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Cojo Delegates Eager to Give Voice to Solidarity with Israel

December 10, 1974
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The world Conference of Jewish Organizations concluded a two-day meeting here with a message to Premier Yitzhak Rabin that the delegates had voted unanimously of their “eagerness” to participate in any worldwide meeting the Premier might call to enable Jews throughout the world to “give voice to their solidarity with Israel.” Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson, acting COJO chairman, signed the message which stated it was being sent on behalf of the 75 COJO delegates from 11 Jewish organizations on five continents as an “expression of our solidarity and unity with Israel’s great struggle for peace and security.”

The message also said that whether Rabin would wish to call a Prime Minister’s conference in 1975 or a smaller conference of Jewish leadership later this month, “we are prepared to Join with you in mounting a great demonstration at which leaders of our organizations and other Jewish bodies around the world would declare their commitment to and identification with the land and people of Israel.” Many delegates expressed the view that such a worldwide conference would be a major contribution to the strengthening of the morale of the Jewish people and of the people of Israel.

HEARTENED BY INTELLECTUALS’ RESPONSE TO UNESCO

Yosef Tekoah. Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, told the delegates that the worldwide reputation of the UN was at an “all-time low,” largely because of its “blatant” anti-Israel actions. He said “millions of men and women who once pinned their hopes on the UN have become disillusioned. indeed, revolted, by the actions of the General Assembly, of UNESCO and of other UN agencies. in twisting their own rules and violating their own practices at the bidding of the Arab oil billionaires.”

The envoy said he was “heartened” by the “response of intellectuals who announced they would never again collaborate with UNESCO. I am encouraged by the United States Senate vote to cut off United States financial support of UNESCO and I am impressed by the about-face in the vote of a small country like Denmark on the Palestine Liberation Organization issue, a change brought about by a public outcry against Denmark’s initial vote to invite the PLO to address the General Assembly.”

Tekoah declared that “these developments show what can be done when public opinion is alerted to the danger of surrendering to Arab pressures.” He said he believed that “we can take inspiration from these events in the campaign we must launch to expose the UN and its specialized agencies as instruments to humiliate and isolate Israel.” Tekoah voiced confidence that Israel would “overcome and prevail as we have from the moment of our founding against the implacable hostility of the built-in anti-Israel majority in the United Nations.”

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