Palestine question – Special Committee of Palestine Commission to visit Bethlehem – Press release

UNITED NATIONS

Department of Public Information

Press and Publications Bureau

Lake Success, New York

Press Release PAL/455

9 March 1949

SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF PALESTINE COMMISSION

TO VISIT BETHLEHEM TODAY

The UN Palestine Conciliation Commission's Special Committee on Jerusalem is visiting Bethlehem today, 9 March, in order to gain first hand knowledge of problems connected with the Committee's task to draw up a plan for protection of the Holy Places and for the internationalization of the Jerusalem area in which Bethlehem is included.

This Bethlehem trip during which the Committee is scheduled to interview the Mayor of Bethlehem, will be the first in a series of on the spot investigations by which the three member-committee will study the many and intricate problems involved in its task and will hear the views of Arabs and Jews concerned in the Holy Places and the Jerusalem question.

After return from Bethlehem the Committee is scheduled to confer with the Jewish Mayor of the New City of Jerusalem and with the Arab Mayor of the Old City and will hear the views of other interested parties and experts before starting work on a concrete plan for the internationalization of Jerusalem and for the protection of the Holy places.

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