7 Knesseters to Visit Washington As Guests of the Congress

Great importance is attached in political circles here to the official visit to Washington by seven Knesset members which begins Sunday, The group will spend ten days in the U.S., five of them us guests of the Congress and the balance of the time meeting with leaders of the American Jewish community, Congress invited the Knesset last September to send a delegation. The invitation, sent by House Speaker Carl Albert (D, Okla.), recalled the Knesset’s hospitality in previous months to numerous groups of Senators and representatives visiting Israel,

The timing of the visit is considered of special significance in that it will provide Israelis elected representatives with an opportunity to explain their country’s position and aspirations and refute the attacks on Zionism and Jews recently made in the U.S. and at the United Nations by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

The Knesset group, headed by Speaker Yisrael Yeshayahu, consists of three other Labor MKs two from Likud and one of the National Religious Party, thus representing a cross-section of the coalition government and the opposition They will be arriving in the U.S. only a few days after Sadat’s departure.

Yeshayahu, addressing a luncheon for visiting American trade union delegates at the Knesset yesterday, said the MKs would discuss the question of Zionism and explain to Americans that it is the liberation movement of the Jewish people, Yeshayahu, who was born in Yemen where Jews were treated as second class citizens, said his own personal experience was an example of what Zionism means.

WILL MEET WITH TOP OFFICIALS

The MKs will meet with President Ford, Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller, Secretary of State Henry A, Kissinger and members of both houses of Congress, They will be the first Knesset delegation to visit Washington on an official basis.

In addition to Yeshayahu, the group consists of Chaika Grossman, Yitzhak Ben Aharon and Ari Ankorion, of the Labor Alignment, Menachem Beigin and Yosef Tamir of Likud; and Zerach Warhaftig of the NRP. Yeshayahu said that after their official meetings in Washington, the delegation will visit American Jewish communities to urge Increased Jewish education, stronger tics with Israel and to call for aliya.