A Jordanian letter to Secretary-General U Thant contending that Sunday night’s riots by Israeli youths in the Arab section of Jerusalem refuted Israel’s claim that Arab and Jews lived peacefully in that city brought a sharp reply from Israel today. Ambassador Yosef Tekoah, chief representative of Israel at the UN, noted in a letter of his own to Mr. Thant that the complaint of the Jordanian representative, Muhammad H. el-Farra, ignored the context in which the riots occurred – the explosion of grenades planted by Arab terrorists in downtown Jerusalem which injured 10 civilians, two of them seriously. “The letter also omits the fact that the Jerusalem authorities condemned the outburst of a number of Jewish youths incensed by these terror attacks against innocent civilians; that a number of the young men implicated were arrested and immediate steps taken to end the turbulence and prevent its recurrence,” he said. The Jordanian letter, with no mention of the grenade blasts, attributed the riots to “indoctrinated hatred towards the Arabs” and alleged that Israeli police were instructed not to intervene “until the Israeli mobs had completed their job.”
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