.
Foremost interest tomorrow will be centered on the addresses to be made by Mrs. Meir and Dr. Fawzi. Both will detail the overall foreign policies of their respective governments, and born are expected to refer to the Hammarskjold report. In addition, Mrs. Meir mai reply to Mr. Gromyko’s anti-Israel insinuations.
U.N. HEARS REPORT ON ISRAEL’S SOCIAL AND HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS
Today the General Assembly was told that in spite of all the political and economic difficulties that have faced Israel during the first ten years of its sovereignty, the Jewish State has considered its activities in the social and humanitarian fields of foremost importance.
The statement was made in the Assembly’s Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee by Dr. Eliezer Yapou, Israel’s delegate to that committee. Dr. Yapou delineated Israel’s general policy regarding the activities assigned to the committee, calling attention to his government’s progressive policies in the social and humanitarian fields. Obliquely, without mentioning the name of any country, he assailed the Arab states for obstructing Israel’s humanitarian efforts.
In implementing its humanitarian programs, Dr. Yapou said, Israel had “to overcome difficulties arising out of the refusal of our neighbors to maintain proper and normal relations with us, and their policy of blind obstruction to the development of proper regional instrumentalities–of the United Nations and of the Specialized Agencies–to carry out common projects which, by their very nature, must have a proper regional basis if they are to be effective. “
Dr. Yapou pleaded with the Committee to advance its work of debating the two projected covenants which would implement the Declaration of Human Rights. The principles embodied in the UN Charter and in the Human Rights Declaration must be transformed, he said, “into a working rule of law. “
For the first time during the current Assembly, the UN’s Genocide Convention was mentioned in the address of Dr. Yapou. Pointing out that 58 nations have now ratified the Genocide Convention, he told the 81-member Committee: “To the Jewish people, six million of whose sons and daughters were put to death in one of the most barbaric outbursts in history during the Second World War, the outlawing and punishment of genocide by the international community meant another great step forward towards the establishment of the rule of law in the family of nations. “
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