When, on New Year's Day 1955, Egypt released the ten-man crew of the Israeli freighter Bat Galim, Western powers hoped this action represented a conciliatory gesture by the Arab state and presaged a coming year of peaceful relations between the Arab world and Israel. Subsequent events proved, however, that peace in this area was more remote than at any time since 1949, when the United Nations engineered armistice agreements between Israel and her neighbours. The Israeli sailors had attempted to steer their 500-tonne freighter, carrying foodstuffs from Asmara, Eritrea, to Haifa, through the Suez Canal, when it was stopped opposite Suez by Egypt on September 28, 1954. Egypt, on the grounds that she was still in a state of war with Israel, would not allow ships of that nation to use Egyptian waters. Nor did Egypt release the Bat Galim to the Israelis directly, since this might be construed as political recognition of the State of Israel, a gesture which the entire Arab world had adamantly disdained since Israel's creation. As in previous years, the UN and various Western countries made several attempts to bring together the statesmen of the Near East to settle their differences. And, as has so often happened since the Arab-Israel war of 1948, their efforts – sugar-coated with tangible and practical inducements that would benefit the entire region – met with failure. The Arabs repeatedly refused to negotiate with Israel on a political basis and insisted it must be done through UN intermediaries. The Arabs further demanded that Israel first implement the UN resolutions that call for the repatriation of some 900,000 Palestinian Arab refugees. To this, Arab condition Israel invariably has replied that the refugees left their homes on their own accord, and that Israel had a prior obligation to care for the thousands of Jews still emigrating from European and Moslem lands. During the early parts of 1955, Israeli and Egyptian military forces had been involved in skirmishes in the border area between Israel and the Gaza strip. For some time, after a cease fire had been negotiated, the United Nations had stationed UN troops in this area. However, on February 28, 1955, Ben Gurion ordered Operation Black Arrow, which was a large-scale attack on an Egyptian military installation in the Gaza strip (then under the control of Egypt). Fifty Israeli paratroopers were sent in during the night and utterly destroyed the camp. Thirty-eight Egyptian soldiers were killed and 31 were wounded in this devastating attack. UN officers reported the attack to the UN headquarters in New York and it was taken up in the Security Council where a resolution was adopted strongly condemning the Israeli raid. The Egyptian Gazette of March 2, 1955 carried a front-page report headlined: Serious Aggression by Israelis at Gaza Egypt calls for urgent meeting of the Security Council The Gazette report said: “The Egyptian government has instructed its UN delegate to notify the Security Council of the Israeli attack on Monday night and ask for an emergency meeting of the Council. “The Egyptian authorities point out that the attack is a serious breach of the UN Charter and threatens the security of the Middle East. Egypt also reserved its rights with regard to those Egyptians who were killed or wounded and the property destroyed." [email protected]
