A dispute between Israeli authorities and United Nations truce supervisory personnel over the right to open an oil drum being shipped by the Israelis to guards atop Mt. Scopus has been settled in favor of the Israelis, it was announced here today by a Foreign Office communique.
On June 4 a U.N. officer checking a supply train heading for Mt. Scopus demanded the right to open an oil drum to check its contents against the party’s manifest. The Israelis refused to permit the search, as a matter of principle, insisting that if the U.N. officer refused to permit the drum to go through it must be returned.
Instead, the U.N. officer impounded the drum in a building used by both the Israelis and the U.N. Both parties placed armed guards outside the room in which the drum was kept and waited for U.N. truce chief Gen. William E. Riley to return from leave in the United States.
Upon his return this week, the General, with Israeli, Jordan and U.N. officers watching, opened the container. Finding that it contained oil as stated by the Israelis, he turned it over to them.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
