Israel Seeks U. N. Security Council Action on Negev Massacre

Israel Premier and Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett today announced in Parliament that the Israel Government has urgently requested the Western Powers to call an immediate session of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the massacre of 11 Israelis in the attack by Jordanians last week on an Israeli bus in the Negev. At the same time, he declared that Israel must strengthen its border defenses “to forestall evil designs against us. “

Mr. Sharett said that the fact that Commander E. R. Hutchinson, U.S.N., refused yesterday to vote–as United Nations chairman of the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission–for the Israel resolution condemning Jordan for the attack is taken by the Israel Government as proof that the Mixed Armistice Commission has failed in its responsibility. Because of this development, the Israel Government has reached the conclusion that “there is no more sense” in its further participation in the Commission.

“In making this decision, ” Mr. Sharett told Parliament, ” the Israel Government does not intend to repudiate the armistice agreement responsibility with Jordan. We have no intention of embarking on aggression or of indulging in provocation by being a party to turning the armistice into a farce by participating in an institution which has betrayed its primary duty of denouncing breaches of the armistice. Our position must not be interpreted that we shall not seek to denounce this crime before a United Nations forum. “

SHARETT CRITICIZES U.S. CHAIRMAN OF MIXED ARMISTICE COMMISSION

The Israel Premier then revealed that the Negev outrage will be placed before the UN Security Council now that Israel has walked out of the Mixed Armistice Commission. He severely criticized Commander Hutchinson for abstaining, as UN chairman of the MAC, from voting on the resolution which Israel presented to the Commission, charging Jordan with responsibility for the atrocity.

“As the representative of the United Nations it was up to him to express himself on this crucial question, ” Mr. Sharett said. “As the conscience and the authority of the international organization charged with supervising and implementation of armistice agreements, he was duty-bound to uphold the aggrieved party and condemn the aggressor.

“However, ” the Israel Premier continued, “like one of those in the famous purgatory in Dante’s ‘Inferno’ who took no sides between good and evil, truth and falsehood, he neither repudiated the Jordanian fabrication nor supported Isrel’s draft resolution.”

Terming the killing of the 11 Israelis “the gravest and most brazen act of violence” perpetrated by the Arabs since the end of the War of Liberation and emphasizing that it was “in effect a warlike act, ” Mr. Sharett told Parliament that “the attack bore the unmistakable character of a military operation properly planned and methodically executed.” (The full text of Premier Sharett’s speech starts on Page 3.)