The Soviet Union and the Arab states carried their campaign against Israel into the council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union here today and sought to have that body brand Israel as an aggressor, call for Israel to withdraw from the territories it had occupied and pay reparations to the Arab states which had sought its destruction.
Some 200 parliamentarians, representing the legislative bodies of 60 nations, are attending the session which opened here yesterday. Almost the first order of business was submission of a Soviet resolution calling for condemnation of Israel, followed by another resolution presented by the seven Arab countries which are members of the IPU. A debate on the resolutions began immediately and, by adjournment, more than 20 members had spoken.
David Hacohen, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee and head of the six-man delegation vigorously, replied to the Soviet-Arab onslaught. He told the parliamentarians that the Soviet Union had never sought to promote peace in the Middle East and had never sought to modify the proclaimed Arab intention to destroy Israel. He recited a long list of threats by Arab leaders to encompass the destruction of Israel.
The Israeli spokesman made a strong bid to the Council to reject the two resolutions, just as the United Nations General Assembly had rejected similar resolutions. He urged the council to support “honorable and direct peace negotiations between equals” which he described as a procedure fundamental to the Charter of the United Nations.
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