The International Court of Justice in The Hague will begin hearings tomorrow on Israel’s claim for damages against Bulgaria in the shooting down in 1955 of an E1 A1 airliner with a loss of 58 passengers and crewmen.
The hearing will open with the submission by Bulgaria of a preliminary brief, challenging the right of the International Court’s jurisdiction. The Israel delegation will be headed by Shabetai Rosenne, legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry. Bulgaria admitted responsibility for the disaster, after an investigation, and made several promises of entering negotiations for losses.
The opening of the hearing will be preceded by the installation of Justice David Gotein, of the Israel Supreme Court, and Justice Yarolsav Jourek of Bulgaria, as members of the International Law Commission of the United Nations. The two judges were designated by their Governments to sit as judges in the hearing.
The court will then call on the two parties to begin presentations. Israel will be represented by Mr. Rosenne; M. Schneerson, Minister with the Israel Embassy in Paris; J.H. Lazarus, assistant Attorney General; F. Landau, assistant State Attorney; and T. Meron of Israel’s Foreign Ministry. Bulgaria will be represented by Dr. Nissim Mevorach, who will be assisted by Evgeni Kamerov, Bulgarian Minister in Paris, who will serve as counsel, and Pierre Cot, French lawyer, who will be advocate.
Proceedings were instituted by the Israel Government against Bulgaria in October, 1957. Israel told the world court that damages equivalent to $7,462,803 had been claimed. Israel reserved the legal right to claim moral and material reparation at a later stage in the case. The United States State Department is on record as having denounced Bulgaria, and urged its government to settle claims arising from the incident. Cases filed by the United States and United Kingdom against Bulgaria are pending at the World Court.
The United States filed a brief and evidence on behalf of six American citizens who left American next-of-kin. America also sought through its action to protect freedom of the air. The United States position is that, even if a plane accidentally strays from its flight plan over a national boundary, there is no justification for shooting it down without warning, killing its passengers.
Bulgaria at first promised to make a financial settlement. But this was before Bulgaria gained admission to the United Nations. Once the Communist state was admitted to the United Nations, it arbitrarily refused to admit responsibility, holding that E1 A1 was entirely to blame.
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.
