The Security Council, considering charges and counter charges of aggression by Syria and Israel, decided here today to order the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization to file reports concerning the grievances of the two nations. Meanwhile the Council heard bitter charges against what was termed “Israeli aggression” by Ambassador George J. Tomeh, Syria’s permanent representative here.
Mr. Tomeh was given the floor after a bitter two-hour battle aimed at keeping Israel’s Ambassador Michael S. Comay from addressing the Council today. The fight was conducted by the only Arab representative on the 15-man council, Dr. Muhammad H. El Farra of Jordan, who was backed by two other members of the Council — the Soviet Union and Bulgaria.
Today’s session was the culmination of a series of events on Israel’s Northern border, facing Syria, over the last two months. In a retaliation against what Israel called “a sudden recrudescence of sabotage and road mining attacks in Israel border areas,” Israeli’s air force carried out a “strictly limited action” in a brief 15 minute attack on Syrian tractors and mechanical equipment opposite Israel’s village of Almagor. As a result of that air raid Syria asked for a Council session on charges of “aggression.” Israel countered with its own request for a Council session.
The procedural fight by the Jordanian member of the Council today centered on whether the Syrian charges and the Israeli accusations should be debated together or seriatim, one after the other. Mr. El Farra won that point although the British and the New Zealand representatives seemed inclined to bracket the Israeli complaint with the Syrian, while the United States representative implied that the entire debate might be suspended until the Council receives detailed reports regarding the two separate complaints.
Ambassador Joseph J. Sisco, who was substituting in the Security Council today as the United States representative, proposed that all the issues be discussed together after reports are received from Major General Odd Bull, chief of staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine. However, Mr. Sisco did not specifically call for a suspension of the Council session pending the receipt of the UNTSO reports. At the request of Ambassador El Farra, Chief S. C. Adebo, of Nigeria, this month’s president of the Security Council, ruled that the Syrian could in the meanwhile address the Council.
Today’s Security Council session was the 214th meeting on an Arab-Israeli dispute held by the United Nations. It was the first meeting of the Security Council on an Arab-Israeli issue since December 1964 when the dispute was also between Syria and Israel.
ISRAEL ASSURES SECURITY COUNCIL ON SEEKING BORDER TRANQUILITY
Ambassador Comay, presenting Israel’s charge against Syria, assured the Security Council “solemnly” that the Israel Government “has no wish to engage in armed clashes or military actions on the border” and is ready in response to a United Nations appeal to re-establish an unconditional cease fire on the northern frontier between Israel and Syria.
Conceding candidly, that Israel’s air force attacked Syrian installations on July 14, Mr. Comay told the Security Council that the action was taken in response to repeated Syrian attacks and in order “to impress upon the Syrian authorities the gravity with which the Israel Government views continual Syrian violence against Israel’s population and territory.”
Mr. Comay declared that the July 14 action had taken only 15 minutes, had been planned to “keep casualties to a minimum” and was “of a localized and carefully restricted nature.” He stressed that, since July 14, further efforts to sabotage Israelis and Israeli property were made in the Israeli village of Margaliot, near the Lebanese border where five time-bombs had been discovered in time for defusing by the Israelis.
According to the Israeli Ambassador there had been 10 cases of sabotage, raids and laying of land mines inside Israel in the last few months. He reported also 93 ins- tances of firing by Syrian armed forces in the last few months and a number of cases in which Syrians deliberately set fire to crops in Israeli fields.
“In the course of this constant harassment,” Mr. Comay said, “we may have suffered 16 casualties, four of them killed, and extensive damage to property, equipment and installations. This is the tally for a period of months. In fact, these months are only the latest phase of the border warfare which has continued for 18 years. Our patience and self restraint have been strained to the utmost.
“I would most solemnly assure the Council that the Government of Israel has no wish to engage in armed clashes or military actions on the border. Our people have endured more than enough of bloodshed and strife. Our overwhelming desire is to achieve relations of peace and cooperation with our neighbors, and together with them to promote the welfare and progress of the region we share. That goal still eludes us, and hostility continues to keep our neighbors apart from us.”
ISRAEL PREPARED TO ENTER PEACE TALKS WITH SYRIA, SAYS COMAY
Mr. Comay went into detail in reporting many sabotage raids into Israel by the El Fatah terrorist gangs which he said were being deployed by commanders inside Syria. He provided for the Security Council a map showing where these raids had taken place. He told the 15-man Council:
“The border cannot be kept quiet unless the Syrian Government accepts that it is in its interests as well as ours to keep it quiet. There will be no trouble if there is an unconditional and effective cease fire and a complete halt to armed raiding into our territory. Whatever unresolved questions there are, can be dealt with by discussion and not by dynamite. The real issue is the basic one of peace or war.”
Mr. Comay noted that Major General Odd Bull, chief of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization has already received a pledge from Israel to observe an unconditional cease fire on the Syrian border if Syria does likewise. “We are prepared categorically to enter into peace negotiations with Syria today. I challenge the representative of Syria to tell the Council whether his government is prepared to do the same thing now,” he said.
(An Israeli woman was seriously injured this afternoon when a hand grenade placed by Syrian saboteurs exploded in the storeroom in a settlement near Metulla near Israel’s northern border, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent reported from Jerusalem. The military spokesman reported that the incident occurred on the spot where Syrians placed a mine on the night of July 13 and it is believed that the grenade was placed there at that time.)
SYRIAN DELEGATE EQUATES ZIONISM WITH NAZISM AT COUNCIL SESSION
In his address to the Council Mr. Tomeh accused Israel of “expansionist moves against the Arab states.” He equated Zionism with Nazism, said that the Israelis and the Zionists were racists and called upon the Council to recognize Israel as a colonialist and aggressive nation.
The representative of Syria went on to say that Israel’s “shameful aggression was premeditated.” Quoting the Israeli letter to the president of the Security Council, dated July 14 to the effect that Israel had ordered its planes to take action, he declared that “the artificiality of the Israeli counter-complaint in this case was apparent.” Israeli’s policy of retaliation, he continued, disregarded the general armistice agreement, which provided that no military or parliamentary forces of either party should commit hostile acts against the other party. Syria, he stated, was not responsible for “the rise of Palestinian Arab organizations striving to liberate their conquered and occupied territory.”
The representative of Syria went on to say that the recent attack was a “link in a chain of attacks committed by Israeli regular forces on neighboring Arab countries during the past year.” He cited recent “warlike statements” by the Israeli Army Chief of Staff and the Minister of Labor, which, he said, contained “definite threats against Syria.” He said that his country could “no more remain passive” before future aggressions, “no matter what the costs.” It was up to the Council to prevent the “alarming dimensions” which the situation would assume if it remained unchecked.
Dr. Nikolai T. Fedorenko, the USSR ambassador, charged that Israel is preparing an army of 250, 000 men for war against Syria and said that Israel had “agreed with the United States to carry out provocative raids against Syria.” He said a military representative of the United States was in Tel Aviv “precisely when Israel undertook its provocative raids against Syria.” The Soviet Ambassador said that his Government “cannot be indifferent to provocative efforts in an area not so far removed from our borders.”
After Dr. Fedorenko’s address the Council adjourned until tomorrow afternoon.
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.
