In a major protest of the European Economic Community’s declaration on the Middle East issued in Venice lost month, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York announced today that it was coordinating a series of meetings with all of the diplomatic representatives of the EEC countries here in New York City. George Klein, chairman of the JCRC’s Commission on International Concerns, explained that each EEC Consul General would be visited by a delegation composed of members of the various constituent agencies of the JCRC.
Non-Jewish New Yorkers will be joining the delegates in voicing strong concern over the recent initiatives and overtures toward the Palestine Liberation Organization that have been undertaken by many of the European countries. “Calling for the PLO to be associated with all future peace negotiations,” Klein said, “was particularly inappropriate at this time when (Yasir) Arafat’s El Fatah has just recommitted itself to ‘the complete liberation of Palestine, the liquidation of the Zionist entity’.”
“Not only does the PLO not deserve to be associated with the peace negotiations,” Klein continued, “but the exercise the EEC has recently embarked upon threatens to derail the only ongoing peace process with a real hope of success and to undo all that has been accomplished from Camp David to date. Failure to make our concern and displeasure known to the EEC countries would imply our acquiescence in a process we find dangerous and unacceptable.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.