Lone Kirkland, president of the AFL-CIO, pledged that American labor “will neither swerve from our support of Israel, nor yield ground to those, in or out of the Administration, who would push our democratic ally into unilateral concessions to those who deny her right to exist.”
Kirkland, speaking last night at the Jewish Labor Committee’s National Trade Union Council Human Rights Award dinner here honoring Douglas Fraser, president of the United Automobile Workers Union, added: “To those who would punish Israel by withholding economic or military assistance we say: save that talk for General (Wojciech) Jaruzeiski (military leader of Poland) and his Soviet masters. Such threats ill behoove on Administration that has just lifted sanctions on the Siberian pipeline, refuses to halt the flow of credit to the Eastern bloc, and is begging the Soviet Union to buy more grain from us.”
Kirkland praised Fraser for “being a long-time friend of Israel” deserving the honor being bestowed on him.
UAW CHIEF CITES ISRAEL’S DEMOCRACY
In his own remarks, Fraser, reviewing the war in Lebanon and its aftermath, said; “Like the U.S., Israel is a country in which the citizens by no means take what their government says at face value. Despite living in the shadow of a virtual siege throughout its young existence, Israel has never attempted to stifle political dissent or curb the free expression of its people and press.”
He noted that “Following the Phalangist massacre at the (west Beirut refugee) camps, the UAW condemned the perpetrators, but also pointed to the Begin government’s share of responsibility for the events in Beirut, I realize that our comments have made a number of people unhappy, but as we’ve all seen since then, the U.S. criticism of the massacre paled in significance compared to the firestorm of debate and soul-searching in Israel itself. This points, I think, to the vital link between the U.S. and Israel, the real and lasting basis of our relationship.”
Fraser said that when the people of Israel hear a news broadcast or read a newspaper, “they apply their own judgement and bring to bear their own experience in evaluating the truth or falsity of what they hear and read.”
He urged that Americans should judge Israel by its democratic values and experiences and not on the basis of false propaganda stories spread by its enemies. Like Kirkland, he reiterated his long-standing friendship with Israel and pledged that he, and his million-member union of auto and agricultural implement workers, “would continue its link with Israel’s cause.”
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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.
