UN Committee Probing Human Rights in Israeli-occupied Territories Hit Back at Tekoah

The United Nations special committee investigating human rights in Israeli-occupied territories, hit back against a charge made by Israel’s Ambassador Yosef Tekoah that the committee’s first two witnesses in London were well known for their anti-Israel bias. The committee’s answer was released by the United Nation’s information officer accompanying the group in London and Arab capitals. Mr. Tekoah, on April 3, charged that John Reddaway, former deputy commissioner of UNRWA, had “gained notoriety by his hostility to Israel and that his activities were the subject of an official complaint by Israel to UNRWA–it was shortly thereafter that he left the agency.” The Israeli ambassador also charged that the second witness. Michael Adams was “a well-known Arab propagandists in the employ of Arab information services in London” and “receives regular remuneration from them.”

Replying to these charges, the committee’s spokesman asserted that “the Permanent Mission of Israel (to the UN) has acted in such a manner without attempting to ascertain the facts…” He added that the three-member group took precautions to ensure a full and objective investigation by contacting “persons with a first-hand knowledge of the conditions in the occupied territories and persons with information gained from visits to the area.” Those contacted were “not only persons whom the Permanent Mission of Israel chooses to describe as ‘pro-Arab,’ but persons who may be described as pro-Israel, among whom was the Consul-General of Israel in London.” The committee, its spokesman added, placed paid notices in the newspapers of all the countries which it is visiting and in two Israeli newspapers, the Jerusalem Post and Ha’aretz, requesting persons with evidence to testify.

A statement submitted to the committee by Mr. Reddaway said it was “totally untrue” that he resigned from UNRWA after the complaint by Israel. He contended the flak was due to “a sensationalist report by a Jewish correspondent in London,” about a “press conference which I gave at the United Nations Information Center in London in July, 1967. It was well over a year later that I relinquished my post.” Mr. Adams wrote to the committee stating that “I am not in the employ of Arab information services and that I do not now receive, nor have I received at any times in the past, remuneration from such services. This plainly libellous assertion is unhappily characteristic of the tactics employed by official Israeli and unofficial pro-Israeli information services.”