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Herut Leader Wants Egypt to Leave the Occupied Gaza Strip

August 19, 1954
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Israel should demand at the next session of the United Nations General Assembly adoption of a resolution ordering the Egyptians to evacuate the Gaza Strip in Palestine, Menachem Beigin, leader of the extreme nationalist Herut Party, today told foreign newspapermen here.

Distributing to the press a “proclamation” which he said spoke in the name of “all citizens of Israel,” Mr. Beigin insisted the Egyptians must leave Gaza, where their presence is “like a pistol aimed at Israel’s heart.” The Strip, he said, must be “freed of foreigners.” Those Arabs who may want to remain in the Strip should be allowed to stay on as “full-fledged citizens of Israel, with rights equal to all other citizens,” he said.

Mr. Beigin asserted he does not want or believe in preventive war against Egypt. He protested against gifts of arms being given Egypt by the Western Powers, and ridiculed the notion that those arms would ever be used by Egypt against Soviet attack. He quoted the British War Minister as stating that atomic weapons would prevent the Russians from penetrating into the Middle East.

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