State Dept. Report on Israel Seen As More Balanced Than Media Reports

The State Department’s third annual “Report on Human Rights Practices” in 115 countries, formally issued yesterday, is considered by Congressional sources as. presenting a “much better, much more balanced” assessment of Israel’s treatment of Arab prisoners on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip than “premature” media accounts published earlier in the week.

The sources also observed that the 706 page volume dealing only with those countries receiving U.S. economic assistance or proposed as recipients of security aid put “a rosy face” on many countries with which the United States has major economic ties, particularly oil-producing Arab States. The report was released by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee whose members said, in an accompanying statement, that it “will be carefully studied and taken into account as the two committees consider the foreign assistance legislation this year.”

Neither committee had pl### for separate hearings on the report itself, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was informed, but it will doubtlessly be used as a reference in the discussion on aid.

With Israel’s practices concerning prisoners occupying wide media attention, to the complete exclusion of the 114 other countries in the report, Congressional sources noted that the same situation prevailed last year when Israel’s situation underwent intensive intense media scrutiny before the official documentation was made public.

MU ON LEAKS

“These leaks definitely come from the State Department,” one source said. “People hostile to Israel or friendly to her enemies give selected materials to selected reporters for use as a club with which to beat Israel. They will, of course, continue to do this in one way or another.”

The State Department has not indicated it will investigate how classified documents, such as the two Alexandra U. Johnson cables from East Jerusalem and other materials on human rights assessments, have become available to the media here. Miss Johnson was a Consulate officer in the East Jerusalem American Consulate who has been dismissed from the Foreign Service and is now in Washington.

ARAB GROUP’S DEMAND REJECTED

Meanwhile, Carter Administration officials told the JTA that they have rejected the demand by the self-styled “Arab Human Rights Campaign” group to President Carter for a U.S. Commission of Inquiry to go to Israel and investigate Arab allegations of “mistreatment” reported in sections of the media. These officials said that they do not think a commission is necessary. “The State Department’s report made it very clear that this is the allegations–is something certainly not condoned by the Israeli government and the reported incidents are not a matter of Israeli policy.”

The Campaign group held a press conference last Friday at the National Press Club where they Introduced two men who alleged they had been tortured during their imprisonment. The group, which was given space at the Club under the sponsorship of Mohammed Hakki, the Egyptian. Embassy, Minister Councilor for Press and information, ### a pr###### Which ### that the call for a Commission of ###ily was endorsed by, among others, ### .F. Stone, James Abourere, Prof. Richard Folk, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Noom G###sky and Dr. Jame Zogby who was chairman of the press conference.

BEGIN’S REACTION TO STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT

(Granted. Begin said, the State Department report had pointed to instances where “For security reasons not all human rights on the West Bank and Gaza–Begin’s woras– are maintained. And me have our opinion about that sentence in the report. However there was certainly “nothing in the Department report about torture, God forbid …”)

(The Premier again branded the torture allegations “a vicious, baseless calumny.” He noted that “tens of countries trampled on human rights” and yet “moralized” to others “We reject the allegations utterly, “he asserted.” There is nothing more to comment about.”)

(Actually, the State Department report said, in reference to Human rights on the West Bank and Gaza. “Under the military regime that governs the occupied territories … certain of the normal human rights’ guarantees that are taken for granted in Israel proper have been suspended on security grounds.” See Feb. 5 Bulletin for excerpts. from State Department report.)

OTHER ELEMENTS IN THE REPORT

The report’s eight-page Egyptian section is replete with praise for President Anwar Sadat’s “liberalization in the political, economic and social spheres of Egyptian life” but noted that this movement was “uneven in 1978.” In discussing Jordan, the report notes that “the Jordanian government is sensitive to monitoring or criticism of its policies with respect to human rights which it views as an internal matter.” However, the report states Jordan “has been particularly active in international forums on the question of the treatment of prisoners in the occupied West Bank.”

Similarly, Syria’s President Hafez Assad is lauded in the report for “significant improvement in human rights practices.” Nevertheless, the report observes, a formal ban on emigration exists on professional personnel, those liable for military service “and members of the Jewish community.” It says that “the prohibition against Jewish emigration has been lifted in a limited number of cases, primarily involving unmarried woman and family reunions” and that the Assad government has allowed American Jews “to establish and maintain contacts” with Jews in Syria.

In an append is, devoted to freedom House ratings for 1978, the report shows Israel on a level with Finland, India, Greece, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain and Turkey on political rights; and with Finland, France, West Germany, Greece, India, Italy and Portugal in civil liberties, Egypt is rated less free than such countries as EI Salvador and Guatemala and about on a par with South Africa, Kenya, South Korean and Indonesia.