U.N. Condemns Alleged Israeli Rights Abuses

The General Assembly voted 140-2 Friday for an Arab resolution condemning Israel for alleged violation of human rights in the territories it occupies and demanding that Israel abide by Geneva Convention rules protecting civilians in wartime.

Only the United States joined Israel in voting against the resolution. Zaire and five Latin American states abstained.

Israeli Ambassador Johanan Bein was the sole speaker in opposition after Libyan Ambassador Ali Treiki presented the Arab proposal with the charge that the Palestinian people had offered the olive branch of peace only to be met with “napalm and the engines of death.”

Bein rebuked the Arab states, with the exception of Egypt, for their refusal even to respond to an invitation to negotiate issued by Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Arens before the assembly last week.

While Egypt and Israel are seeking a Mideast peace, Bein said, the other Arab states are waging “political warfare against Israel and against the peace initiative of its government.”

U.S. Ambassador Alexander F. Watson, speaking after the vote, emphasized U.S. support for the Arab contention that civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza strip are protected by the Geneva Convention, a position rejected by Israel on grounds that the territories are not occupied but “administered” by Israel alone.