William Scranton, the new United States Ambassador to the United Nations, said yesterday that Jewish settlements in Israeli-occupied territories were an obstacle to negotiations for peace in the Middle East.
Scranton’s statement, his first major address at the UN, was made during the second day of the Security-Council meeting on the turmoil in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Although he stressed that he was restating long-term United States policy, this was the first time the U.S. had publicly stated at the UN any objections to Jewish settlement in the occupied territories.
Some observers saw this as a shift in U.S. policy, if not in substance then at least in tone. It was recalled that when Scranton presented his credentials last Friday to Secretary General Kurt Waldheim he told a press conference afterwards that the U.S. wanted to work well with the Arab countries. “I think you will find I am very open and ready to work with the Arab countries, as I have always been,” he said. The Israeli Mission to the UN had no comment on Scranton’s statement last night. (See separate stories on reactions from Israel and the White House.)
Quoting from the Geneva Convention, Scranton said: “Clearly then, substantial resettlement of the Israeli civilian population in occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, is illegal under the convention and cannot be considered to have prejudiced the outcome of future negotiations between the parties on the location of the borders of states in the Middle East.
“Indeed, the presence of these settlements is seen by my government as an obstacle to the success of the negotiations for a just and final peace between Israel and its neighbors.” Scranton, in criticizing the settlements in occupied territories, said “Unilateral acts have been taken that inflame the public.”
DEFENDS ISRAEL ON HOLY PLACES
However, Scranton rejected charges by the Arabs of religious discrimination by Israel on the West Bank and in Jerusalem. “Israel’s punctilious administration of the holy places in Jerusalem has greatly minimized the tensions,” he said. “We are gratified that the Supreme Court of Israel has upheld the Israeli government’s position” against allowing Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.
On the question of Jerusalem, Scranton declared: “The United States position could not be clearer. Since 1967 we have restated here…and to the government of Israel that the future of Jerusalem will be determined only through the instruments of negotiation, agreement and accommodation. Unilateral attempts to predetermine that future have so standing.”
No normal resolution has been introduced to the Security Council which is scheduled to continue its debate today and possibly tomorrow. But a tentative resolution has been circulated privately calling for an end to Israel “oppression” of Arabs in the occupied territory, demanding Israel prevent “desecration” of holy places and make no changes in the legal status of Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the Security Council, at Israel’s request, is circulating as an official UN document the report of the Jerusalem Committee, an international advisory group of religious leaders, scholars, architects and planners, which met last December and praised Israel’s administration of Jerusalem.
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