Foreign Minister Yigal Allon, Knesset Speaker Yisrael Yeshayahu and the five Knesseters who will represent Israel at the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting in London Sept. 3 will meet next week to consider whether the Israel Knesset delegation should attend now that the attendance of the Palestine Liberation Organization is certain.
The meeting was scheduled following former Foreign Minister Abba Eban’s request to Premier Yitzhak Rabin and the Cabinet for a clear guideline on whether the government favors participation in such events. Eban is due to head the Israeli Knesset delegation which also comprises Ora Namir and Moshe Carmel of Labor and Elimelech Rimalt and Yohanan Bader of Likud.
Last Sunday, on Allon’s recommendation, the Cabinet resolved that Israel would not attend the United Nations crime parley in Geneva because the PLO was to be represented there.
Eban did not indicate in his letter to Rabin his own opinion on whether the Israeli delegation should attend. He told the JTA today he considered PLO attendance at a parliamentary gathering the “height of absurdity.”
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