CEASE FIRE ORDERED IN PALESTINE

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25549, 17 July 1948, Page 7

CEASE FIRE ORDERED IN PALESTINE

Security Council Decisions SANCTIONS THREATENED ON FAILURE TO COMPLY JN.Z. Press Association— Copyright) (Re c. 10 p.m.) NEW y ORK Juh . 15 The Security Council to-night ordered the Jews and Arabs to ha lt the Palestine war under penalty of having economic or military sanctions applied against them. The decision was made under an American resolution which was submitted after the Council had received a report on the whole Palestine sitnatinn from the United Nations mediator (Count Bernadotte), The Council decided that the situation constituted a threat fo peace undei Article 39 of the Charter. „ L he eal,s ’* p ° n b ° th sides to cease fighting within three dajs and to cease fire in Jerusalem within 24 hours The voting on each Paragraph took four hours, and the resolution as a whole «as adopted by seven votes to one, with Syria voting against it and Russia, the Ukraine, and Argentina abstaining. Count Bernadotte was instructed to supervise the cease-fire, which is of unlimited duration, and to continue his mediation efforts. Russia refused to support the clause dealing with Count Bernadotte, contending that he was trying to wreck the General Assembly's partition plan. For thisrelson Russia abstained from voting on the resolution as a whole, though she favoured all the other sections. When the American resolution as a whole came up for the final vote, Sir Alexander Cadogan (Britain) said that although Britain supported it the British Government felt that “full weight should be given to the Arab complaint that the truce had not been fairly observed and that it operated to the disadvantage of the Arabs. He added; “In working for a suspension of hostilities the British Government fully reserves its views on the nature of the peaceful solution which is to be negotiated during the truce. The British Government cannot but feel that in its view the Arab interest in Palestine has so far been insufficiently appreciated by the United Nations. In voting for the resolution the British Government does not endorse any suggestion that the Arabs are aggressors or that justice in this dispute is all on one side.”

BRITISH AMENDMENT REJECTED

Early in the voting the Council turned down a British amendment to eliminate the term “Provisional Government of Israel” from the resolution cn the ground that the term implied formal recognition of Israel. While the Council was debating the cease-fire resolution, the United Nations received a message from the chairman of the United Nations Truce Commission in Palestine reporting that the Jews were planning to seize the whole of Jerusalem soon. The message said: “Having remained faithful in general to the United Nations’ resolution concerning the international character of Jerusalem, the Jews have been especially incensed by the eventuality of the control of the town being handed over to the Arabs. They j have therefore made up their minds to , seize the rest of the town before the . truce period comes into force, in order ; to appear at the peace negotiations | ■with a major trump card in their hand.” The Council, after a gruelling seven hours' session, wearily postponed in- j definitely a decision on the Syrian proposal to have the International ' Court rule on the legality of Israel as 1

a State and decide whether the Arab opposition to Israel constituted aggression. Egyptian Planes Bomb Jerusalem Egyptian aircraft raided Jerusalem's Jewish residential districts yesterday, killing one person and injuring seven. This was the second raid on Jerusalem. The first, four days ago. killed three boys. Arab artillery pounded Jewish Jerusalem all night, and Jewish guns returned the fire. The Old City was battered again with mortar fire directed against gun-posts near the Damascus road and the Jaffa Gate on the northern side of the Old City. Over 50 Jews, including 22 girls, have left Shanghai in the last two 1 weeks for Palestine via Cuba and France to join the Israeli army. Most are reported to have paid their own ' passage. A new penal code amendment passed by the Iraqi Lower House places Zionism in the same category as Communism and makes it a crime punishable iby death, life imprisonment, or a minimum sentence of seven years ■ penal servitude.