Arab Students Assail Israel, Arab Governments, U.S. Administration

Israel, the “irresolution and hypocrisy” of the Arab governments and the Nixon administration were denounced at the fifth annual convention of the Association of Arab-American University graduates which ended here yesterday. The Association adopted a resolution saluting “the Palestinian freedom fighters” and pledged to defend by lawful means their efforts to implement their rights.

The resolution affirmed the group’s support for what it called a secular democratic state in Palestine that would include Arabs and Jews. Abdeen Jabara, a Detroit lawyer who is president of the association, criticized the Arab states for what he said was their failure to respond to the continued Israeli attacks on Palestinians. Jabara is the lawyer for a group of pro-Arab anti-Zionist elements who are seeking to deprive the United Jewish Appeal of the tax-exempt status it now enjoys under the law. He was also the defense attorney for Sirhan Sirhan during his trial in Los Angeles for the murder of Robert F. Kennedy.

The association, established in 1967. reportedly has 1000 members including 200 college professors and a large number of professionals. It is regarded as the most influential secular group of Arabs in the U.S. During the three days of panel discussions, the Nixon administration was attacked, Israel was denounced as racist and Americans were urged to align themselves with the “oppressed” people.

One of the speakers, Andreas G. Papandreou, a former Greek Cabinet Minister and presently a professor of economics at York University in Toronto, said the struggles of the Arabs and the Greeks were similar because both were seeking independence from the U.S. He called Israel an instrument of U.S. power and likened it to the present military regime in Greece.