Jewish Leaders Meet with Lebanese Embassy Officials to Express Outrage at the Killing of a Beirut Je

Five representatives of major Jewish organizations met with officials of the Lebanese Embassy to express outrage at the murder last week of Haim Cohen Halala, one of the four Beirut Jews kidnapped by Shiite Moslem extremists last week.

Hyman Bookbinder, Washington representative of the American Jewish Committee, said they stressed that the four Jews were held and Halala killed explicitly because they are Jews. The meeting was held Monday, two days before the body of a second kidnapped Beirut Jew, Isaac Tarrah, was found in the Lebanese capital. The four Jews were abducted on March 29.

Bookbinder said after the meeting with the Embassy officials that “we expressed our concern about the other kidnappings and killings, too, but felt a special obligation to call the attention of the Lebanese to the targeting of Jews.”

The Jewish representatives noted the recent Syrian-backed agreement between all sides in Lebanon and stressed that the world will judge Lebanon by what it does to stop the kidnappings and killings.

“While we understand that the Lebanese authorities had no precise knowledge of the identities and the location of the captives and killers, we urge the authorities to condemn the killing, “Bookbinder said.

The Embassy officials — Jahed Mortada and Georges Siam, both Counselors, and Bessam Mamani, First Secretary — said they would forward the concerns of the Jewish representatives to Beirut. The officials condemned Halala’s killing and expressed the hope that all kidnappings and killings would stop, according to Bookbinder. Ambassador Abdallah Bouhabib of Lebanon was out of the country.

The other Jewish representatives at the meeting were: Marc Pearl, American Jewish Congress; David Saperstein, Union of American Hebrew Congregations; Warren Eisenberg, B’nai B’rith International; and Jeff Hodes, Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.