Gen. Vagn Bennike, United Nations truce chief in Palestine, told the Security Council this afternoon that the Israeli border villages were armed but not with the offensive weapons which were used in the Kibya raid. He was answering a question put to him by Abba Eban of Israel who had asked whether UN observers had examined the defense system of the border villages.
Gen. Bennike said that his observers had visited many border villages and had never reported seeing weapons other than machine guns, grenades, rifles, submachine guns and side arms. The records of complaints and investigations of the Mized Armistice Commission from 1949 contained no evidence that border villages were ever furnished with bangalore torpedoes, mortar bombs and demolition charges, he added. Gen. Bennike alleged that such weapons were used in the Kibya attack.
In reply to a query by Sir Gladwyn Jebb of Britain who asked about Prime Minister Ben Gurion’s statement that no single Army unit was absent from its base on the night in question, Gen. Bennike merely said that his report of the Kibya incident was based on reports of UN observers. He added that he had no further information on which to base his reply.
General Bennike agreed that the armistice system in general was a “transitional arrangement” to a permanent peace. However, he said in reply to Mr. Eban that it was not his duty to bring this to the attention of the Arab states.
When he was asked by the Israeli delegate about his statement that Israeli planes had attacked Bedouins and their herds in the demilitarized zone, he listed a number of reports of such attacks by his observers. Mr. Eban, in his question, said that neither he nor his colleagues had ever heard of such attacks.
Gen. Bennike said that on at least four different occasions Israelis had been reported as killing animals and human beings in these attacks. However, he did say that they were unable to see the bodies of any of the dead Arabs, as they had been buried.
In reply to another question by Mr. Eban, Gen. Bennike said that it was correct that the greatest number of armistice violations by Jordan were contiguous to the area of Israel’s greatest population.
GEN. BENNIKE CHARGES ISRAEL ARMY WITH “FREQUENT” ATTACKS
In reply to a question put to him by the Jordan representative, Gen. Bennike said that “in the light of events since the beginning of this year,” attacks carried out by regular Israeli forces had become more serious and more frequent. When he was asked by the Jordanian representative about organized attacks by the Arab Legions, Gen. Bennike said that “Jordan regular forces” were condemned for three violations of the armistice agreement, none of which was organized by the Arab Legion.
There were a number of questions directed to him by the representatives of the Big Three Western Powers on the strengthening of the UN observer corps. Gen. Bennike said that last August he had recommended that the number of observers be increased by seven, and that additional observers be drawn from Sweden, Denmark and New Zealand. He considered that this increase would be enough. These seven would be in addition to his present staff of 19 military observers.
Gen. Bennike was asked how many Arabs had been expelled from Israel since 1948. This question came from Dr. Charles Malik of Lebanon. His answer, a long one, was that several thousand had been expelled, but in most cases Israel claimed that the persons expelled did not hold Israel identification cards and had been living in Israel illegally.
BRITISH DELEGATE HOLDS ISRAEL RESPONSIBLE FOR KIBYA INCIDENT
Sir Gladwyn Jebb charged that “Israel military forces were implicated” in the raid on the Jordan village of Kibya. He said that his government was, on the evidence so far submitted, in full agreement with Gen. Bennike. “In the view of Her Majesty’s Government, therefore, it is very difficult for the Israel Government to escape responsibility for the attack,” he said.
American delegate Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., in a brief statement, said that he wanted to wait to hear the views of both sides in the dispute before he made a judgment. The French delegate spoke in much the same vein as the British representative. The session adjourned until Thursday.
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