Industrialist Sole Jewish Victim of Attempted Rabat Coup

Charles Quetta, a well-known Jewish Industrialist was killed in Rabat. Morocco last Saturday night during the abortive coup against the regime of King Hassan II, it was learned here today. According to the report Quetta was a guest at Hassan’s palace when it was attacked by army insurgents, As far as is known, he was the only Jewish victim, Sources here said the failure of the revolt prevented the take-over of the Moroccan government by a Libyan-style revolutionary Junta. They said that had the coup succeeded, the safety of Morocco’s 50,000 Jews would have been endangered and the Western Mediterranean may have been opened to Soviet penetration, Arab sources in London said earlier in the week that Syria and Libya were involved in the plot against Hassan. They said the Baathist Party organization in Damascus was in contact with the revolutionaries in Rabat. The attempted coup is believed to have embarrassed President Anwar Sadat, of Egypt who recently entered into a federation arrangement with Libya and Syria, scheduled to go into effect Sept. 1, Hassan has publicly assured Moroccan and foreign Jewish leaders on several occasions that his country’s Jews would be protected from extremist elements.