Israeli officials and American Jewish leaders expressed their distress Wednesday over statements made this week by the U.S. State Department and the White House about Israel’s handling of the Arab violence in the administered territories.
Of particular concern were a State Department warning to American citizens visiting East Jerusalem and a White House statement which the officials see as condemning the Palestinian rioters and the Israeli security forces in equal measure.
“There is no foundation or justification for blaming Israel,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement referring to White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater’s comment Tuesday that “both sides share responsibility for this violence.”
The Foreign Ministry said Israel hopes that the United States “will be particularly careful not to adopt positions which might be interpreted as support for extremists elements who encourage violence.”
Protests over the warning to tourists were lodged with U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering here Wednesday by Cabinet Secretary Elyakim Rubinstein.
In Washington, the State Department said Tuesday that it had only reiterated the travel advisory, in effect since March 1982, warning American citizens about traveling in the administered territories. Department spokesperson Phyllis Oakley said there were “no thoughts” of upgrading the advisory.
‘UNNECESSARY AND UNTIMELY’
But in Israel, Tourism Minister Avraham Sharir called the State Department warning “unnecessary and untimely.” He maintained that Israel is safer than many other places in the world, including the United States.
Sharir spoke at the Allenby Bridge, where a group of Christian pilgrims entered Israel from Jordan Wednesday. He said tourists come to Israel in large numbers, and insisted that there have been no tourist cancellations as a result of the unrest.
In New York, leaders of two major Jewish organizations also rejected Fitzwater’s contention that Israel “shares a responsibility” for the violence.
In a statement on behalf of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Morris Abram said that “any attempt to equate those who are causing the violence with those who are seeking to stop it is unacceptable.”
Abram, who chairs the conference, said that Israeli troops and police are using live ammunition only as a last resort. “No police force in the world and no army in the world is barred from such acts of self-defense,” he said.
Seymour Reich, president of B’nai B’rith International, echoed Abram’s statement, saying “Washington should learn to tell the difference between those who want to burn the house down (the rioters) and those who are seeking to protect it (Israeli forces).”
In Washington, a State Department official on Wednesday rejected criticism that the United States is unfairly equating Palestinian violence with Israeli counterviolence.
“There is certainly room for restraint on both sides,” the official said. Objecting specifically to Israel’s use of lethal force and live ammunition in quelling riots, the official said, “I don’t think the blame lies in any one quarter.”
(Contributing to this report were correspondents Gil Sedan in Jerusalem, Andrew Silow Carroll in New York and Howard Rosenberg in Washington.)
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