Israel again condemned the Republic of South Africa here today for its policy of Apartheid and called for adoption of a resolution pending in the General Assembly’s Special Political Committee deprecating South Africa’s “policies based on racial discrimination” as “reprehensible and repugnant;” However, Israel made it clear that it opposes clauses in that resolution which would result in possible expulsion of the Republic of South Africa from membership in the United Nations.
Israel’s stand on the issue was voiced in the committee by its representative on that group, Ambassador Arieh Eshel, Israel’s Deputy Permanent Representative here; The resolution, which Israel announced it is supporting, with the reservation about South Africa’s possible expulsion, was first introduced by seven African and four Arab League members of the United Nations; Thirty nations are now among the resolution’s sponsors.
Pointing out that Israel and the United Nations as a whole have appealed to South Africa in prior years to end its policy of racial discrimination, and recalling that Israel, as a Jewish State, founded upon the principles of Zionism, opposes racial discrimination wherever it occurs, Mr. Eshel told the committee that Israel finds it necessary to back the 30-member resolution.
Mr. Eshel referred in his speech to the fact that it had voted recently in favor of censure of a speech supporting Apartheid made here by South Africa’s Foreign Minister Eric H; Louw; Israel supported that resolution, Mr. Eshel said, in spite of the manner in which it had been presented to the United Nations, because the censure motion had developed a “spontaneous reaction of the Assembly as such, although it occurred some what outside the proper procedural context.”
OPPOSES EXPULSION OF SO. AFRICA FROM UNITED NATIONS
Mr. Eshel, however, pleaded against the clause in the current resolution, which would consider possible expulsion of South Africa. The Republic of South Africa, he said, should remain in the United Nations and should be given the opportunity to participate in the debate as it is doing in regard to the current resolution.
The resolution backed by Israel in the main, expresses the Assembly’s “indignation” over South Africa’s failure to comply with repeated requests for revision of its racial policies, “deplores” South Africa’s application of “further discriminatory laws and measures, the enforcement of which has led to violence and bloodshed.”
The resolution then put the Assembly on record as deprecating “policies based on racial discrimination as being reprehensible and repugnant to the dignity and rights of peoples and individuals and considers it to be the responsibility of all members of the UN to take separate and collective action to bring about the elimination of these policies.”
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.
