Ben-Gurion Says Peace “Almost Thrown Away”

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28231, 20 March 1957, Page 13

Ben-Gurion Says Peace “Almost Thrown Away”

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 19. The Prime Minister of Israel (Mr David Ben-Gurion), said today that Israel would fully defend its rights to passage through the Gulf of Aqaba and that the return of Egypt to the Gaza Strip meant that the search for a Middle East peace was being almost wilfully thrown away, the United Press reported from Jerusalem.

In the first interview he has granted since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Sharm el Sheikh on the Gulf of Aqaba, Mr Ben-Gurion also renewed Israel’s demand for freedom of passage through the Suez Canal and appealed for international pressure against Egypt’s blockade.

In this connexion he recalled that President Eisenhower had stated that it should not be assumed that Israeli shipping would be interfered with in the Suez Canal.

The Prime Minister, who is 70, wrote out his replies in answer to questions by the United Press. He repeated his previous offers to sit down with Arab leaders and negotiate either a peaceful settlement or pacts of non-aggression and suggested that this could be done by the United Nations. He was firm, however, and he stated: “We are here to stay.”

On Egypt’s take-over in the Gaza Strip, Mr Ben-Gurion said: “I feel that a great opportunity for establishment of a more peaceful situation in our region is being almost wilfully thrown away.

U.N. FORCE IN GAZA

“We proposed a continuance of the Israel administration in suitable relationship with the United Nations. This would have been a course most likely to secure peace along Israel’s border and within the strip itself.

‘Functions Not Diminished’

OTTAWA, March 18. The Canadian External Affairs. Minister (Mr L. B. Pearson) said today that the recent movement of United Nations Emergency Force troops from Gaza Strip towns to the Egypt-Israel demarcation line did not represent any diminution of the functions of the United Nations Emergency Force. He was replying in Parliament to an Opposition member who asked whether the movement meant that United Nations officials agreed with President Nasser of Egypt that the United Nations Emergency Force should be relegated to patrolling the borders.

“It would also have meant the hope of a better life for the miserable and poverty-ridden inhabitants of this economically isolated area.

“The General Assembly took a different line and we withdrew on the assumption that the Egyptians would not be allowed to return. Heavy responsibility for what may develop now rests on the United Nations and on those Powers in whose word we placed our trust that belligerent Egypt would not be restored to the strip with all that that meant for our border settlements. What is happening is that the United Nations is associating with a fedayeen (Arab Commando) regime in the control of the strip.’’

Mr Pearson said he conferred in New York during the week-end with the United Nations Secre-tary-General, Mr Hammarskjold, and was told that there was no foundation for any suggestion that the United Nations Emergency Force was not operating in the Gaza Strip in the same manner as when it moved in. That some elements of the force in Gaza had been deployed from the towns to the demarcation line was what one might expeef. Mr Pearson said no Egyptian troops had entered the Gaza Strip although an Egyptian General had gone there as a civil administrator. • «■

On the renewed tension along the Israeli-Gaza border, he said: “They (the. border settlements) and the army are maintaining the utmost vigilance. For the last four months, with Israel administering the Gaza Strip, the members of these settlements could, for the first time in nine years, enjoy peace and tranquility With our withdrawals, they have now to return to the ever watchful system, day and night, of posting guards to prevent attacks and of cultivating their fields with the rifles ever ready at their sides ’ ’ Prospect of Peace On the prospects of peace with the Arab states, he said: ‘I am convinced that peace will eventually come between Israel and the Arab states. We are here to stay. And the sooner there is peace between us, the better for all concerned. There is much that the United Nations can and should do to persuade the Arab States to accept the long-standing offer of the Israeli Government to sit down and negotiate directly for a peace treaty or a non-aggression pact.’’ On the pipeline linking the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Aqaba. .he said: “The oil pipeline is intended to satisfy both the local needs and the needs of European countries. It is not intended to compete with anybody, but to ensure the legitimate needs of Israel and other countries. “And if European countries find it useful, then they will surely use the Israel pipeline. The world, and Western Europe in particular, has had a painful object lesson of what it means to be subjected to blackmail and sabotage by a dictator who controls a vital artery of international communications.

“In that respect, too, an additional route from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean is obviously desirable.’’