The Provisional Government of Algeria denied last night that it planned to play a militant role against Israel. A member of the Government expressed “doubt” about a statement attributed to Vice-Premier Mohammed Ben Bella who was quoted as saying that independent Algeria would contribute 100,000 soldiers to the Arab battle against Israel.
Mr. Ben Bella was quoted two weeks ago by the Mideast News Agency, of Cairo, as having made such a statement while in the capital of the United Arab Republic. But Mohammed Yazid, Minister of Information in the Algerian Provisional Government, said in Tunfe last night that the Vice-Premier had not been quoted correctly. Mr. Yazid told newsmen at Tunis that a “certain press” was conducting a campaign to “create a myth of division in our ranks.” Castigating such efforts, without naming the semi-official Cairo agency that had quoted Mr. Ben Bella, Mr. Yazid said “theories have been built on propositions attributed to Mr. Ben Bella that he has never made.”
In the Mideast News Agency report, Mr. Ben Bella was quoted as allegedly saying that “a Palestinian liberation army should be formed to act as an avant garde for the Arab liberation of Palestine. ” The agency attributed to him also a statement in which he had purportedly said that, if given the opportunity, he would be “one of those Arab soldiers who will effectively participate in the liberation of Palestine.”
Mr. Yazid, however, has now indicated in Tunis that Mr. Ben Bella could not have made such statements because they fall outside the “collegial responsibility” imposed on members of the Provisional Government. The alleged Ben Bella statement evoked considerable anxiety here both in French circles and among Jewish leaders.
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.
