THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, June 28, 1968-13
of Jews
Egypt Won't P ermit UN Envoy to Probe Treatment Lebanon,
but only
Algiers Incident
Related by Hersey
Knopf has rushed into produc-
tion-for publication on June 28th
"The Algiers Motel Incident" by
John Hersey, a devastating report
of police action—and of the violent
deaths of three Negroes—in the
midst of civil chaos in Detroit last
year. This is Hersey's first major
work of non-fiction since the ap-
pearance of "Hiroshima" in 1946.
Because the telling of this story
has vital immediate implications
for the urban racial crisis, the
manuscript was published today
only six weeks after it was re-
ceived by Knopf in completed
form. The book, being issued
simultaneously by Bantam in a
paper edition is a Literary Guild
special alternate selection.
This is John Hersey's account
of an incident in the Detroit riots.
of 1967. The episode, Hersey
writes, "contained all the mythic
themes of racial strife in the
United States: the arm of the-
law taking the law into its own
hands; interracial sex; the subtle
poison of racist thinking by 'de-
cent' men who deny that they are
racists; the societal limbo into
which so many young black men•
have been driven; ambiguous jus-
tice in the courts; and the de-
vastation in both black and white .
human lives that f011ows in the
wake of violence."
On the fourth day of ,the De-
troit riots, the newspapers re-
ported that three Negroes had
been killed in a sniper battle at
the Algiers Motel.
The night before—Tuesday, July
25—rumors of sniping were wide-
spread. Responding to a telephone
report of shots fired in the vicin-
ity, a number of Detroit police
officers, State Troopers, and Na-
tional Guardsmen rushed to the
annex of the Algiers Motel, about
a mile and a half from the center
of the riot area. Inside, they found
ten black men and two white girls.
The police began questioning
them. No guns were found.
One hour later, when the police_
left, three of the men lay dead,
shot at close range. The others,
including the two girls, had been
severely beaten. The police made
no report of the incident to their:
superiors. A Negro called the
morgue.
What really happened at the
Algiers Motel?
Hersey spent months on a de-
tailed investigation — questioning
all the survivors; talking to the
family and friends of the dead
men; listening to the people in
the neighborhood; examining
police and court records; inter-
viewing federal, state, city, and
Police Department officials, in-
cluding the three Detroit police-
men who were subsequently in-
dicted.
His meticulous reconstruction
of the incident at the Algiers
Motel, and of the complex social
circumstances that created the at-
mosphere in which it could occur,
calls into question some of the
most fundamental assumptions
about the nature of law and order
and the application of justice in
American society.:
The story itself insists that from
this day forward the men en-
trusted with the responsibility of
policing, judging and penalizing
their fellow Americans apply the
same standards to all — so that
black Americans as well as white
may truly perceive "law and or-
der" as a benefit, not as'a pretext
for the denial and suppression of
their rights as citizens of the
United States.
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Egyptian
refusal to agree to permit a United
Nations envoy to investigate the
treatment of the remaining Jews
in Egypt is the reason for Secre-
tary-General U Thant's delay in
naming a special representative
to report on the situation of the
civilian population in the areas
held by Israel after the Six-Day
War, it was learned here. The ap-
pointment was to have been made
under a Security Council resolu-
tion. Israel had agreed to give the
UN representative facilities to
study the situation in the occupied
areas on the understanding that
the envoy would also report on
the situation of the Jewish minor-
ities in the Arab lands involved
in the war.
Egypt, according to information
here, has refused to give the pro-
posed UN envoy means to make
a first:hand study. Syria, it was
learned, did not even answer the
United Nations' request. Thant an-
nounced his intention to nominate
a special representative almost on
the eve of the reconvening of the
General Assembly last spring. He
has not, however, announced the
appointment.
It was recalled that a special
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• TEL AVIV (JTA) . Chief Rabbi
Moshe Rosen of Romania has un-
covered an international gang that
has been buying old scrolls in
that country and selling them as
antiques at high prices to foreign
collectors, the daily Yediot Ach-
ronot reported Tuesday.
states and in
Lebanon permitted the UNESCO
delegate to make an inspection.
The other three governments ref-
used to give him access to the
properties, Brunnel disclosed here.)
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envoy representing the Secretary-
General, Nils Goren-Gussing, who
had been similarly charged, com-
pleted his mission last December
without having been permitted by
either Egypt or Syria to study the
Jewish situation in those coun-
tries.
(According to a report in Paris,
the Egyptian, Syrian and Jor-
danian governments also refused
to allow Karl Brunnel, a Swiss,
special representative of UNESCO,
to inspect cultural properties be-
longing to the Jews now sequester-
ed in these states. The Israel Gov-
ernment had asked UNESCO to
inspect 97 such properties in these
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