INFORMATION ISSUED by the Assooajm of MWISH Rffbgos HI Gleat BRITAHI
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Volume XXX No. 9 September, 1975 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE ASSOOAJm OF MWISH RffBGOS HI GlEAT BRITAHI Rerbert Freeden (Jerusalem) national enclave for Jerusalem. The two states were to be bound together by an Economic Union, including a customs union, a joint cur rency system with a single foreign exchange ISRAEL AND THE UNITED NATIONS rate, joint economic development schemes (ir rigation, land reclamation and soil conserva Israel's expulsion from the United Nations he pretended not to have heard anytliing about tion), interstate railways, highways and postal Was recommended last March by a 17 nation such attempts and limited his remarks to the services, and joint operation of ports and air co-ordinating committee for the so-called non- general phrase that he supported the "univer ports. There was to be a common customs tariff aligned bloc. This move also envisages the sality" of the UN. The Secretary General is an and a joint economic board to administer the imposition of sanctions against Israel. Against independent organ of the UN under its Union. Piese trends a Western front has been develop- Charter, expressly charged to be neutral and The basic assumption of the whole scheme ^S, and if a resolution aiming at Israel's ex objective, and uninfluenced by member states was that it would be freely accepted by Iwth pulsion from the UN were introduced in the in the performance of his duties. He has a parties and worked out in agreement between Security Council, it would be vetoed not only major responsibility for upholding the Charter them. It is obvious that no such Union could oy the United States but also by Britain and and for maintaining the international nature operate for a single day between States divided 'ranee, both of which oppose such an ouster of the Organisation. by conflict and hostility. most vigorously. The United States Ambassador to the United The Jews, though critical and apprehensive The proposal to ostracize and castigate Israel Nations, Daniel Moynihan, predicted that the of some of the details, accepted the Partition *as put forward by the Palestine Liberation US Congress would insist on reducing Plan. The Arab reaction was out-and-out re Organisation, Iraq, Syria and Cuba. India is America's support of the UN if Israel were jection. Dr. Mahmoud Fawzi, then Egypt's f^id to have taken the position that Israel's ousted from the world organisation. He was representative at the UN, declared: "We do "ransgressions" were not in the same league supported by several influential Senators. In not choose to comply with the General As ^s South Africa's and that she should not, Brussels, Common Market leaders declared op sembly's Resolution on Palestine. The Charter therefore, be treated in the same way. position to the Arab initiative to eject a and the UN will not fall apart if one more of Arab militants might shirk the predictable member state and said that any violation of the General Assembly's resolutions is not put outcome of the issue in the Security Council the Charter would not be acceptable to the into effect". The statements of the representa and go about by challenging the credentials EEC. British Prime Minister Harold Wilson tives of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon were couched °f Israel's delegation at the General Assembly's said after the March meeting that the dele in a similar language. Meeting in Cairo on Credentials Committee. This was the way in gates were "very robust about any question December 9, 1947, the Arab Premiers declared *aich South Africa was barred from the of expulsion of any country from the United that they would "do everything possible to General Assembly last year. In the past, Arab Nations and there was a general support for bring about the collapse of the UN partition •iiembers of the Credentials Committee have the universality principle". plan". visually recorded their reservation against Yet 40 Islamic nations defied the US and This they made true, and in May 1948, the Israel's participation, without putting the Europe by calling for the expulsion of Israel UN Palestine Commission in its report to the fatter to the vote. But buoyed by the South from the UN. The call came from two resolu Security Council, wrote: "Powerful Arab inter African precedent, they might see fit to force tions passed at the Islamic Foreign Ministers' ests both inside and outside Palestine are 'ne issue when the General Assembly recon conference in Jeddah. Among those voting defying the Resolution of the General Assembly venes this month. unanimously were the representatives of Iran and are engaged in a deliberate effort to alter which has regular contacts with Israel, and by force the settlement envisaged therein". Israeli and Western diplomats contend that Turkey which is a member of NATO. 'he South African case, far from being a The position was summed up by Dr. Fawzi in It has been said that the Jewish State is a 1948 when he said: "It has been apparent for Precedent, was a legal and procedural aberra- creation of the UN and that its position in many months that the General Assembly Reso 'lon permitted to occur by last year's un lution of 1947 is dead". abashedly tendentious Assembly President, intemational law is based on the UN decision of November 29, 1947. Should this decision The Resolution was indeed superseded by Abdul Aziz Bouteflika of Algeria. In 1970, be revoked, which could easily happen, so the When South Africa's credentials were similarly subsequent events. The Arab States rendered argument goes, Israel's legal basis would be it ineffectual by their unanimous rejection and J"eiected by the Credentials Committee, the affected. This is not the case. True, had it not defiance, and by their invasion of the emergent 'nen President, Norway's Edvard Hambro, been for the UN Partition Resolution when Jewish State. The other member states of the ^led that this did not disqualify the South both the US and USSR joined states from East United Nations did nothing to secure the reso ^ricans from participating in the Assembly. and West to vote approval, the scenario might lution's implementation and to oppose Arab Observers here believe that Egypft and other not have unfolded in quite the same way. In aggression. As a result of the fighting, the UN ^ore sophisticated Arab States will be de- fact, however, the historic Resolution is but a decision underwent a change. |erred from instigating such an ouster attempt, link in a chain of events that brought Israel In 1948 the General Assembly actually though they might no^t actively oppose one into being—the Balfour Declaration, the Man voted down resolutions designed to affirm the instigated by others. Some of the Arabs are date of the League of Nations, the patient 1947 decision, and in its debate on *^own to have been chastened and sobered work of settlement and upbuilding before 1948 December 11, 1948, deliberately omitted ^ORiewhat by the outcry which followed and, finally, the War of Independence. reference to it. At the instance of John Foster UNESCO's discriminatory action against Israel, The November 1947 Resolution recom Dulles, then head of the United States dele fhey were also taken atwck by the sharp reac- mended the termination of the British Mandate gation, the General Assembly on that day re tion which their juggernaut tactics at last in Palestine and the partition of the country solved that the boundaries between Israel and dear's General Assembly eventually raised into an Arab and Jewish State with an inter- the neighbouring states be drawn up by mutual among the Westem and other longer-estab agreement. The parties complied with this lished delegations. policy and concluded armistice agreements by ^ Officials in Jerusalem are concemed about The Executive Committee of the which the pre-1967 frontiers were fixed, al '^r- Kurt Waldheim's failure to forthrightly ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH though one provision of the armistice was ^ondemn those Arab machinations. The UN REFUGEES never carried out—^to extend the agreements Secretary-General, it is pointed out here, into a final negotiated settlement. The accent wishes all members a shifted from the UN to the parties concemed, flight to have spoken out clearly against any VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR ^.^ster bid, in that way adding his own con and in 1952 the 7th General Assembly voted siderable influence to the forces within the and thanks them for their continuous UN which would oppose such a step. Instead, support. Continued on page 2, column 1 Page 2 AJR INFORMATION September, 1975 ISRAEL AND THE UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION NEWS Continued from page 1 FOREIGN INVALIDITY PENSIONS AND down a Philippine amendment to revive the NAZI-OPFER AUS OESTERREICH Partition Resolution. AUSTRIAN PUBLIC SERVANTS' PENSIONS Rechtslage unveraendert Thus the Resolution a long time ago lost its Die kuerzlich verbreitete Mitteilung, dass validity both as a legal concept and as an in New Tax Concessions die oesterreichische Regierung eine zusaetz strument—or rather potential threat—for fix liche Zahlung an Verfolgte beschlossen habe, ing the borders of Israel in any forthcoming As already briefly reported in our August ist, wie wir aus zuverlaessiger Quelle erfahren, negotiations. issue, foreign invalidity pensions correspond unrichtig. Richtig ist nur, dass seit Jahren ing to British National Insurance invalidity mit der oesterreichischen Regiemng wegen Although Israel's disenchantment with the einer zusaetzlichen Zahlung verhandelt wird. UN started as early as 1948, when the collec benefits, which are exempt from U.K. tax by Diese Verhandlungen machen in juengster Zeit tive security system failed to ward off a five Section 219 (1), Taxes Act 1970, will be Fortsehritte, keonnen aber—schon wegen der fold Arab invasion, its expulsion from the exempt from United Kingdom income tax for bevorstehenden Neuwahlen in den Nationalrat international community would be a grave the tax year 1974/75 and subsequent years.