Both Houses of Congress currently have legislative proposals to stop U.S. participation in the United Nations General Assembly’s recent decision to establish a special unit to spread information about “Palestinian rights.” Rep. Abner Mikva (D.Ill.) introduced a companion bill in the House yesterday to a previous measure in the Senate propsed by Sen. J. Harrison Williams (D.NJ).
“The alleged purpose of the UN unit would be to observe the international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people,” Mikva said in the House. “In reality, however, the organization would disseminate messages of hatred against the State of Israel and its inhabitants. Such propaganda can only complicate and possibly jeopardize the sensitive peace negotiations now being conducted in the Middle East,” he said.
According to Mikva, “the newly formed group may be viewed as an extension of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.” This committee is composed of 23 member states, 19 of which have no diplomatic relations with Israel. “Clearly, both the old committee and the new unit will result only in a further erosion of the respect for the impartiality of the United Nations,” Mikva said.
He stated the new special unit will “reflect the views” of the Palestine Liberation Organization “as did its predecessor, the Palestine Committee, “and the PLO remains a terrorist organization committed to the destruction of the State of Israel by any means available to its members.” The unit began to operate formally yesterday.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
