Comay Rebuffs Arab Demand at U. N. for Custodian on Property in Israel

Ambassador Michael S. Comay, Israel’s permanent representative here, requested the United Nations to reject proposals directed against Israel’s sovereignty and security and, instead, to call “for an honorable accommodation” between the Arab states and Israel.

He referred particularly to proposals made here last week for the appointment of a United Nations custodian for property the Arab refugees claim to have abandoned in Israel, stating that such a step would impinge on Israel’s sovereignty. He also voiced a sharp attack against the Palestine Liberation Army which, he pointed out, aimed at war against a member state of the United Nations.

Ambassador Comay spoke in the General Assembly’s Special Political Committee where, for three weeks, the representatives of every Arab state, supported by other Moslem delegations, have been attacking Israel as well as the United Nations itself as the parties responsible for the U. N.’s failure to solve the Arab refugee problem. “If attacked,” the Israeli diplomat told the committee, “Israel would defend itself. Israel will not be wiped out. If besmirched in debate, Israel would tell the truth. However, Israel clings to a belief in a better and more harmonious relationship” with its Arab neighbors.

Regretting that “a basis for cooperation does not yet exist between Israel and its neighbors,” Ambassador Comay said that, nevertheless, the United Nations “should target a stand against the Arab policies of war and insist on a pacific and negotiated settlement of all disputes, as had been proposed at several sessions of the General Assembly.”