Evening star., 1949-09-16
U.N. IsLosing Struggle
To Internationalize
City Of Jerusalem
BY George Weller
Foreign Correspondent Of The Stor and
the Chicago Daily News

Cl"W6I WIFI 4Sl dcl dUOQJ tIiC AL
ternationalizing of Jerusalem.
split city holy to three world
faiths.
The U. N. has explicitly pledged
that all Of Jerusalem-both
Jewish and Arab-held sections. in
cluding Bethlehem-shall be "ac-
corded special and separate treat
ment from the rest Of Palestine
and placed under effective u. N.
control"
Following six months prepara-
ton the Cancellation Commission
for Palestine presented the U. N.
on Tuesday, as ordered, with an
internationalization plan calling
for two Jerusalems. Arab and
Jewish, grated together with an
international police force amount
ing to 500 men for each. The
police would be under the orders
of q neutral commissioner and
wise commissioner chosen every
five years by the u. N.
Common Council Proposed.
The plan calls for a common
council of seven Jews and seven
Arabs with an international court
of three judges. These U. N.
commissioners would have the
right in an emergency to supple
ment the police with new forces
Of armed recruits.
The plan combines the features
Of Tangier. the worlds most pros
porous international settlement,
and another peace-making design
drawn years ago by Sir William
]. Fitzgerald, chief justice under
the British mandate.
Jerusalem today is divided be-
tween the part held by the Arab
kingdom of Hashemite Jordan,
including about one-fourth the
modern building space and the
shrines of the old city. and the
Jerusalem part, which has most
of the modern buildings, electric
ity and water.
The two halves Of Jerusalem
are militarily in control Of two
capitals, Arab and Jewish, each
about IS miles away. The Arab
capital Is Amman, boom-town
center Of the Jordan kingdom to
the east. The Jewish capital Is
Israels Tel Aviv. on the sea coast
to the west. Jerusalem Is the
prize in the middle.
The Jews want and insist that
Jerusalem should be their future
capital. The Arabs want to pos
sess their part Of the sacred city,
but not as a capital.
Israel Moved Departments.
The American State Depart
ment is strongly behind interna-
tionalizing Jerusalem. The United
States Consulate General here
answers independently to WASH
ington, not to the American Le-
CATION in Tel Aviv.
Before internationalizing Je-
rusalem was voted by the U. N. in
December, Israel announced its
intention to begin moving gov
ernmental departments to Jerusa-
lem. For a period after the u. NJ
vote on, December II, the move
remained suspended. Then the
Israeli government, sped by the
housing shortage in Tel Aviv, be-
gan moving to Jerusalem.
BY late March Israel announced
that the Ministries of Health,
Education, Social and Religious
Affairs were on the move to Je-
rusalem, already declared inter
national" by the U. n
The Departments Of Rationing,
Mail and Telegraph and the na@|
tional printing press started upl
to Jerusalem, too.
The U. N. commission on the
ground, unable to act, announced
that 1t would communicate" with
Trygve Lie. Nothing happened;
the Israeli bureaus stayed.
Moves in Other Ways.
In four other ways Israel has
moved to make difficult the fulfill
ment Of the U. N. ordinance inter-
Matchmaking the city:
l. Theodore Herzl, founder Of
Zionism, who died in Vienna, was
brought here to be buried in Au-
gust on a high hill. At the time
thousands of Jews. heard Israels
claim to Jerusalem, its historic
capital" reaffrmed in speeches.
In the Islamic mosque of Omar
in the old city Of Jerusalem, King
Hussein, father of King Abdullah
Of Jordan, is buried. Each year
his son and Jordan notables make
a pilgrimage there.
BY the burial Of Herzl. Israel
thus matched Abdullah's claim of
paternal reverence with one of its
own, similarly modern and polit-
ical.
2. An international corridor
from Jerusalem to the sea was
made more debatable by the
hurried establishment of six Jew
ish stronghold settlements" in
the past year on the main road
Of the corridor. These settlements
are agrarian in pattern, but are
manned by Jewish veterans, al
most wholly unmarried, both |
youths and girls.
8. The systematic use of the |
phrase "our eternal capital" when |
speaking of Jerusalem has been |
made by Israeli leaders like Pres
ident Chain Weizmann, Premier |
David Ben-Gurion and Beri |
Locker. president Of the World |
Zionist Federation. I'VE will never !
allow aliens to rule over Jeru-
salem." Bernard Joseph, COM
mander Of the. city. stated.
4. In August the Jewish cab
met held its second meeting In |
Jerusalem. No. U. N. protest was |
made.
U. N. Action Hampere6.
In tending of this Jewish Dip
lomatic offensive for capture of |
all Jerusalem, the u. N. cannot |
ride its usual see-saw position,