Georgetown University has revoked permission for the Arab student organization there to hold a “cultural event” after it learned that it was to be an anniversary dinner for on organization that is part of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Wes Christienson, director of public relations for the Jesuit school, said the student group had been given permission for the cultural event and dinner to be held at the university’s Hall of Nations this Sunday.
But the school administration received complaints from alumni that they had received a flyer inviting them to a celebration of the anniversary of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine which is part of the PLO. According to the university, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, headed by Nayef Hawatmeh, has a seat on the PLO executive committee.
INAPPROPRIATE TO SPONSOR TERRORIST GROUP
Rev. Timothy Healy, president of Georgetown University, in a letter to William Stott, vice president and dean of student affairs, and to William Miller, vice president for administration and facilities, withdrew permission.
“It does not seem to me appropriate for the university to sponsor, even by the use of its facilities, any organization which supports international terrorism,” Healy’s letter said.
“Georgetown shares with the Roman Catholic Church the principle that terrorism is not and never can be an acceptable instrument of policy, national or international. It seems to me inappropriate that the university should associate itself and lend its facilities to a birthday party for one of the major terrorist organizations in the world today.”
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