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Arabs Picket White House, Chant ‘long Live El Fatah’

September 26, 1969
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A group of about 50 Arab pickets paraded in front of the White House today chanting “long live El Fatah” and “down with Golda Meir.” Mrs. Meir had already left the executive mansion when the demonstrators appeared. Police permitted the pickets to march after the American Civil Liberties Union interceded with a Federal District Court to lift an injunction requested by the Government. The injunction was signed by Judge John H. Pratt on the strength of a report by the U.S. District Attorney’s office that a group of Jews planned a counter-demonstration and violence might ensue.

No violence occurred because of a large concentration of police and the fact that the pickets seemed to attract little attention. Most of them appeared to be Arab students from universities in the Washington area and employes of Arab embassies. A professional Arab propagandist, Dr. Mohammed T. Mehdi, told newsmen in front of the White House that the “blood of any Arabs killed by U.S. jets used by Israelis will be on the hands of President Nixon.”

Earlier in the day, uniformed self-styled Nazi storm-troopers of the National Socialist White Peoples Party passed out anti-Israel handbills at White House gates. The handbills said “end Jewish aggression in the Middle East now” and called for an end to the supply of U.S. arms to Israel.

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