Walkout

The Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission assembled last week in the shabby, bullet-pocked old stone dwelling that serves as its meeting place in Jerusalem's no-man's land. Before the members was an Israeli demand that Jordan be blamed for provoking the latest outbreak of killing in Palestine. The Jordanian machine-gun fire that killed four and wounded 17 Israeli archaeologists was organized and deliberate, the Israelis insisted. Having thoroughly reviewed the evidence. Chairman Christian Fredrik Moe of Norway differed and indicated that he would uphold Jordan's version--the shots were fired by one soldier who went berserk. At Moe's words, the Israeli delegation stamped out in a cold rage.

With Israel absent, the commission went about censuring Israel's reprisal raid on Husan, in which 37 Arabs died, as a "planned and unprovoked aggression." The same day five Israelis were killed in a truck ambush near the Jordan border. This time the Israelis pointedly refrained from asking the U.N. to look into the shooting, said they would investigate it themselves.

The Israel Foreign Office announced that Israel would boycott further sessions of the commission, the only one still actively at work of the four armistice commissions through which the U.N. had hoped to keep peace on Israel's borders.

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