Drew Pearson in Israel — 4th Article in Series
Ben-Gurion Says Russia, U.S. Hold Arab-Israel Peace Key;
Israeli Arabs' Mistreatment Admitted; Military Rule Tough
priation of Jewish farmlands was
only 5 per cent.
Under military government reg-
ulations, authorities m a y ban
Arabs from entering certain
places. The military can also de-
clare any place in Israel "closed"
on an hour's notice.
The military government has
sometimes closed areas valuable
to Arab farming, thus making it
impossible for Arab peasants to
reach their own land. So they have
to sell. On one occasion the high
court of Israel ruled that the in-
habitants of Ghabsieh in the Gali-
lee had a right to return to their
village and lands. The military
government, however, ignored the
high court, declared the area
closed, and the village was aban-
doned.
On March 31, 1962, both Jews
and Arabs planned to hold a con-
ference in Bane to protest against
the expropriation of 5,000 dunams
(about 1,250 acres) of farmland to
be expropriated for building a new
When I talked to ex-Prime
town, Carmel. They maintained
Minister Ben-Gurion as to how
that the government owned huge
there could be peace between
areas of land just a mile and a
Israel and its Arab neighbors,
he replied: "When Russia and half away suitable for the same
purpose and that this good farm-
the- United States decide there
land did not have to be taken. But
will be peace. They have been
sending arms to the Near East, the military government moved in,
"closed" the area of Bane and Dier
and any time they get together
Al-Asad. Thus the protest meeting
they can bring peace to us."
could not be held. Nobody was
This is true. Furthermore, the permitted to go inside the closed
amount of arms sent by the Rus-
area.
sians to Egypt and the amount of
Military Crackdown
arms sent by the United States to
The military government has
nearby Jordan and Saudi Arabia cracked down on various meetings
is so great that Israel faces some- connected with civil rights as well
what the same situation as it did as land expropriation. On Aug.
in 1956, when, threatened by a 23, 1963. Tayibe was declared a
preponderance of Egyptian arms, closed area in order to block a
the Israeli army took the initiative meeting called to protest military
and penetrated to the Suez Canal. government. Simultaneously Ab-
While I found no positive indi- del-Hamid Abu-I'Tah and Saleh
cations of such a repetition, un- Baranci, members of the "Jewish-
questionably the Israeli-Arab sit- Arab Committee to Protest Mili-
uation is just as dangerous as the tary Rule," were arrested.
Pakistan-India controversy over
Yuri Avnery, a Jew and editor
Kashmir. It could flare into open of the magazine "This World," was
war overnight.
By DREW PEARSON
NAZARETH—This city, where
Christ grew up, today is the
stronghold of an Arab population,
largely communist. Though citi-
zens of Israel,
they are general-
ly critical of the
Israel govern-
ment.
When I talked
about this with
the former may-
or of Nazareth,
Seif Eddine
Z u bi , I found
that his wife had
a brother and a
Pearson
cousin in the cabinet of Jordan
just across the boundary. Both the
ex-mayor and his wife were very
pro-Israel. But only seven weeks
ago the mayor had been defeated
for reelection by his cousin, who
had teamed up with the Commu-
nist party. Both the Communists
and the cousin were elected.
Mistreatment of Arabs
Meanwhile, many Jews inside
Israel told me very frankly that
their government had been remiss
in not improving the lot of the
Israeli Arabs in order to show the
Arab world the benefits of Israeli-
Arab cooperation. They main-
tained that the military rule for
Arabs, continued for nine long
years, ever since the Suez war of
1956, was unnecessary and that
one motive was to facilitate the
confiscation of Arab land inside
Israel.
There are 210,000 Arabs inside
Israel, and they hold some of the
more fertile areas of the country.
Figures available in the Ministry
of Agriculture show that, from
1950 to 1963, Arab farmlands had
been reduced 31 per cent by Is-
raeli expropriation. The expro-
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Stronger Ties for Negroes,
Other Groups Are Urged
NEW YORK—New and stronger
alliances between Negroes and oth-
er groups in the community are the
next great need of the civil rights
movement, the American Jewish
Committee states in a lead article
titled "The Negro Revolution: Act
II," in the latest issue of its bi-
monthly Newsletter.
Recalling that non-violence has
sporadically given way to riots,-the
article declares that "like labor in
the 1930's, Negroes today can suc-
ceed only in concert with groups
having related interests: parties
needing votes, unions bent on gain-
ing members, corporations looking,
for new markets or talents, reli-
gious and ethnic organizations
seeking a significant social role,
the white poor longing for secur-
ity and dignity—and citizens who
simply want a better society."
The article points out: "As yet,
not many Negroes appear to de-
spair of America. Responsible lead-
ers still control the movement."
But it suggests that "relations be-
tween Negroes and their allies are
strained," and adds a recent warn-
ing by Charles E. Silberman, For-
tune editor and member of the
American Jewish Committee's civil
rights and civil liberties commit-
tee, that the nation would do well
to "beware the day they (the Ne-
groes) change their minds."
The gem cannot be polished
without friction nor man perfected
without trials.—Chinese proverb.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
8—Friday, February 18, 1966
prevented from entering Taibe,
though not arrested. Later he ran
for the Knesset on a platfrom of
bettering the position of Arabs and
was overwhelmingly elected.
Dr. Y. Yeredor and M. Roditty,
Jewish lawyers, were also refused
entry to the village of Qalansawe
to speak during a protest against
military government. They were
not, however, jailed. Few Jews
have been jailed for violation of
military government infractions,
though many Arabs have. Two
Arabs were sentenced to jail when
they entered Taibe after it was
suddenly declared closed. They
had proceeded with their protest
meeting despite the military and
got 45 days in prison.
Further south, in the Negev, a
total of 18,000 Bedouins are liv-
ing under military rule, and must
have military permits in order to
leave their living areas. Yet the
Bedouins have been the strongest
friends of Israel among the Arab
groups.
These are some of the inequities
which many Jewish citizens of Is-
rael protest against but which are
still in force. They are one rea-
son for suspicion against Israel in
the Arab world.
* * *
UNEF Force Cut to 3,959
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y.—(JTA)
—The United Nations Emergency
Force, the police group that guards
the relative peace between Egypt
and Israel, is being cut down
further by the reduction of its
strength from the present 4,560
men and officers to 3,959, it was
announced officially by the United
Nations Secretariat.
UNEF's former strength had
been 7,000 men and officers. The
reduction of the present strength
by 600 men, it was stated, is being,
carried out as the result of recom-
mendations made recently by a
survey team that examined UNEF's
operations for Secretary-General
U Thant. The report had been
adopted by the- last General As-
sembly, which also approved a
serious reduction in the UNEF
budget. The 1966 budget had been
set at $18,519,000, down by about
$3,500,000 from the 1965 expendi-
tures.
Prior to Israel's war against
Egypt in 1956-57, those Sharm el-
Sheikh heights held Egyptian artil-
lery which prevented Israel from
Arab-Israel Relations
The Israeli government has just
taken important steps to improve
the position of the 300,000 Arabs
living inside Israel. Eventually
this could help improve the diffi-
cult, dangerous deadlock between
Israel and the Arab states.
Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, de-
livering his "state of the union
message" to the Knesset, Jan.
12, lifted the ban on the move-
ment of all Bedouins in the south
and almost all other Israeli Arabs,
except in the north where Israel
is extremely narrow — only seven
miles in one place — and where
the Jordanian-Israeli border is un-
marked and almost undefended.
"It is our plan to arrive in the
course of a year at the abolition of
the military government ma-
chinery," Premier Eshkol said.
The military government hither-
to has restricted the movement of
most Arabs inside Israel so they
could not travel without written
permission. This was a hangover
from the Suez war when Israeli
Arabs moved back and forth over
the Jordanian border.
But last week, Israel's powerful
labor organization, the Histadrut,
corresponding to the AFL-CIO,
took a further important step to-
ward bettering Arab relations. It
changed the name of its annual
conference from "the General Con-
fel ence of Hebrew Labor" to "the
General Conference of Labor."
This was because, for the first
time in the 45-year history of
Histadrut, Arab delegates attended
the labor conference. Arab work-
ers in Israel have long been full
members of Histadrut but not
delegates.
Meanwhile the Arab population
inside Israel has increased faster
than any Arab population any-
where else in the world — 45.4 per
cent since 1948 — three times
faster than the Jewish population.
This is due to Jewish birth control
on one side, plus excellent Jewish
hospitals, doctors and health ser-
vices supplied to Arabs by the Is-
raeli government.
Many Jews believe that more
could be done to assimilate the
Arab population inside Israel, and
the Eshkol government has now
taken an important step in this
direction.
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Important Addendum
Subsequent to his release of this
article, Drew Pearson has sent to
The Jewish News the following im-
portant addendum:
enjoying freedom of shipping to
and from the port of Eilat. Now
the UNEF outpost guarantees Is-
rael's freedom of shipping in the
area. (Related story, Page 18)
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