Total opposition to the territorial demands presented on Monday by the Arab delegations here to the U.N. conciliation Commission for Palestine is expressed in a statement which will be submitted to the Commission tomorrow by the Israel delegation.
However, it was learned here today that Israel is concerned less with the Arab territorial demands — which have already been defeated largely by their own absurdity — than with the demand for revision of Israel frontiers which is expected to be made by American representatives.
It is understood that Israel stakes its border claims on the armistice frontiers and also demands a reestablishment of Egyptian frontiers as they existed in Palestine under the former Mandatory Power, and which would involve Egyptian evacuation of the Gaza coastal strip.
While it is reported here that American representatives continue to press Israel for territorial concessions in the southern part of the Negev, it is also reported that the British indicated that they no longer have any territorial interest in southern Palestine. They believe that the continuity of the Arab states’ territory could be ensured by a road crossing. Israel territory from Egypt to Transjordan, near Akaba, which would be a kind of free zone.
Members of the U.N. Conciliation Commission emphasized today that the Arabs, in their statement on Monday, expressed their willingness to discuss frontiers other than those specifically demanded. The Commission members hope that Israel will take this opportunity to do so since an alternative to continued negotiations through the Conciliation Commission would be the ultimate imposition of a solution either by the U.N. economic survey group headed by Gordon R. Clapp or by the U.N. General Assembly which opens its session at Flushing Meadows in three weeks.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
