French-jewish Girl, Jaffa-born Arab Back ‘palestinians’ Struggle’ at Montreal Meeting

A French-Jewish girl and a Jaffa-born Arab engineer were featured at a meeting of 500 Canadian Arabs here, favoring the “Palestinians’ struggle to regain control of their temporarily-occupied country.”

Ania Francos, a member of the new left, told an Arab and pro-Arab audience that “the Jewish people don’t exist. There is but a group of individuals speaking one of the Semitic languages.” Miss Francos said that she belongs to a family of Jewish Communists, most of whom died in German concentration camps. As an atheist she had nothing in common with the Jewish religion, she said, but “I shall feel and consider myself Jewish as long as there will be a Jewish problem in the world.” She considers Zionism “part of the world capitalist and imperialist system. A good part of the Israeli population is exploited by the Zionists.”

Author of the French book “The Palestinians,” Miss Francos praised the fedayeen, whom she considers “among the best guerrillas in the world.” Miss Francos said “in the long run, the political, not the military, victory of the fedayeen is assured. This will coincide with the de-Zionization of Israel.” She accused the Arab leaders of lack of determination in fighting the Zionists, putting the blame on “the fear of the Arab leaders to incur the wrath of the Israelis.” Miss Francos declared that she was expecting a wave of revolutions in the Arab states which will bring to power governments “more engaged in the Palestinian cause.”

Jaffa-born Mounir Abul Hassan, 29, an engineer in Canada wounded during the Six-Day War, told the audience “we El Fatah soldiers are for peaceful co-existence with the Israelis. We are fighting against Zionism, the principle factor of anti-Semitism in the world. The popular masses in Israel, realizing their exploitation, are helping us during our raids.” Hassan appealed to Canadian Arabs to “serve as publicity agents and intermediaries between the El Fatah and the Canadian public.”