Israel in Worldwide Effort to Enlist Support Against Arab Move to Suspend Israel from UN

Israeli diplomats around the world have been instructed to begin strenuous efforts to enlist support against the Arab move to suspend Israel from the United Nations. Officials in Jerusalem said today the first results of these diplomatic contacts have been not discouraging, with several governments undertaking to oppose the move and to urge others to do so too. The Israeli officials were reluctant to name specific governments.

Israel is suggesting, it was learned, that friendly states undertake to apply to themselves any restrictions or curtailments that the forth-coming General Assembly might vote to apply against the Israeli delegation.

The officials here reiterated Foreign Minister Yigal Allon’s warning last week that Israel would retaliate against the UN if it were discriminated against at the General Assembly. They stressed, however, that no firm decisions have yet been taken on how Israel would precisely act in that eventuality. Allon, in a Knesset statement last week, indicated that Israel would bar the UN from the Mideast peace-making process if it were suspended from the Assembly.

NOT LINKING ACCORD WITH OUSTER MOVE

The officials explained that Israel is not linking or hinging the current interim talks with Egypt with the Arab move against it at the UN. The agreement will be signed as soon as it is ready to be signed, assuming the negotiations can be successfully concluded, these officials said. Israel is not awaiting the result of the Assembly before entering into the agreement with Egypt, the officials explained.

At the same time, they pointed out, implementation of the agreement, if achieved, would only begin after the Assembly, and Israel would certainly not implement it if the UNEF role–a vital component of it–had been prejudiced by a discriminatory action against Israel at the Assembly

DENOUNCE MOVE BY OAU OFFICIALS

Meanwhile, officials here have decried the African foreign minister’s call at the Organization of African Unity (OAU) meeting in Kampala, Uganda, for Israel’s suspension from the UN, saying this action would undermine the existence of the world organization itself. The officials called on the African heads of state to “think again” before adopting their foreign minister’s recommendation.

In an implied word of encouragement to those African leaders who have expressed disapproval of the recommendation, the Israeli officials said any “action to avoid a sterile consensus at Kampala” would serve to raise the esteem of African states in the eyes of the world.