Hausner Proposes U.S. Initiate Program to Combat Terrorism

Gideon Hausner, MK and Israeli Cabinet Minister who was the prosecutor of the Nazi, Adolf Eichmann, presented a five-point plan to counteract international terrorism. Speaking at a press conference preceding the banquet of the annual Mid-Winter Conference of the National Board of Hadassah at the New York Hilton Hotel, he pointed out that international arrangements to bring terrorists to trial and extradition treaties have failed.

“With the moral approach adopted by President Jimmy Carter to international problems. I expect the U.S. to take the lead in developing effective action against terror, not necessarily within the framework of the UN, but by bringing about a multilateral agreement between all states prepared to join in cooperative endeavors to suppress terrorism by taking practical action.” Hausner said.

Among the steps he said should be taken are: cooperation among security services in the pooling and exchange of information about terrorists; treating an act of terror against one of the contracting states as an act of terror against all of them; refusal of landing rights for the aircraft of countries harboring or protecting terrorists and mutual punishment and extradition of terrorists.

Hausner concluded: “I believe that a treaty of this kind will hold out more hope for the individual, who will not be left helpless when a gun is pointed at him. It is a matter of elementary self-defense. But an incidental by-product of such an arrangement would he a new approach to human rights. The treaty would mean that the contracting parties are accepting the basic human rights of others as their responsibility, even when some of the people needing protection are not their own nationals.”

In introducing Hausner, Bernice S. Tannenbaum, national president of Hadassah, charged that “a disturbing pattern has emerged in which terrorists and Nazi war criminals are escaping due process of law because of moral apathy and because certain powerful groups are being influenced by the Arab propaganda machine.” Mrs. Tannenbaum said that nations have allowed themselves to be coerced into releasing terrorists, there is a conspiracy to deny the Holocaust and the death of millions of Jews and non-Jews at Nazi hands and nations have neglected their duty to track down and prosecute Nazis responsible for atrocities. She said that even the United States has not fulfilled its obligations and has tacitly provided asylum to Nazis who should be extradited to Germany.