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American Wife of Arab Doctor Accuses Israelis of Looting, Pillaging in East Jerusalem

August 13, 1969
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The American wife of a Lebanese doctor told a United Nations investigating group in Beirut today that Israeli troops looted and pillaged Arab property in East Jerusalem after the June, 1967 Six-Day War. Mrs. Nancy Nolan Abi Haidar, formerly of Grosse Isle, Michigan, alleged that Israeli troops displayed “utter lack of respect for any and all property, Arab, American or UN.”

Mrs. Abi Haidar made her charges before the human rights committee established by the UN Human Rights Commission to investigate the treatment of Arab civilians in Israel-occupied territories. Israel has refused to cooperate with the committee unless a simultaneous investigation is made of the treatment of Jews in Arab countries.

Mrs. Abi Haidar lived in East Jerusalem at the time of the Six-Day War and returned there a month later. She said she could verify allegations that Arab civilians were mistreated. She charged further that Israeli authorities had prevented relief supplies from reaching needy Arab civilians. According to Mrs. Abi Haidar, the Israelis not only prevented the Arabs from helping each other but would not permit welfare organizations to enter the occupied territories.

Yesterday, a Palestinian student leader who claimed to have been imprisoned in Israel for nine months after the June, 1967 war told the UN group that the Israelis had applied torture to 15 percent of all Arabs arrested on the West Bank and 25 percent of those arrested in the Gaza Strip. He identified himself as Assad Abdul Rahman, president of the Palestinian Students Union in Lebanon.

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