Israel Protests to Security Council on Jordan’s Attack in Jerusalem

Israel charged today that Jordan forces had carried out a “deliberate and unprovoked attack directed solely at civilian targets” when they opened fire yesterday afternoon from the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, killing two Israelis and wounding several others.

In a letter of complaint to the Security Council today, Israel said that the attack “was carried out at short range, in broad daylight in a thickly populated area and with the obvious intent of indiscriminate killing.” The Israel protest asserted that “the annals of the Israel-Jordan armistice do not contain any episode more vicious and wanton than this one.”

In the letter to be circulated to members of the Security Council as a formal document, Ambassador Michael S. Comay, permanent Israeli representative to the UN, affirmed that “not a single shot was fired from the Israeli side before, during or after this incident, and no Israeli patrol or other armed personnel were involved in it. Jordanian allegations to the contrary are untrue.”

The letter accused Jordan of fabricating a charge that there had been Israeli shooting a half hour earlier in order to provide a pretext for the Jordanian action. The letter asserted that at least two Jordanian posts took part in the shooting. It said “the government of Jordan must accept full responsibility for this deed perpetrated by its military forces in gross violation of the Israel-Jordan general armistice agreement and of ordinary human decency.”

The letter noted that an immediate Mixed Armistice Commission investigation had been requested and was proceeding. Ambassador Comay requested the circulation of the complaint to the Security Council as an official document. He did not ask for a Council meeting.