The first full-scale attack against Israel in this year’s General Assembly was voiced at a plenary session of the body this morning by Abdul Monem Rifai of Jordan. Previously, Israel had been attacked on charges of “Zionist colonialism” by the diplomatic spokesmen of Libya, Tunisia and Yemen, but Mr. Rifai devoted a very large section of his address at the Assembly to what he called “the aggression in Palestine.”
His intervention ran the gamut from the customary Arab characterization of Israel as “a foreign authority in an Arab environment illegally founded” to the Arab refugee question to a charge that Israel’s efforts to divert the Jordan River waters would “endanger peace in our area.”
He complained that Israel had “expropriated” Arab property which, he said, produces an income exceeding $1, 000, 000, 000 a year. Taking note of the fact that during the last two sessions of the Assembly, a sizable number of UN delegations had called for direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab states, he told the Assembly:
“While the Arabs yearn for the restoration of peace in the Holy Land, we must point out that a situation in which wrong was legalized and aggression tolerated is a situation which does not provide a suitable atmosphere for peace.”
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