Israel today made a plea to the United Nations to adopt a 21-member resolution pending in the General Assembly’s Special Political Committee, calling for direct peace negotiations between the Arab states and Israel.
“However long and stormy this path of negotiation may be,” Michael S. Comay, Israel’s permanent representative here, maintained, “there does not appear to be any other realistic path to a settlement.”
“It is true,” Mr. Comay stated, “that the Arab States are unwilling to walk this path with us. What are the alternative? There are only two–either to leave the (Arab) refugee problem unsolved, maybe for decades to come; or to allow the situation to drift again into renewed warfare, with all the bloodshed, misery and destruction that would bring in its wake.”
Mr. Comay spoke before the committee as, after three weeks of debate occupied chiefly by Arab attacks against Israel, the group reached its real objective–the consideration of resolutions on the touchy Arab refugee problem. One of the principal Arab detractors of Israel, Ahmad Shukairy, of Saudi Arabia, was missing today, and the Saudi Arabian position in the committee chamber was vacant. Shukairy left here Saturday, unannounced but not unnoticed, having been recalled from his post by Saudi Arabia’s King Feisal.
A number of delegates, including Arabs embarrassed by his volatile speeches stirring anti-Semitism and endorsing the neo-Nazi Tacuara movement of Argentina, had asked King Feisal to take him away from the already highly charged UN scene. Shukairy said before he left, however, that he expects to be back here, possibly as the representative of Syria. Known as one who has been hired by several Arab governments previously–including Jordan and Syria–Shukairy assured friends, “I’ll return.”
JORDAN PLEADS FOR U.N. CUSTODIANSHIP OVER ARAB PROPERTY IN ISRAEL
The Special Political Committee has before it three separate resolutions: 1. The 21-member draft seeking peace talks between the Arab states and Israel; 2. A pro-Arab resolution, requesting the appointment of a UN custodian over Arab property in Israel; and 3. An American resolution, extending for two years after next June 30, until June 30, 1965, the expiring mandate of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
Mr. Comay’s intervention today came after Jordan pleaded for the custodianship and upbraided the U. S. A. for not going far enough in backing the Arab claims against Israel. Then came John D. L. Hood, of Australia. He rejected both the custodianship resolution sparked by the Arabs and the peace talks draft endorsed by Israel, saying that peace negotiations now would be “inopportune” and “impracticable.”
Mr. Comay, however, told the committee that the only hope for a solution of not only the refugee problem but of all issues outstanding between Israel and the hostile Arab states lies in negotiations. He recalled that Israel and the Arabs had already engaged in negotiations when they completed armistice agreements in 1949. He noted that the Palestine Conciliation Commission, a body which reports to this very committee, had informed the committee three years ago that, in considering a solution of the refugee problem, the UN must take into account the fact that a settlement “would involve important commitments by Israel.”
“At any rate,” the Israeli said, “as far as the Government of Israel is concerned, it can consider its attitude and policy on the refugee question only with regard to the situation as a whole, and that situation includes the state of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.”
Mr. Comay did not discuss his Government’s position on the American resolution, indicating that his delegation may touch upon that draft later. But he strongly opposed the Arab demand for a property custodian inside Israel. He cited numerous international rulings to show that the UN could have “no competence” in that regard. Like the U.S.A. before him, during last week’s portion of the debate, he insisted that such a custodian would in effect be violating Israel’s sovereignty.
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