UN Unit Votes Resolution Seeking Committee to Probe Rights Status in Occupied Areas

A coalition of the Afro-Asian states and the Communist bloc pushed through the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee on Friday a resolution empowering the General Assembly president to name a special committee composed of representatives of three member states “to investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the population” of the territories Israel occupied in the Six-Day War. The draft resolution, backed by 13 states, was carried by a vote of 55 to 16 with 41 abstentions. The United States cast one of the opposition votes. Great Britain abstained.

Israel was expected to make its rejection of the resolution clear when its representative in the committee, Mrs. Tamar Eshel, speaks on Monday. The resolution calls on Israel to “receive the special committee, to cooperate with it and to facilitate its work.” Israel previously declined to receive a special UN representative of the Secretary-General, who was to be named under a Security Council resolution, unless his terms of reference also included investigation of the treatment of Jewish civilians in the Arab states.

Several states that abstained from voting on the resolution took the position that the resolution was political in nature rather than humanitarian in purpose. The committee has been largely stymied in its work by the continuing efforts of the Arab representatives and their allies to use it as a forum for anti-Israel attacks. The resolution pushed through the committee incorporated an anti-Israel resolution adopted by the international conference on human rights at Teheran last May.

Earlier in the debate, Mrs. Eshel characterized the draft resolution as part of the “continuing political warfare” carried out against Israel by the Arab states. She pointed out that of the 13 co-sponsors, nine did not recognize Israel.

SEN. COOPER CRITICIZES ISRAELI RESPONSE TO UN APPEALS ON REFUGEES

In the General Assembly’s Special Political Committee on Friday, the U.S. representative, Sen. John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky, said that Israel’s response to UN appeals on behalf of Arab refugees had been “inadequate” and that Israel must establish a more liberal policy toward the return of refugees to the West Bank as a first step in any Middle East settlement. The committee is considering extending the mandate of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Arab refugees due to expire next June.

Sen. Cooper, a Republican, said that Israel has not yet carried out the Security Council’s resolution asking it to facilitate the return of persons who fled the West Bank in the wake of the June, 1967 war. He asked Israel “to take meaningful steps to carry out the purposes of this resolution, purposes which we hope very much will help to lay the foundations of a just peace.” He said Israel had taken back only 20,000 of an estimated 250,000 refugees which the U.S. considers an “inadequate response.” Sen. Cooper was reported to have said privately that his speech represented a change of U.S. policy. Observers said it was the sharpest U.S. public criticism of Israel so far.

Ambassador Michael Comay of Israel branded as “nonsense” the position that Israel should disregard political and security aspects of the Arab refugee situation. Speaking during the debate, he said that Israel would do nothing to prejudice its own security. Who could expect it to “open the battle lines to an uncontrolled influx of people indoctrinated with hate for Israel?” he asked. Referring to the proposed investigation of the condition of Arabs in the occupied territories, Mr. Comay said his Government could not accept a representative on a “discriminatory” basis ignoring the plight of the “wretched, captive Jews in the surrounding countries.” Sen. Cooper announced a pledge of $22,200,000 by the United States to UNRWA. A total $35,750,474 was pledged for the coming year by 38 countries. This included a special pledge of $2.5 million by West Germany in addition to its usual contribution. The U.S. pledge was based on the condition that it must not be more than 70 percent of the total received.

Israel responded to appeals in the UN on behalf of refugees from the West Bank by announcing that the deadline for 7,000 re-entry permits issued last year would be extended until Jan. 31, 1969. The permits represent the unused balance of about 20,000 that were issued to Arabs. So far only a handful have taken advantage of the extension. Israel announced that permits still unused by the new deadline would be transferred to other Arabs who apply for repatriation.