Saudi Arabia today sharply attacked the United States here for allegedly using “undue pressure and every amount of duress” against the Arabs in every phase of the entire “Palestine Question,” from Palestine partition to the present.
Ahmad Shukairy, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for United Nations Affairs, and chairman of the country’s delegation, declared the United States was “disqualified” to continue membership on the three-man Palestine Conciliation Commission, on which the United States serves with Turkey and France, and warned that unless the United States changed its position “we will be bound to discontinue our cooperation with the Commission.”
America’s “undue pressure” against the Arabs., Shukairy said, was evidenced in 1947 when United States “pressure” for the adoption of the Palestine partition plan, was manifested further when Washington recognized Israel “one minute” after the Jewish State declared itself independent in 1948, and was further “aggravated” when America “pressured” the U. N. into admission of Israel as a member in 1949.
Shukairy told the United Nations that the Arab refugees owe no “indebtedness” to the United States for the fact that it has spent $222,000,000 so far for aid to the refugees through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. That sum, he said “is only a partial price for the policy of the United States on the question of Palestine.” The refugees are not being “repatriated” to Israel, he maintained, “because of Israel’s defiance,” and “the United States alone, not to say the U. N., can bring Israel to her knees.”
The Saudi Arabian criticized the United States Undersecretary of State, Francis O. Wilcox, who is participating in the refugee debate as a member of the U.S. delegation. He said Mr. Wilcox “instead of disclosing the rebellion of Israel against the efforts of the P. C. C., places the Arab governments and Israel on the same footing” by appealing to both for “restraint” and for “cooperation.” Such an appeal, he stated, should be addressed to Israel only. He rejected all Israeli demands for Arab-Israeli negotiations.
Mr. Wilcox took the floor and told the U. N. committee that the United States would not reply to the “attacks and insinuations against me and my country” by the representative of Saudi Arabia. “I reject those attacks and insinuations,” Mr. Wilcox. He urged the committee to go on with the important tasks before it.
The statement by Mr. Wilcox concluded the debate on the Arab refugee problem, and the committee turned to another item, dealing with proposals to expand the memberships of the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council. When that matter is disposed of, the committee will return to the Arab refugee problem and will consider one or more draft resolutions now being circulated on the refugee issue.
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.
