Israel’s indirect use of the Jordan River waters for irrigation of the Negev is “like blood in our veins, “Prime Minister Levi Eshkol declared here today, “and we shall act accordingly.”
Mr. Eshkol was here as a guest of the City of Haifa. Commenting on the conference of the 13 Arab League states currently underway in Cairo, to study diversion of the Jordan River headwaters, he said that reports from that conference must be studied carefully. He emphasized that Israel’s National Water Carrier will use only as much water from the Jordan as it was allocated under the plan drawn up by President Eisenhower’s special envoy, the late Eric Johnston, nearly 10 years ago.
(Ranking representatives of the 13 Arab states voted at a conference in Cairo today to take a “unified stand” against all governments aiding Israel. The resolution mentioned West Germany specifically. At the same time it was reported in London that Syria has launched large scale engineering projects for diversion of the waters of the Banias and Hashbani Rivers, both of which feed the headwaters of the Jordan River. The Daily Telegraph of London said that these operations can be seen from Kibbutz Dan, in Israel.
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.
