501.MA Palestine/5–449
Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Satterthwaite) to the Secretary of State
Subject: Visit of Israeli Ambassador.
Discussion:
The Israeli Ambassador, Mr. Eliahu Elath, has an appointment with you at 4:15 this afternoon. He is under instructions from his Government to deliver to the Secretary a copy of a statement which has been prepared for Israeli representatives to make before the ad hoc Committee of the United Nations General Assembly when the question of the admission of Israel to the United Nations is discussed by that Committee. The background of this matter is briefly as follows:
One of the most important problems which must be cleared up before a lasting peace can be established in Palestine is the question of the disposition of the more than 700,000 Arab refugees who during the Palestine conflict fled from their homes in what is now Israeli occupied territory and are at present living as refugees in Arab Palestine and the neighboring Arab states. The December 11, 1948, resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on Palestine resolved that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date. The Israelis have consistently maintained that the solution of the Arab refugee problem lies not in repatriation but in resettlement in the Arab states. Representatives of the Arab states, on the other hand, have insisted that a prerequisite to a final peace in Palestine is the acceptance by Israel of the principle of the repatriation of those Arab refugees who desire to return to their homes.
Arab and Israeli representatives are now meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, with the Palestine Conciliation Commission to discuss a [Page 974] final peace settlement. Mr. Mark Ethridge, the American member of the Commission, believes that the question of the refugees is the key to the success of the Lausanne meeting and has been urging the Israelis to make a conciliatory statement accepting the principle of repatriation. If the Israelis do this, Mr. Ethridge believes the Arab representatives will be influenced to conclude a final peace with Israel.
The Department, through the Embassy in Tel Aviv and here in Washington, has been backing up Mr. Ethridge on this point. When Israeli Foreign Minister Sharett was in this country the Secretary emphasized to him the desirability of Israel’s making a conciliatory statement concerning the refugees and the President recently spoke in the same vein to President Weizmann of Israel.
The case of the admission of Israel is now up before the United Nations and several members thereof have expressed displeasure that Israel has so far disregarded the section of the December 11 General Assembly resolution concerning the repatriation of the Arab refugees.
Under these circumstances, the Israeli Government has apparently decided to make some kind of a statement on refugees in the ad hoc Committee of the General Assembly. Since the Secretary urged upon Mr. Sharett the desirability of making such a statement, the Israeli Government desires that a copy of the statement be furnished the Secretary.
Recommendation:
It is probable that the statement will not be satisfactory from our point of view in that it will not be the kind of firm acceptance of the principle of repatriation which we would like to see the Israelis make. Under these circumstances, it would be most undesirable if Israeli representatives at Lausanne and in the United Nations were to seek to give the impression that the statement had been submitted to the United States Government before it was made and had been “cleared”. It is therefore recommended that during the Ambassador’s visit you limit yourself to listening to what he has to say, to accepting the statement without reading it in his presence, and to thanking him for the Israeli Government’s courtesy in making a copy of the statement available to us. If it is impossible to avoid reading the statement in the Ambassador’s presence, it is suggested that you inform him that you will wish to consider the statement thoroughly with the officers of the Department concerned with the matter.
As today is the first anniversary of the independence of Israel, it is suggested that you congratulate the Ambassador upon this event.