U.N. May Consider Jerusalem Issue on Monday; 1,000 U.S. Educators Submit Petition

The debate on the status of Jerusalem may start at the U.N. Ad Hoc Political Committee on Monday, it was indicated here today by informed sources. The issue is whether all of Jerusalem or only Holy Places in the Jerusalem area should be placed under international supervision.

In a petition submitted yesterday to the American delegation at the United Nations, more than 1,000 American educators urged the United States to take the initiative in solving the Jerusalem problem. They expressed support for the proposal that international supervision be restricted to the Holy Places instead of the complete internationalization plan approved in 1949. The petition was addressed to President Truman and a copy was also sent to the President of the U.N. General Assembly.

The 1,014 signers included 103 university and college presidents and 191 deans from 46 states and the District of Columbia. More than 100 of the signatories are on the staffs of theological seminaries; over 30 are from Columbia University, 55 from New York University, 18 from Boston University, 10 from Harvard. The signatories emphasize their belief that removal of the uncertainty over the status of Jerusalem will be particularly valuable from the educational point of view. Normalized relations between Jordan and Israel should lead to the opening of the now blocked route to the Hebrew University.

“It is tragic,” the petition states, “that in an area so poor in educational opportunities as the Middle East, the facilities of such a well-equipped institution as the Hebrew University have been unused for almost three years. Those facilities have always been dedicated to the study and progress of the entire Middle East and, from the day of the University’s founding, have been available to Arab and Jew alike.”