Eban Reiterates Israel’s Stand on ‘unity of Jerusalem’ and Access to Holy Places

Israel’s policy with regard to “the unity of Jerusalem” and freedom of access to the holy places there to all religious faiths was reiterated here today by Israel’s Foreign Minister Abba Eban in a nationwide television program. “Access to the holy places is assured under the unity of the city.” he said, adding that the question of “securing access” is a matter for negotiation. He was interviewed on the “Meet the Press” program of the National Broadcasting Company.

While the Vatican has circulated a statement here calling for the internationalization of Jerusalem and its vicinity as the only way to protect the holy places in that area, Israel here was proposing this weekend an alternative plan related only to the holy places without any kind of international relationship to the city as a whole.

Under the Israeli plan, advanced by Israel’s Foreign Minister Abba Eban at a conference with Latin American delegations and at another meeting, with representatives of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish faiths in the United States, Israel would offer these guarantees: Each church group would administer its places of worship; the holy places would be protected and maintained under an agreement with local authorities, but the faiths concerned would supervise their own holy places; worshipers and pilgrims would have free access to the holy places.

Emphasizing church interest in the holy places in Jerusalem, as distinct from Jerusalem’s overall administration, the Israeli delegation here stated; “Foreign Minister Eban declared that the international interest in Jerusalem related solely to the holy places and not to the city itself, which must retain its present unity.”

By contrast, the Rt, Rev. Msgr, Alberto Giovanetti, the Vatican’s observer at the United Nations, issued a statement insisting on an “international regime” for all of Jerusalem, In the statement, the Vatican declared; “The Holy See remains convinced that the only solution which offers a sufficient guarantee for the protection of Jerusalem and of its holy places is to place that city and its vicinity under an international regime. Only such a regime can properly safeguard the rights of the various religious faiths interested in the safety of and free access to the holy places.”

(From Geneva it was reported this weekend that the Rev. Eugene Carson Blake, head of the World Council of Churches, said that the Council and the Israel Government were consulting on a number of issues involved in a peace settlement in the Middle East, including the future status of Jerusalem. It was pointed out that Rev. Blake had already said that the status of Jerusalem and the holy places there were political matters. This stand, it was noted, contrasted with the stand of the Vatican, and represented the attitude on this question by 200 Protestant and Orthodox denominations around the world.)

Meanwhile, the Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops in the Americas unanimously urged that the holy places in Jerusalem be given an “internationally guaranteed status, irrespective of the results of present efforts for a political settlement.” The conference also set up a Holy Land Refugee Fund to assist the “hundreds of thousands” of refugees in the area.