The total economic losses involved in the ten-year-old Arab boycott against Israel would cover the costs of resettlement of all Arab refugees in a “generous manner, “Yochanan Bader, member of the Israel Knesset, told the Inter-Parliamentary Union conference here today
Warning the Arab leaders that their expectation of destroying Israel by boycott would be frustrated, Mr. Bader said the boycott “harms us no doubt but the damage is less than one percent of our national income. The losses of the boycotting countries–their own cost of the boycott–are many times bigger than our losses.”
He called the decision of Shell Oil Company and British Petroleum to withdraw from sales activities in Israel an “ill-conceived and useless gesture of after-Suez appeasement.” He thanked the British Parliament members who voiced opposition to this “unnecessary surrender,” adding “it will make no difference in our oil supplies,”
The conference had before it today a general resolution on economic affairs which Mr. Bader mentioned in asking the delegates to support an Israel amendment which would urge each country not to support measures against another country.
“Economic warfare, boycott, intimidation and blockade cannot go together with economic cooperation and justice cannot be reconciled with discrimination,” he said. “If one state is denied free passage in international waterways and made the object of economic blockade and intimidation, this is a challenge to all states.”
Urging the conference to “speak out against” boycott actions by one state against another state, the Israel delegate said “boycott means tension, tension breeds hate, hate breeds bloodshed and the danger of war and our first duty is to peace. We ask you to accept our amendment for the sake of peace in the Middle East and the world at large.”
Israel amendments for a refugee resolution which had been debated during the weekend were defeated in committee action. One Israeli amendment which would have deleted a large section of the resolution dealing with refugee repatriation was defeated overwhelmingly. Another which would have deleted a specific reference to the Arab refugees was defeated by 21-15 vote. The resolution and amendments will come before the full conference tomorrow.
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