B’nai B’rith District I leaders today called upon the United Nations and the governments comprising the UN to “seal off the havens to mass murders” as the result of the Lydda Airport massacre on May 30. The nearly 2000 leaders from the Northeast US–New York State and New England–attending the 120th annual District I convention gave overwhelming approval to a resolution denouncing the Lydda massacre as “abhorrent and loathsome.”
The resolution called for world-wide action and demanded, “Pilots should refuse to fly the planes, technical crews should refuse to service the planes, and airlines should refuse to land their planes in countries that make possible such barbaric practices,”
US Ambassador to the UN George Bush will deliver the keynote speech of the convention at a special session Wednesday. Bush is expected to make a major policy address, according to informed sources.
The B’nai B’rith leaders assailed the government of Lebanon for providing protection and immunity to Arab terrorist organizations. The resolution further said, “Lebanon has become an infectious center for those who plan and carry out slaughter of defenseless and unsuspecting human beings. By countenancing and abetting these unconscionable operations Lebanese authorities must share in the culpability of the mass murder.
“We demand that Lebanese authorities move now to hold accountable those members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who have already publicly and privately claimed responsibility for the killings at Lod.”
(In Los Angeles today, a statement expressing “repugnance and horror” at the Lydda Airport massacre was issued by 12 Southern California Protestant, Catholic and Jewish clergymen and lay leaders. The statement condemned “this ruthless action by hired killers and those persons and organizations perpetrating such infamous acts” who have “violated all rules of morality The statement added, however, that “those who have acquiesced in the violent behavior are even more to blame.” The statement was released by the community relations committee of the Jewish Federation-Council.)
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