UN General Assembly Adjourns; Israel Protests Resolution on Occupied Areas

The 23rd session of the United Nations General Assembly ended yesterday sine die after Israel rejected outright a resolution approved by the Assembly on Friday empowering the Assembly president to name a three-state committee to investigate Israeli practices “affecting the human rights of the population” of the areas occupied by Israel.

The resolution received 60 affirmative votes but when the voting was completed five delegations sought to change their votes of support to abstention or opposition. The correct vote would have been 55 in favor of the anti-Israel resolution but the official record will show 60. Ambassador Josef Tekoah of Israel met with UN Secretary-General U Thant after the vote, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned, and complained about the hasty procedures under which resolutions were put through in the last minute rush before adjournment. It was noted that 10 resolutions sent to the Assembly from the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural (Third) Committee were submitted for voting in one-two-three order with the delegates on occasion not even being able to identify the resolutions correctly.

Mrs. Tamar Eshel of Israel told the Assembly that the resolution was “tainted” with discrimination and prejudiced the efforts of the Security Council to bring about lasting peace. She stressed that less than half of the UN members had supported the resolution and it could not be regarded as a general expression of UN opinion. The Assembly did not debate an item “The Situation in the Middle East,” on its agenda, apparently by a consensus that the issue had best be left to the Security Council, which remains “seized” of the Middle East conflict, and to the peace-making efforts of Dr. Gunnar Jarring, the special UN Mideast peace-seeking emissary. Mr. Tekoah told the closing session that it had been an Assembly “in which the desire for understanding and cooperation seems to have generally prevailed over division and discord.”