Israel this week-end welcomed independence for Libya and its chief United Nations delegate told the General Assembly’s Special Committee that Israel supported the 12-power joint resolution now before the committee hailing the country’s independence and urging its admission to the United Nations.
Ambassador Abba S. Eban, reviewing Israel’s stand on Libyan independence, said he did so to illustrate his government’s basic approach. “The conflicts which divide the Near East are acute, but transient, ” he said. “They will pass. On the other hand, the truth of regional co-operation will prevail and endure.”
The Israeli delegate praised the role of the United Nations in bringing about the independence of Libya and declared that “the United Nations, in the five years of its existence, has proved itself a potent influence in the liberation of peoples. ” He recalled that Palestine Jewish forces in World War II, the “forerunner of the Israeli Army,” had received their baptism of fire in Libya “at the approaches of Tobruk, Benghazi and Tripoli.”
The work of the World Health Organization, United Nations health agency, was hampered last year by the Arab states’ boycott of Israel, it was reported by the executive of W.H.O. The executive pointed out that the work of the agency was carried on by individual contact between the agency and the Middle East countries because the Eastern Mediterranean Region of W.H.O. could not hold a meeting in the face of Arab refusal to admit Israeli delegates to the parley.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.