Israeli representative to the U.N. Aubrey S. Eban today told the General Assembly that Israel will vote against a proposed resolution lifting the U.N. diplomatic embargo on the Franco regime in Spain.
In taking this stand, Eban explained that the Israeli delegation is not concerned at this time with the question of diplomatic representation or with any criticism of the Spanish people. What is important for Israel, Eban continued, is that the Franco regime was sympathetically linked to the Hazi-fascist alliance which ended in the extermination of 6,000,000 Jews.
Had that alliance prevailed, Eban said, neither the U.N. nor Israel would exist today and “the Jewish people and its ancient civilization would have perished from the earth.” The memory of Jewish extermination, added Eban, is the decisive factor in determining Israel’s stand on the resolution.
“One million Jewish children were thrown like useless rubbish into furnaces and gas chamber,” Eban continued. “If the history of Israel lasts for countless millennia, we shall never, never, for a single moment allow ourselves to forget this most frightful episode in organized inhumanity.” He pointed out that he does not assert that the Spanish regime had any direct part in the extermination program, but it was sympathetic ally of the regime which was responsible for it and therefore the Israeli delegation, “in all conscience and responsibility,” must vote against lifting the diplomatic ban.
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