Israel walked out of the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission today when the United Nations chairman of the unit accepted the Jordanian explanation that an Arab Legionnaire had gone “insane” and fired a Bren gun with which he killed four Israeli delegates to an archaeological congress and wounded 15 others at Ramath Rachel on September 23.
The Israelis rejected a Jordan offer to have the soldier examined by medical authorities, noting that a request by the UN to examine the man two days after the incident had been turned down by Jordan authorities. Now, the Israelis argued, an examination would reveal nothing useful.
The UN chairman, Col. Christian Moe, said that in the absence of proof that more than one man fired at a crowd of several hundred persons visiting archaeological diggings at the Israeli settlement, he was inclined to accept the Jordan version. The Israelis have charged that witnesses testified that two machine guns and one rifle were fired during the incident. An Israeli retaliatory raid on Husan several days after the incident cost the lives of 50 Jordan soldiers.
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