U.N. Envoy Was Snubbed by Egypt in Attempt to Study Plight of Jews

Nils-Goran Gussing reported today to the United Nations General Assembly that he had been rebuffed by Egypt in his efforts to determine the condition of Jews in Egypt since the six-day June war.

Mr. Gussing went to the Middle East as Secretary-General U Thant’s representative to determine Israel’s compliance with a June 14 Security Council resolution calling on Israel to ensure the security of Arab residents of Israeli-occupied territories.

Mr. Gussing reported that on August 17 he sent a request in writing to the governments of Syrin and Egypt, asking information on the treatment of Jewish persons in those countries. He indicated he had stressed it would be “particularly helpful” to know “how the personal and property rights of such persons had been affected by the recent war, how many of them might have been and continued to be confined and for what reason, and whether they were free to leave the country in which they were resident.” He sent a similar letter about Arabs in occupied areas to Israel.

He reported that the Egyptian Government “expressed the firm opinion that the Security Council resolution did not apply to the Jewish minority” in Egypt, and asked clarification of the interpretation that it did apply.

When the Egyptian Government finally replied, he said, it took the position that the Jews of foreign nationality were looked after by the envoys of their respective countries; the stateless Jews were under the mandate of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees “who has an office in Cairo,” and the Jews of Egyptian nationality, he was bluntly told, were “solely the responsibility of the United Arab Republic Government.”

Mr. Gussing reported “persistent allegations that 500 to 600 Jewish men had been kept in detention since the beginning of the war and held incommunicado, although allowed to correspond by letter with their families and to receive relief assistance.” He also referred to reports that “the property of the Jews in Cairo had been confiscated.”

During his visit to Damascus on August 29, he reported, he discussed the problem with Syrian officials “at some length.” Pending a written answer, he was told, the Syrian Government “welcomed the chance to assure the Special Representative that the Jewish minority in Syria, numbering about 4,000, and mainly concentrated in the cities of Damascus, Aleppo and Kamishli, were treated in exactly the same way as other Syrian citizens.”

He was also told that “as among the Christian and Moslem population” in Syria, there were among the Jews certain individuals who were under suspicion for anti-Government activities and were therefore restricted in their movements for security reasons.” During a tour of the shopping district of Damascus, “in the company of officials of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the Interior.” he reported, he saw “a number of Jewish shops which all seemed to be working normally.”