OCCUPIED TERRITORIES No annexation, Israel told

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33095, 9 December 1972, Page 15

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES No annexation, Israel told

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

NEW YORK, December 8.

The General Assembly’s Special Political Committee, winding up its business for the session, last night called on Israel to “rescind forthwith and desist” from annexing any part of the occupied territories.

The 132-nation committee, in a resolution containing recommendations for endorsement by the plenary body, also renewed the mandate of a three-member committee of inquiry into Israeli practices in the territory. The panel was requested to consult, as appropriate, with the International Red Cross to ensure the safeguarding of the welfare and human rights of the population in the territories.

Members of the panel are Sri Lanka, Somalia and Jugoslavia. Israel was asked in the resolution, the vote on which was 60 to 10 with 44 abstentions, not to establish Israeli settlements in the territories; not to destroy houses and villages or confiscate and expropriate property, and not to deport or expel the inhabitants and deny the right of displaced persons to return home.

The committee reaffirmed that “all measures taken by Israel in contravention of the Geneva convention to settle the occupied territories, including occupied Jerusalem, are null and void.”

In a statement on the resolution, the Israeli Ambassador (Mr Jacob Doron) said that it went far beyond the findings of the three-nation panel and contained irrelevant provisions that seemed to have been introduced for extraneous political reasons. There were even elements of coercion.

For Egypt, Mr Amre Moussa said that Israel continued to ignore specific charges made against its violations, and Mr Farouk Dabian, of Jordan, said that the

panel’s report contained “a catalogue of Israeli violations of human rights.” Mr Dia Allah el-Fatial of Syria listed 17 Arab towns and villages that he said Israel had destroyed to make room for Jewish settlements. The town of Kuneitra currently was being bulldozed, he said.