Israeli and Dutch Journalists Refute Charges of Israeli Cruelty to Arabs

An Israeli Journalist who travelled extensively in the occupied Arab territories told a United Nations special committee last week that Arab social and economic standards have improved notably since the June, 1967 war and most Arabs acknowledge this though they don’t “dance the national dance of Israel to its national hymn.” Gideon Weigert, a former correspondent of the Jerusalem Post and a self-described student of Arab affairs, testified in Geneva May 1 before the UN committee investigating the treatment of Arabs in the occupied areas. A summary of his testimony was released by the UN information Officer here today. Also released was the testimony taken in Geneva from a Dutch Journalist. Louis Velleman, who also visited the occupied territories and confirmed much of what Mr. Weigert said. The UN officer also released a comment by Claude Pilloud, of the International Red Cross, complaining that a summary of his testimony in Geneva released by the UN contained several inaccuracies and did not fully reflect what he had stated.

Mr. Weigert, who at one point broke down and wept, said that the evidence presented to the committee and carried by the world news media gave a picture “that is false, that is distorted.” He said the witnesses appearing before the committee fell into two classes–refugees from the fighting or emigres who left the territories immediately after the fighting, and people expelled for acts of terrorism and sabotage or for encouraging such acts. Their common aim, Mr. Weigert said, was to besmirch Israel and this was done with the blessing and approval of the Arab countries. The witness said he had spoken to hundreds of Arabs in the course of his work and had eaten and slept with them in towns and villages and refugee camps. He quoted from a series of articles in the Israeli press, several written by him, in which the Arabs acknowledged improved living conditions since the Israeli occupation. Production has increased three-fold since 1967 and income and profits four-fold, Mr. Weigert said.

Mr. Velleman stated in his testimony that it was very easy to find Arabs who would say they had been tortured but he could find no evidence of any individual cases of torture, let alone a systematic policy of torture that some witnesses attributed to the Israelis. Regarding the behavior of the occupying authorities, Mr. Velleman said the Arabs admitted that the Israeli military forces behaved properly. He said it was true that the Israelis demolished houses belonging to terrorist suspects, but the decisions were taken at the highest level, not by local commanders and were always reported to the press. Mr. Velleman said he had lived through the German occupation of Holland and there was no comparison between that and the Israeli occupation, as some Arab witnesses have charged. He also disputed the Arab terrorists’ analogy of themselves with underground resistance groups in Europe during World War II. Asked if he would call the underground movement in the Netherlands under the Nazis “terrorist,” he said the Dutch underground never threw bombs into market places or killed their own people as the El Fatah has done.