Strategizing for meeting w/ the Israeli Foreign Minister- UNCCP 174th meeting – (Jersualem) – Summary Record

UNITED NATIONS CONCILIATION COMMISSION FOR PALESTINE

SUMMARY RECORD OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FOURTH MEETING

Held at Government House, Jerusalem,
on Wednesday, 16 August, 1950 at 5:30 p.m.

The CHAIRMAN submitted to the Commission a text prepared by the Secretariat for the statement to be read by him before the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Israel.

He drew the Commission’s attention to the passage dealing with the Commission’s visit to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Egypt. This passage was approved by the Commission, which then examined the part of the statement outlining the Commission’s conversations with the Government of Jordan.

An exchange of views took place on the advisability of quoting textually the words of the Prime Minister of Jordan and of entering into the details of the specific points which the Government of Jordan would consider as proofs of goodwill on the part of Israel. Certain members of the Commission wondered whether the fact of mentioning the Jordanian Government’s demand for the restitution of the Arab quarters of Jerusalem or the villages divided by the demarcation line in the Tulkarm area would not cause, on the part of the Government of Israel, reactions likely to jeopardize any possibility of later negotiations.

Mr. ARAS (Turkey) thought that, without going into the details of the Jordanian proposals, the Commission should nevertheless indicate what their nature was. If the Commission refrained from mentioning the Jordanian Government’s proposal concerning the establishment of a Special Committee under the Rhodes Armistice Agreement, this might be interpreted as a lack of interest in these proposals on the part of the Commission, when in fact the latter wished to promote them. It might also be necessary to give Israel to understand that the door remained open to all possibilities of negotiations.

The reply to a remark by Mr. WALDO (United States) who did not see any useful purpose in mentioning the questions to be discussed in the Special Committee, Mr. de BOISANGER (France) pointed out that the question under discussion was not the creation of this Special Committee but the necessity of a manifestation of goodwill on the part of Israel, which would make possible a meeting of both parties in such a Committee.

Briefly, he thought that the Chairman could, in his statement, indicate in a general way the present state of mind of the Jordanian Government. Should the Foreign Minister of Israel express the wish, later in the meeting, to obtain further information on what the Jordanian Government meant by “manifestations of goodwill”, it might be possible to quote the concrete examples given by the Prime Minister of Jordan and to take the opportunity of mentioning the recent border incidents, indicating that this question was linked to that of manifestations of goodwill.

The PRINCIPAL SECRETARY remarked that in view of the difficulty of the matter he had deemed it preferable, in order not to misrepresent the Prime Minister’s intentions, to quote his words and leave it to Israel to interpret them.

A few drafting changes were then made in the statement and it was decided that the Chairman, in co-operation with the Principal Secretary, would put the finishing touches to the text, taking into consideration the suggestions which had been made during the exchange of views.

The meeting rose at 6.15 p.m.