Although supporting some amendments and changes, Israel finds itself in general agreement with an 18-power proposal to set up a commission to study the racial situation in South Africa, Dr. Shmuel Eliashiv told the Ad Hoc Political Committee of the U.N. General Assembly today.
He expressed the hope that the Union of South Africa would find its way clear to cooperate with the commission. At the same time, the Israeli delegate spoke of the friendly relations between Israel and the South African Government and said that any resolution “should not offend the susceptibilities of a sovereign country.”
Dr. Eliashiv underlined “the special significance of the question of racial discrimination for us. “In its long history, the Jewish people has known racial discrimination “only too intimately” and is sensitive to its implications wherever they occur, he pointed out. The aim of the United Nations, he said, should be to bring racial discrimination to an end, promote the principles of the U.N. Charter and achieve a practical solution of the problem.
Dr. Eliashiv added that once the question of racial discrimination was raised, it was difficult to limit it to the one particular country–South Africa–mentioned in the resolution. He indicated that the same clauses in the Charter might be invoked against others including some of the co-sponsors of the resolution. He said that he could not agree with the South African proposal that the United Nations was not competent to consider this problem.
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.
