Palestine question – Arabs protest alleged Israeli military action – Press release

UNITED NATIONS

Department of Public Information

Press and Publications Bureau

Lake Success, New York

Press Release PAL/502

9 June 1949

ARAB DELEGATIONS AT LAUSANNE PROTEST AGAINST

ALLEGED ISRAELI MILITARY ACTION

(The following has been received at UN Headquarters from the Press Officer

with the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine, Lausanne, Switzerland.)

The United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine received the heads of Arab Delegations (Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and the Hashemite Jordan Kingdom) this morning (9 June) when they jointly submitted an official protest against alleged action of a military character taken on the evening of 6 June in the Jerusalem district, where a section of the Israeli Army – according to a note transmitted to the Jordanian Delegation by its Government – has occupied various positions in the Government House sector.

Mulki Pasha, head of the Jordanian Delegation, speaking also in the name of his three collegues, handed the Commission a note to the effect that the Arab Delegations warn the Commission against the possible consequences on the Lausanne talks if the situation thus created were allowed to continue.  The note also requested the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from the positions occupied on 6 June in the "neutral zone" of the Government House sector.

This neutral zone was established on 30 November 1948 by agreement between the Israeli and Jordanian military authorities and endorsed in the Armistice Agreement signed at Rhodes between Israel and the Hashemite Jordan Kingdom (Article 5, Paragraph b) .

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