In Paris and Athens, Geneva and Amsterdam, Arab groups and their sympathizers are trying to rally public support for Palestinians in the Israeli-administered territories and are demanding strong condemnation of Israel for the tough measures it has taken to quell rioting in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
In Paris, a delegation of young Frenchmen of Algerian origin demonstrated Tuesday outside the Israel Embassy, calling for an end to Israeli “violence” and for an international peace conference with the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Police blocked the embassy premises. They were handed a letter addressed to the Israeli government warning it to “negotiate with the PLO before it is too late.” The message claimed that “the conflict is, for the time being, one between Israel and the Palestinians. Do not turn it into an Arab-Jewish clash.”
Some of the demonstrators, representing Franco-Algerian organizations, announced they would hold a vigil and hunger strike at the Notre Dame cathedral on Christmas eve for “the Palestinian martyrs” killed in the recent uprising in the territories.
The French Socialist Party, headed by President Francois Mitterrand, meanwhile, has expressed its concern over events in the territories.
RALLY IN ATHENS
In Athens, the Union of Palestinian Students in Greece staged a rally at the Athens University last Friday to protest the latest “Israeli attacks against the inhabitants of the occupied Arab lands.”
The students presented a draft resolution to the United Nations office in Athens denouncing the “Zionist, racist oppression being violently carried out today in the occupied lands, which have resulted in dozens of deaths, hundreds of injuries and thousands of arrests.”
The General Confederation of Workers of Greece called on all working people to participate in a 10-minute work stoppage at noon Monday in solidarity with the Palestinian people. They called for an end to “the oppression by Israel in the occupied Arab lands,” a settlement of the Palestinian problem through an international conference and peace in the eastern Mediterranean region.
A strong rebuttal by Israel was not broadcast by Greek television even though Moshe Gilboa, Israel’s diplomatic representative in Athens, personally intervened with the director of television. Gilboa holds the rank of ambassador, but relations between Greece and Israel are on only the consular level.
The Israeli Mission in Athens issued a statement blaming the PLO for the violence in the territories. It noted that before the riots broke out, the PLO radio station in Baghdad urged the Palestinian population in the territories to “give the enemy an unforgettable lesson.” But the statement was ignored by the Greek news media.
In Holland, the new PLO representative in The Hague, Safie Safieh, sent an open letter to the Dutch people, through the ANP news agency, calling events in the territories “a moral challenge to all of mankind.”
Safieh, a Roman Catholic, addressed himself to his “Christian brethren” in the Netherlands. He urged all Dutch Christians to “remember the Palestinians in their Christmas prayers.”
The names of 21 Palestinian students alleged to have been killed by Israeli security forces during the first two weeks of the disturbances were published in an advertisement in several Dutch newspapers. It was inserted by the Netherlands Committee of Support to Palestinian Higher Education. The committee raises money for Bir Zeit University near Ramallah in the West Bank.
The Conference of Arab Ambassadors, which met in Switzerland this week, called on the Swiss government and the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva to intervene on behalf of the Palestinians.
The Israeli charge d’affaires in Bern, Yigael Antebi, was summoned Monday to the Swiss Foreign Ministry by Alfred Ruegg, its director general. Ruegg requested information about events in the territories and asked to be kept informed of developments.
(Contributing to this report were correspondents Edwin Eytan in Paris, Tamar Levy in Geneva, Henrietta Boas in Amsterdam and Jean Cohen in Athens.)
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.
