Yasir Arafat, whose 1989 welcome to Paris severely strained French Jewry’s relationship with President Francois Mitterrand, reportedly wants a return engagement.
The Palestine Liberation Organization leader is fishing for an invitation, according to Arab diplomatic sources in Paris. The sources said Arafat’s wishes were conveyed recently to Mitterrand’s foreign policy adviser, Pierre Morel, by Hakim Balawi, a senior member of Al Fatah, the PLO’s largest faction, which Arafat heads.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Balawi stressed France’s role in the Middle East peace process and asked the French to support the “active and effective participation of the PLO” in the process.
Such a visit would follow upon a meeting in April held in Libya between Arafat and French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas. That meeting irked not only Jews but other members of the European Community, which had distanced itself from Arafat after his support for Saddam Hussein of Iraq.
Mitterrand’s reception of Arafat at the Elysee Palace in May 1989 stirred deep resentment in the Jewish community. the French president was jeered during a mass protest rally in the Jewish quarter.
Mitterrand, who had always enjoyed the friendship and support of French Jews, was hurt and responded sharply.
He reportedly told Theo Klein, then president of CRIF, the representative council of French Jewish organizations, that “the policy of France is decided in Paris and not in Israel.”
In Washington, the French ambassador to the United States told Jewish organizational leaders last week that his country does not insist on a PLO role in the Middle East peace process.
“We are not wedded to the PLO or to Yasir Arafat,” Ambassador Jacques Andreani told 50 people at an American Jewish Committee luncheon.
The ambassador said that France’s position on the Arab-Israeli conflict has been “grossly misrepresented,” and he blamed the pro-Israel community for having done that.
(JTA correspondent Howard Rosenberg in Washington contributed to this report.)
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