Israel’s Ambassador to France, Mordechai Gazit, was called home today for consultations. Foreign Minister Yigal Allon summoned the envoy to return only hours after a French court released Palestinian terrorist Abu Daoud on a legal technicality. Israel previously had asked French authorities to keep Daoud under preventive detention pending a formal request for his extradition.
The recall of an Ambassador to a friendly country, a serious matter in international diplomacy, was viewed here as a demonstration of Israel’s shock and anger over the release of the terrorist who is believed to have master-minded the murders of II Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. It appeared to indicate a new crisis in Franco-Israeli relations which have improved in recent months. At the same time. Allon summoned the French Ambassador to meet with him at the Foreign Ministry tomorrow.
Speaking in the Knesset earlier today, Allon strongly criticized the release of Daoud. He spoke in reply to four agenda motions introduced yesterday when it appeared that there was a good chance that Israel might secure Daoud’s extradition. Allon accused the French government of defying its agreements with Israel. “Israel has always respected international treaties with France” but “the French move raises the question of the value of international treaties,” the Foreign Minister said. He was referring to the Franco-Israeli extradition pact signed in 1958 and ratified by both governments in 1971.
Likud leader Menachem Beigin told the Knesset today that he was sure that millions of Frenchmen were hiding their faces in shame after their government released Daoud. Shortly after news reached here of the release, an anonymous caller telephoned the French Library in Tel Aviv to say that a bomb was planted in the building. Police who searched the premises found no bomb. (See separate story P.2)
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