The movement of men and goods across the bridges of the Jordan River and the brisk, if unofficial trade, between the East and West banks demonstrates that peaceful coexistence is possible between Israelis and Arabs despite the hostilities engendered by war and the absence of treaties of peace, Israel’s former Deputy Minister of Defense, Simon Peres, declared in an address here. Mr. Peres spoke in the course of a tour on behalf of the Swiss Zionist Federation and WIZO — Women’s International Zionist Organization. He noted that despite the lack of peace, the Arabs in Israel-occupied territories have not been cut off from the Arab world.
Mr. Peres saw little immediate prospect for a permanent peace and said that was a condition that Israel, as well as the Arabs, must live with for the time being.
(Israel has more or less given its official sanction to the unofficial trade that has been moving between the West and the East banks of the Jordan since last June’s war. A ministerial committee in charge of occupied Arab territories announced last weekend that West Bank Arabs who export their produce to the East Bank, could now import Jordanian goods. Up to then, they had been permitted to bring in only goods that belonged to residents of the West Bank or East Jerusalem prior to last June 5. Residents of occupied territories are not required to declare foreign currency earned in Jordan unless they want export incentives or tax rebates from the Israel treasury.)
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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.
