Proposals for tightening the Arab League’s fight against Israel, with particular emphasis on Israel’s recently improved relations with non-Arab states in the Middle East, will be placed tomorrow before the Arab League’s Council, the organization’s ruling body, according to reports from Cairo received here.
The proposals were worked out today at the session of the League’s political and economic committees in Cairo. Included are plans to combat Israel’s increased contacts with Turkey, Iran and Cyprus; tightening of the anti-Israel economic boycott; continuance of the “struggle” for repatriation of the Arab refugees to Israel; measures to be taken against Israel’s alleged plans to divert Jordan River waters; and a proposal that met with resistance from Jordan, calling for the establishment of a “Palestine entity.” The latter is envisaged as an organization similar to the FLN, the Algerian independence movement.
Jordan, with a refugee population comprising about half of the country’s total population, is cool to the “Palestine entity” idea because such a set-up could affect Amman’s jurisdiction over the refugees. Abdulah EI Zuqairat, Jordan’s representative on the 13-nation League, objected to the “Palestine entity” proposal on the grounds that no representative of the Palestine Arabs was present at the meeting.
The political committee then decided to invite Ahmed Shukairy, former Saudi Arabian delegation head at the United Nations, to join the body as a Palestine “expert.” Mr. Shukairy was fired from his UN post by the Saudi Arabian Government last winter, after some Arab representatives felt he had gone too far in the diatribes against Israel by calling upon the UN to encourage formation of anti-Semitic organizations similar to the Tacuara movement in Argentina.
In addition to Jordan’s disagreement about the “Palestine entity” plan, another inter-Arab split was seen in regard to Israel when Lebanon sought revision of a resolution calling for a boycott of banks and firms that deal with Israel. The Beirut Government had previously been reported feeling that the boycott hurts some of the Arab countries more than Israel. However, the Beirut delegation’s proposal was defeated.
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