UN Committee Expresses Hope Israel Will Allow It to Visit Occupied Territories

The chairman of a United Nations special committee investigating human rights in the Israel-occupied Arab territories has expressed hope that the Israel Government will relent in its refusal to permit the committee to visit the territories. The committee arrived in Beirut, Lebanon, April 5 following hearings in London on the status of the civilian population in the occupied areas. It is scheduled to visit Amman, Cairo and Damascus and Geneva prior to returning to UN headquarters here to render its report. Hamilton Amerasinghe the Ceylonese Ambassador to the UN who heads the investigating body said in Beirut that “the committee will make further approaches to Israel to allow a visit to the occupied territories and hopes that Israel will cooperate in this vital matter.” He said the committee declined to characterize in any way Israel’s refusal so far to cooperate with it or to characterize the evidence heard so far. The committee’s view is that all evidence must be in before commenting on any part of it, Mr. Amerasinghe said. He disclosed that the committee has instructed the placement of advertisements in newspapers of the United Kingdom, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Israel calling on witnesses to come forward.

Witnesses at the final hearings in London last week were Christopher Mayhew, a member of Parliament, Mrs. Leila Mantoura, described as a British subject of Palestinian origin and Richard Slot-over, a 22-year-old British law student. Mr. Mayhew, regarded as the leader of a pro-Arab faction in the British Labor Party, admitted that his personal knowledge of conditions in occupied territories was limited to a five day visit last January to East Jerusalem, Gaza and Ramallah. But he claimed that tension and fear were unmistakeable. According to Mr. Mayhew, the fear in Gaza is of physical confrontation with the occupying forces while in East Jerusalem there was psychological tension because intellectuals were afraid of deportation or detention without trial. Mayhew said he had no first hand knowledge of force being used during the questioning of Arab prisoners but cited a report published, at his urging he said, by Amnesty International of which he is a member. The report presents the unrebutted testimony of Arab prisoners as “prima facie” evidence of maltreatment of prisoners in Israeli Jails.

Amnesty International, whose report, released last week, created a furor in Israel and in its American section, said it sent the committee copies of its report. The committee spokesman said his group will try to hear Amnesty members but did not indicate when or where. Mrs. Mantoura claimed she had been spat upon by Israelis in Gaza in 1968 because she wore a cross and when she spat back she was forced to stand in detention for six hours. Mr. Slotover said he visited the occupied territories in 1967, 1968 and 1969 and saw no signs of discomfort or unhappiness among the people. Among earlier witnesses at committee hearings were two Israeli Jews, Moshe Machover who described himself as a former lecturer at Hebrew University and currently a university lecturer in London and Abraham Heilbronn who said he was currently a research assistant at the University of London. Both testified that there was abuse by Israelis of Arabs in occupied territories. The Israeli Embassy in London has identified the two as members of Mazpen, an ultra-left splinter group in Israel which is known there as the Israeli Socialist Organization. An Embassy spokesman said the Embassy did not know the two Israelis were giving evidence at committee hearings.