Diplomats in dispute

Press, 17 July 1979, Page 2

Diplomats in dispute

PA Wellington A dispute between the Egyptian and Israeli embassies in Wellington has forced the cancellation of a Middle East peace service in St Paul’s Cathedral.

Invitations to the service next Monday evening were sent late last week from the New Zealand Government “in association with" the heads of churches in Wellington and the Dean and Vestry of Wellington Cathedral.

The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) was expected to attend. The service has nowbeen cancelled because of disagreement between the two embassies over the use of quotations from their countries’ leaders.

The Egyptian Ambassador (Dr I. Z. Sorour) objected to the use of such quotations and, in particular, the one chosen by the Israeli embassy from its Prime Minister (Mr Menachem Begin). The Israeli Ambassador (Mr Yaakov Mo —said yesterday that the quotation was from Mr Begin’s speech at the peace-sign-ing ceremony at Camp David.

Mr Begin said; “I come from the land of Israel, the land of ; on and Jerusalem, and here 1 am in humility and with pride as a son of the Jewish people, as one of the generation of the holocaust and redeninlion.” Mr Morris said he gathered that the phrase “the land of Zion and Jerusalem” ivas objected to.

“If President Sadat himself saw nothing objectionable in this phrase — and I have no doubt both leaders at the signing of the peace agreement prepared their speeches in harmony with each other and with a view to implementing the peace agreement — it seems strange to me that an Egyptian civil servant sitting in Wellington ..hould have the audacity to object to something which his own President found acceptable,” Mr Morris said. Dr Sorour said the service was “supposed to be a simple religious service like the previous one (last year), which was very successful: prayers and readings from the books of God and not mentioning at ail the differ*

ences and animosities through political issues.

“My idea from the beginning was that there was no room for speeches and political quotations,” he said.

He had been approached “at the last minute” and told that the Israelis insisted on putting in quotations from political speeches. “From the beginning we were against this, and when they showed us the message we were even more strong in our objection,” Dr Sorour said. He said he rejected the Israeli ambassador’s “intention to use Wellington Cathedral for political gain as Jesus Christ rejected traders and moneychangers from using God’s temple as a marketplace for profit.”