Israel took issue today with the complaint submitted yesterday by 10 Arab nations to the United Nations Secretary General against the emigration of Jews to Israel. A spokesman for the Israeli delegation to the UN said that the Arab complaint violates a clause in Article II of the United Nations Charter, which forbids interference by members in the internal affairs of other members.
“As far back as 1948, Arab representatives in the Security Council debate on the Arab invasion of Israel expressed objections to free immigration into Israel, ” the spokesman said. He pointed out that Israel had then rejected such objections, contending that “immigration into Israel is no business of Egypt or Iraq or the Arab League, and can form no part of any discussions with them, just as Israel claims no rights to influence the immigration laws and policies of Egypt or Iraq or the countries of the Arab League. “
“This,” the Israel spokesman said, “has been the Israel Government’s position throughout these years, during which more than a million Jews have arrived in the country, among them at least 450, 000 from Arab states.
“The allegations contained in the note from the Arab representatives do not require special attention in order to understand their utter baselessness, ” the Israel official added. “Suffice it to say that, ever since Israel’s resurgence, the Government of Israel has repeatedly offered to conclude peace or pacts of non-aggression with the Arab states who remain adamant in their insistence on maintaining a State of War with Israel, thus violating the United Nations Charter and the principle provision of the Armistice in which the parties undertook to advance toward a final peaceful settlement.”
The spokesman said that “the true motive, and possibly the origin of the Arab note’s reaction to the humanitarian process of re-uniting the dispersed Jewish people with their kin in Israel are best illustrated by a statement on February 15, 1959 by the Voice of the Arabs, the official radio station in Cairo. ” He cited the statement as follows: “The only explanation for the increased Zionist immigration to Israel is a Zionist-imperialist plot–to face the world with a fait accompli that would make the liquidation of Israel much more difficult. “
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