The Jerusalem municipality announced today that it would take part as planned in the UN-sponsored “World Environment Day” Saturday despite the UN’s last-minute withdrawal of its invitation to Jerusalem to participate. The withdrawal, revealed by the Jerusalem Post’s correspondent to the “Habitat” conference in Vancouver, came as a result of pressure from Arab delegations there.
The UN environment program Secretary General, Mustafa Tolba, sent an urgent cable to Jerusalem’s Mayor Teddy Kollek yesterday cancelling an earlier invitation to Jerusalem to be one of 1600 cities the world over asked to close a central street to traffic Saturday. A UN official at “Habitat” told the Jerusalem Post that the invitation had been withdrawn “because of UN resolutions on Jerusalem going back to 1948.” That year the UN voted Jerusalem an international city. The resolution has never been formally revoked. The official acknowledged that the cancellation followed Arab involvement in the affair.
A municipal spokesman said today Jerusalem would go ahead and close its downtown King George Street as planned. “We will not be dictated to by our enemies as to how we proceed to solve ecological problems,” the spokesman declared. Other areas of Jerusalem are normally closed to traffic Saturdays because of the religious sensibilities of their residents.
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