High praise for the Jews in the Arab countries coupled with assurances that nothing will happen to them as long as they “remain loyal to their own motherlands” and maintain no relations “with the Zionists of Palestine’ was voiced here last night by Lebanese delegate Charles Malik in a statement before the U.N. Security Council.
“The Jews have been living in Arabic speaking countries for practically countless centuries,” the Lebanese delegate said “In the Middle Ages they collaborated most fruitfully with their Arab compatriots in the development of the ways and arts of civilization. Today, in Cairo, in Damascus, in Baghdad, all throughout the Arab world, the Jewish Nationals are honorable and respectable citizens of their respective countries playing their constructive role in commerce, in industry, in the free professions, and, at times, even in politics. It will never enter the minds of the Arab states to discriminate against them.
“In the circumstances, however, I wish to state that it is perfectly natural for the Arab states to tell their Jewish nationals that they cannot have any contact with the Zionists of Palestine. So long as these nationals remain loyal to their own motherland and so long as they scrupulously refrain from entering into any relations with the Zionists of Palestine they need fool no fear whatsoever from their own governments. They will always enjoy every protection and right enjoyed by any other national, Christian or Muslim,” Malik declared.
The Lebanese representative read to the Council an appeal made by the Arab Governments on May 15 to their own citizens uring them “to respect and protect the rights of their Jewish compatriots.” The same appeal asked the Jews in the Arab countries “to abstain from every forbidden contact with the Zionists” in order to avoid trouble. Malik reported that the police in his own country halted “by use of force,” an anti-Jewish demonstration and dispersed the demonstrators, causing some casualties among them.
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