Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Arab Attacks Israel at U.N. Assembly; Asks for Ban on Zionism in U.S.

November 9, 1961
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

Ahmad Shukairy, chairman of the Saudi Arabian delegation, called in a speech before the plenary session of the General Assembly today, for steps which, he said, “will really be the end of Israel.” He also called upon the United States “to outlaw Zionism and to ban its activity.”

He voiced these sentiments in another of his well-known sharp anti-Israel diatribes in which he recited what he called the history of Zionism “to prove” that Zionist aims, dating back to Dr. Theodor Herzl, were “imperialist and colonialist.”

Michael S. Comay, chairman of the Israel delegation, replied to Mr. Shukairy from the Assembly rostrum. He said: “Since the delegate of Saudi Arabia is quite capable of making an anti-Israel speech in connection with every one of the 93 items on our agenda, I shall not take the time of the Assembly to reply to every false statement and every fabricated quotation recited by the delegate from Saudi Arabia; I shall say only it is a lot of wild nonsense; Zionism is the movement of Jewish national liberation; Whether the Saudi Arabian delegate likes it or not, Israel is a permanent feature of the landscape.”

Since Shukairy’s speech dealt with colonialist issues in general and attacked also Britain for its policy in Oman, he was answered by Joseph Godber, British Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, who also called the Saudi Arabian delegate a liar by referring to the speech as one “disgracefully far of the truth.”

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement