Leshem: Human Rights Not First Concern of Ecosoc; Nightmare for Jews in Arab Countries

Moshe Leshem, Israel’s delegate to the Economic and Social Council, criticized the UN’s Human Rights Commission for being more concerned with “throwing stones” than engendering respect for human rights. Delegates from the Soviet Union and Arab states to the ECOSOC’s Social Action Committee had assailed Monday Israel’s policy in the occupied territories as violating human rights. Referring to this, Mr. Leshem said the violation of human rights were the concern of his delegation wherever they occurred and added that Israel continues to call for the release of the “remnants” of the Jewish communities in Iraq, Syria and Egypt. “Deprivation and chicanery had turned their lives into a nightmare and their only hope lay in escape,” he declared. Mr. Leshem said the behavior of the Arab delegates to the ECOSOC revealed they considered Israel a “non-nation.” Referring to the occupied territories, the Israeli delegate recalled that Abba Eban, Israel’s Foreign Minister, had stated that the question was not one of occupation but of whether the Arabs would abandon the road of terror and hate for one leading to peace.

Amre Mahmoud Moussa, the Egyptian observer at the ECOSOC meeting, said Israelis were war criminals and should be subject to all measures taken against such persons. He said Israel had no right to speak for world Jewry, that Egypt spoke for “Egyptians of Jewish faith.” Mr. Moussa added that Egypt would continue to oppose Israel and would liberate the occupied lands whatever the cost might be. Naste Calovski of Yugoslavia stated that Israel had violated the articles of the Geneva Convention and that only Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories could end the violations of human rights. The Tunisian delegate, Rachid Driss, charged Israel with major violations of UN regulations in the territories and said she had shown “arrogance and scorn” toward the three-man committee investigating human rights in the occupied territories. The committee, which visited some dozen capitals in the Middle East and Europe taking testimony from witnesses, a number of whom were discredited, has not been allowed into Israel. The Israeli government said the committee was one-sidedly investigating Arab conditions without investigating conditions of Jews in Arab countries.