800 Students Hold Vigil for Slain Israelis; Peace Groups Denounced for Remaining Silent

The Jewish community continues to express its grief and sympathy to Israel and the families of the eight school children and four adults and the 21 others wounded in the ambush attack on an Israeli school bus last Friday by Arab guerrillas. Approximately 800 Jewish students conducted a vigil outside the United Nations headquarters for more than an hour yesterday to protest what they termed UN passivity in the face of Arab terrorism against Israel. They scored the terrorists’ school bus ambush and the Security Council’s resolution last week which condemned Israel but not the Arab terrorists. Participants included groups from City College, Brooklyn College, Students For Peace in the Middle East, Betar, the Youth Committee for Peace and Democracy in the Middle East, Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, and the Young People’s Socialist League. One of the signs carried by the students read: "El Fatah is Unhealthy for Children and Other Living Things," a play on the popular peace slogan "War is Unhealthy…" The secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization observed the demonstration in the company of police, apparently in an attempt to identify participants as among those who beat three Arab nationals here last Friday in presumed reprisal for the bus attack.

The United Labor Zionist Organization today excoriated "anti-war groups" in this country and "the overwhelming majority of social, political and religious institutions" for failing to speak out against the ambush slaying. "We share their justified desire for peace in Southeast Asia. We mourn with them the deaths of the six students at Kent State and Jackson State. But where are they now when the dead students are Israeli? Where is their out cry? Where is their sense of horror?" the ULZO statement said. "From the anti-war students, as from their elders, there is only silence." It also assailed the UN Security Council resolution and declared the UN "must be held responsible for the deaths of 12 Israelis. Its one-sided anti-Israel policy has given carte blanche to the terrorist organizations in their genocidal ambitions." The Labor Zionists also condemned "those elements who would utilize hooliganism as a means of voicing their indignation." The reference was to those who invaded two pro-Arab offices.

UN CONDEMNED FOR ENCOURAGING ARAB TERROR: THOSE WHO BEAT ARABS SCORED AS ‘HOOLIGANS’

The American Jewish Committee, in a telegram to Secretary of State William P. Rogers, urged the United States to exert every effort to convince the Arab countries and the UN that "toleration of such acts of indiscriminate terror is morally reprehensible and gravely intensifies the dangers of war in the area." The telegram, signed by AJCommittee President Philip E. Hoffman, expressed "shock and outrage" at the "wanton murder of innocent children and their teachers." and specifically pointed out that the failure of the UN Security Council to "take note of similar acts in the past, while condemning Israeli retaliation to such terrorist provocations, only serves to encourage Arab belligerency." Mr. Hoffman implied that the United States had abrogated its responsibility in the past by merely abstaining from voting on such resolutions, and urged that "our government should henceforth fully exercise its charter right to prevent the adoption of such partisan resolutions."

Earl Morse, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, sent a telegram to UN Secretary General U Thant which stated that, "The wanton massacre" of Israeli children by Arab guerrillas cries out for "firm and effective action" by the United Nations and deserves condemnation by every civilized nation. The continuing "one-sided position" of the UN in "failing to censure Arab terrorism." may well be "an important contributing factor to the climate of violence in the Middle East." The statement added, and declared that this "heartless slaughter" of defenseless children places "Lebanon, and all other nations which reject Israel’s right to exist on clear notice that they must bear full responsibility for the bloodshed that is launched from their territories." Mr. Morse also urged New York City authorities to make "a prompt and vigorous investigation" into the attack on the three Arab officials, and were asked to prosecute those responsible for "this cowardly and contemptible violation of law." Mr. Morse declared that "such hooliganism" does a "disservice to Israel, to the Jewish community and to the maintenance of a democratic order in the United States. He added that this "blatant and reckless vigilante action should be condemned by every person, regardless of faith."