Strong reaction continued today among Jewish organizations in the United States and abroad over the release by France of Palestinian terrorist Abu Daoud.
A delegation representing the local branches of the constituent members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations met yesterday with Gerard Gaussen, the French Consul General here, to tell him that pressures were mounting for a boycott of French products in the United States and of travel to France. A similar warning was issued last week when a Presidents Conference delegation led by its chairman, Rabbi Alexander Schindler, met with the French Ambassador in Washington.
The New York delegation, led by Seymour Reich, of B’nai B’rith, presented Gaussen with a letter signed by representatives of the New York branches of the 32 constituent members of the Presidents Conference. Reich said the letter was intended to “express the shock and outrage of the American Jewish community over the callous and precipitous release of Abu Daoud by a French court with the obvious acquiescence of the French government.”
Gaussen told the Jewish leaders that the failure of West Germany to apply through diplomatic channels for Daoud’s extradition left the French court with no choice but to release him. But, Jack Elktn, of the American Jewish Congress, replied that “France found a technicality by which to release Abu Daoud. There is no doubt in our minds that France could have found a technicality to keep him in custody until the extradition process had been properly completed.”
The delegation here repeated Schindler’s statement in Washington that each of the 32 organizations in the Presidents Conference would act individually in response to the pressures for a boycott of French products and travel.
SURRENDER TO ECONOMIC BLACKMAIL
The Jewish Federation of North Jersey sent a telegram to French Ambassador Jacques Kosciusko-Morizet in Washington saying it was “shocked, dismayed and angered at the demonstration and capitulation to political and economic blackmail by the French government” in releasing Daoud. The federation said that “the unwarranted release of this murderer has removed France from the list of impartial participants concerned with peace in the Middle East and has placed your country amongst the oil-bowed and economically controlled puppets of the Arab states.”
In Palm Springs, Calif., Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz, president of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, told the Pacific Coast Regional Conference of the Conservative rabbinic organization that by releasing Daoud, France was “prostituting itself and dancing to the Arab terrorist tune.” He urged his West Coast colleagues to continue a campaign of protest against France.
CANADIAN STATEMENT PRAISED
Meanwhile, in Montreal, the Canadian Jewish Congress has sent a telegram to External Affairs Minister Don Jamieson commending the Canadian government for its statement that terrorists should be prosecuted. The telegram, singed by Alan Rose, the CJC’s national executive director, was sent shortly after the government’s statement was issued last Friday.
The statement by the Department of External Affairs spokesman said that “Canada considers it of greatest importance that terrorists be brought to justice either by prosecution or by extradition to a country for the purpose of prosecution. Canada has been working intensively in cooperation with other interested countries, including France, to strengthen the framework of international law in that field. We are concerned that the Abu Daoud affair will make the success of such efforts more difficult to achieve.”
A MOMENT OF SHAME
The Information and Documentation Center for the Middle East in Brussels said in its bulletin that the “moment of truth in the Abu Daoud affair had been the moment of shame.” The Center commented in a communique: “The Abu Daoud affair was a test case for the sincerity and credibility of Europe. Besides France, the host country to the Palestinian Killer, and Germany, which was the scene of his bloodiest massacre, all Europe is involved in the arrest of the former chief of Black September.”
The Center added: “Belgium has not forgotten the murder of its diplomat Guy Eid in Khartoum. We are not proud to be Europeans today.”
BAR ILAN. SORBONNE SIGN ACCORD
While criticism of France continued, an academic exchange agreement was signed over the weekend between Bar Ilan University and the Paris Sorbonne. The signatories, at an informal ceremony on the Bar Ilan campus in Ramat Gan, were Prof. Raymond Polin, president of the Sorbonne, and Prof. Nathanel Katzberg, acting rector of the Israeli University. Katzberg observed that the agreement was a re-affirmation of the basic friendship between the Israeli and French people despite the hostile act of the French authorities in releasing Daoud.
The agreement provides for annual exchanges of professors and experts in the humanities, exchanges of information and publications, cooperation in research and the organization of and joint participation in seminars and symposiums. Polin has spent several weeks at Bar Ilan University as a guest lecturer in philosophy.
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