House Acts Against the PLO

The House of Representatives yesterday struck a double blow at the Palestine Liberation Organization. It amended previous legislation to bar “any alien who is a member, officer, official representative or spokesman” of the PLO from obtaining a visa to enter the United States and it reduced the U.S. contribution to the United Nations in the U.S. share of the costs of two PLO propaganda units.

These steps were taken as the House approved the authorization money bill for the State Department for the coming fiscal year. The bill was sent to the Senate for enactment.

No debate was held on the amendment by Rep. Lester Wolff (D. NY) that cut the U.S. contribution of the costs of the UN Special Unit on Palestinian Rights and the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

The Wolff proposal had been adopted March 13 by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. While the U.S. fund amounts to about $150,000 the implication is that Congress will not abide by the UN moves to propagandize the PLO.

“I would not advocate cutting funds for the UN just because I do not like a program or disagree with a political persuasion,” Wolff said. But having such a group “which regularly takes credit for terrorist violence against civilians represented in a body whose aim is the peaceful resolution of conflict is outrageous.”

Reps. Stephen Solarz (D. NY) and Edward Derwinski (R. Ill.) sponsored the bipartisan amendment barring PLO representatives from gerring U.S. visas. The House adopted the measure by voice vote. The authorization bill as a whole was adopted 256-146.

The Solarz-Derwinski measure followed the approval by Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance of a waiver for Shafik Al-Hout, chief of the PLO’s Beirut office late last month. His visa was for three weeks and his intentions were reported as being to address groups at universities and Chicago. The State Department repeatedly said he was not a terrorist and that he opposed terrorism but it refused to provide any data on when he voiced opposition to terror or what he had said about it.

MCGOVERN AMENDMENT CRITICIZED

Addressing the House yesterday, Solarz said the amendment by Sen. George McGovern (D. SD) that enabled waivers for members of proscribed organizations “was very well intentioned” but “in practice it has resulted in a situation where a number of people have been admitted here who most of us do not Believe should have been admitted to our country.”

Derwinski said that the McGovern language has “in effect created a legal loophole which has facilitated visits to the U.S. by members of the PLO.” The amendment, Derwinski said, puts an “end to procedures under which agents of totalitarian states can come to the U.S. in the guise of trade unionists” and closes “a loophole under which PLO agents can come into the U.S.” The McGovern amendment was adopted by Congress in an effort to bring the U.S. into compliance with the provisions of the Helsinki agreement.