A Massachusetts-based group called “Search for Justice and Equality in Palestine” has urged the United States to reduce its aid to Israel until Israel “recognizes the human rights of the Palestinian people.”
A petition supporting that demand, signed by 400 clergymen and other religious figures, also called on the U.S. to negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization. “U.S.-PLO talks will allow Washington to better understand Palestinian aspirations and will enable the U.S. to act as a genuine mediator” in the Arab-Israeli dispute, the petition stated. It also accused Israel of violating human rights.
The petition was condemned today by the Synagogue Council of America (SCA), the coordinating agency for the Conservative, Orthodox and Reform rabbinic and congregational organizations, for “hypocrisy and blatant lies.” The SCA statement, issued by Rabbi Bernard Mandelbaum, SCA executive vice president, noted that among the signers of the petition were Rev. Daniel Berrigan and Rev. Jesse Jackson.
BIASED AND UNFOUNDED STATEMENTS
“These ministers have often made biased and unfounded statements against Israel,” the SCA statement said. “Now, however, they are joined by others in accusing Israel of violating human rights. In doing this, they ignore a recent UN report which distinctly cites Israel’s observance of human rights, in marked contrast to the autocracies of its surrounding neighbors, Syria, Iran, Irag and Saudi Arabia.
In commenting on the petition’s call for the U.S. to meet with the PLO, the SCA said the PLO “is a terrorist organization whose leadership has embraced and fought alongside with the Ayatollah Khomeini in his anti-American policies which defy international law.”
The “Search for Justice” petition, which was delivered yesterday to President Carter, President-elect Reagan and the Israel Embassy here also condemned Israeli settlements on the West Bank as a “major violation” of international law and urged the Israeli and American governments “to recognize the right to self-determination, including an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza if they so decide.”
In addition to Berrigan, who was a prominent Catholic anti-Vietnam war activist, and Jackson, founder of Operation PUSH, others who signed the petition included: William Wipfler, director of the office of human rights for the National Council of Churches; Philip Saliba, Metropolitan of the Antiochian Orthodox Church; Philip Berrigan, a prominent Catholic anti-Vietnam war activist; Bishop James Mathews of Washington, of the United Methodist Church; and five other United Methodist Church; bishops.
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