Israel reacted strongly today to the European Economic Community (EEC) summit’s condemnation of Israel’s policies on the West Bank. The leaders of the 10 EEC member-states, including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain and President Francois Mitterrand of France, issued a joint declaration at their summit meeting in Brussels yesterday expressing “deep concern at the grave events” on the West Bank and particularly denounced “the repression imposed on the Palestinian population.”
A statement issued today by the Foreign Ministry said Israel “totally rejected” the EEC statement, terming it “a distortion which does not reflect the facts as they are.” It also expressed “dismay” and said the EEC had “ignored the reality in Judaea and Samaria” and “disregarded completely the incitement to violence initiated by the PLO which led to recent events.”
The EEC statement, which was issued on the eve of the arrival here of British Foreign Secretary Lord Corrington, threatened to cloud the atmosphere of the talks that opened today here between the British diplomat and Israeli officials. According to Israeli sources, the issue came up at the initial meeting between Carrington and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir this morning. Deputy Foreign Minister Yehuda Ben-Meir said later that the EEC statement was “hypocritical and serious.”
Ben-Meir noted that the EEC had not issued any statement about President Hafez Assad “using tanks to kill thousands of innocent civilians.” This was a reference to the recent brutal Syrian repression of the Moslem Brotherhood uprising in the town of Hama.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
