Israel has been excluded from a “Capitals of the World” conference to be held in Ottawa next month at which terrorism against capital cities will be on the agenda. Libya was among the nations invited.
A spokesman for Ottawa Mayor James Durrell who is organizing the conference said an invitation had been sent to Mayor Shlomo Lahat of Tel Aviv but was returned with a note stating that Israel’s capital is Jerusalem. Canada does not recognize the status of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The Department of External Affairs was involved because it conveyed the invitations on behalf of Ottawa. The invitation to Libya was sent through the Canadian Embassy in Rome.
Ottawa Alderman Mark Maloney protested sharply to External Affairs Minister Joe Clark. “We won’t have Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, but we get the leading terrorism-sponsoring nation in the world,” Maloney wrote. He demanded that the invitation to Libya be withdrawn.
Canadian policy since December 1986 has been not to invite Libyan delegates to any government-sponsored conferences in Canada. The Ottawa conference is locally sponsored but has received a $200,000 grant from the government. The External Affairs Department persuaded the organizing committee not to invite East Germany, North Korea, Taiwan or South Africa but said nothing about Libya.
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