Opponents of Israel’s admission to United Nations membership indicated here today that they intend to urge postponement of voting on the Israeli application until the next session of the General Assembly in September.
The anti-Israeli forces are greatly encouraged by the fact that the General Assembly decided on Wednesday, by a vote of 31 to 18, with seven abstentions, to refer the Israeli application to its Political Committee despite the fact that the Assembly’s steering committee recommended last week that the Assembly take an immediate vote on admission.
The Assembly’s decision to have the Israeli application first screened by the political Committee was influenced greatly by a long list of Arab and Latin American speakers who demanded that Israel clarify its position on the internationalization of Jerusalem and on the Arab refugee question before being admitted to U.N. membership. A surprise development in the debate was an announcement by. Denmark and Sweden favoring the delay because of Israel’s failure to discover and punish the assassins of Count Folke Bernadotte, late U.N. Palestine mediator.
The Soviet Union was the only delegation which came out at the Assembly in outright support of Israel’s immediate admission. The United States, while supporting admission, did not speak up in behalf of immediate admission. The vote, by roll call, was as follows:
For sending the application to the Political Committee, (31): Afghanistan, Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Cuba, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Greece, Haiti, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Siam, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, South Africa, United kingdom, Venezuela and Yemen.
Against, (18): Australia, Byelo-Russia, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, France, Guatemala, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, United States, Uruguay and Yugoslavia.
Abstained, (7); Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua and Philippines. Iceland and Paraguay were absent.
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